The second-ever Girls Flag Football Coach of the Week has been at the forefront of growing the game for the last decade.
Tim Quinn of Gwynedd Mercy Academy along with his wife, Katie, and four daughters (Caitlin, Kara, Keira, and Krista) began their vision of wanting girls to be able to play flag football when the four sisters watched their brother Timmy's flag team play at Nationals in Disney World.
The Quinns are known by many in the community as the first family of girls flag football in Pennsylvania after starting the Athena Warriors flag program in 2018.
"We called around everywhere that we could. Despite the connections we had from running tournaments and teams, no one would support a girls' team. So, we talked to USA Football, and they talked us into forming Athena," Quinn said.
"Since 2018, we started with our four daughters and four other girls from the community – some of their friends from school and stuff. Since then, we've had over 350 girls play flag football for us."
Tim and Katie do whatever is needed for their league, whether it's refereeing or coaching games, they do what it takes to grow the game nationally.
In their pursuit of growing the girls' flag game, the Quinns would knock on doors of high schools to try and get them to pick up the sport. After reluctance from people at first, they found the Eagles to help continue knocking on doors.
After the Eagles began their Girls Flag Football League in 2022, Quinn was asked to coach Gwynedd Mercy's first-ever team, which was started by one of his former Athena players.
Despite an already full plate, Quinn took the job, bringing his daughters with him to the school. After beginning with 17 players on his first team, the program grew to 25 the following year and now consists of 45 girls.
The Gwynedd Mercy team reached the semifinals in their first two years in the Eagles' league and reached the championship game last year after an undefeated regular season.
This season, the team is currently in the midst of another undefeated campaign, looking to avenge last season's loss to Archbishop Wood in the championship game.
"At the end of the day, people are not going to remember our role in this. What they are going to remember, though, is that girls stepped to the forefront and led this effort to change the sports culture in their school, to allow girls to play football. And that would have never happened without the Eagles and their support," Quinn said.
"I'm forever in debt to them (Eagles). I've told them whatever I need to do to assist them to make sure that their remaining time in this pilot is successful, I will gladly do. I'm forever in debt for the difference they've made, not just in the lives of my daughters, but in my extended daughters at Athena, my extended daughters through Gwynedd, and everything they've really done to grow this game in the Philadelphia area and nationally."
Tim's daughters have continued to take after their father's passion for the sport.
The oldest, Caitlin (21), is a junior playing flag football at Milligan University. Kara, 19, is an assistant coach with him at Gwynedd Mercy. Krista, 18, is a freshman playing flag at Milligan as well and the youngest, Keira (16), is a junior at Gwynedd on the flag team.
"I think that the biggest thing is, I've been so blessed to do what I'm doing. And a lot of it really just came out of my love for my kids and my wife and I have been a great team. We've been open to working with whoever we can to grow the game and at the end of the day, we are who we said we were. That to me is a life well lived. We've been so blessed, all of us as a family, to take part in this journey and to see it through, because we're at the end of our time in the game. And to see all that's happened in the past seven years, we never could have imagined," Quinn said.
Without the Quinn family, girls flag football wouldn't be where it is today in Pennsylvania. The family's endless support has been inspiring for girls beyond just Gwynedd Mercy.
"I don't see this game ever going away. We didn't take the time to look at what we we're doing, we just went to work, and it's made all the difference. It's really just been so rewarding, I love what's going on," Quinn said.
"I think that there's a bunch of little girls that grew up maybe seeing their dads or watching their dads talk about it and play it. And now as young women, they get to say, 'Hey, this game is ours too.' And I think that that women have really taken ownership of the game, and that this change of the face of the game has been something that they're excited about, in a way that that we just haven't seen in other sports. So, I do think that that's a big piece of it. I think the idea of stepping into a culture that has been so male dominated for such a long time, really is what's engaging to women." –Written by Liam Wichser
