Adam Beadle is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover Williams Field High School for AZPreps365.com.

Flag football, not just in Arizona but worldwide, has undergone continuous evolution over the past few years.

In 2023, the International Olympic Committee officially recognized the sport, confirming its inclusion for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Yet, before that decision, several passionate pioneers had continuously pushed to create opportunities, specifically for young female athletes, to play the game.

One of those Arizona pioneers: First-year Williams Field head coach Steve Brody.

Way before he stepped onto a high school campus, and flag football became a sanctioned sport in Arizona in 2023, Brody helped found the Gilbert Youth Football League in 2009, where he began building opportunities for girls to play flag football.

“Back in 2010, I actually had two girls on my team, and I saw another team that had some girls on it as well,” Brody said. “So I kind of brought them all together, and I said, ‘Hey, let's get you girls together, create an all-girls team,' and basically, they're like, ‘Yeah, let's do this. I would love to have that opportunity.’ "

Brody took his team to play in a regional event hosted by the Arizona Cardinals. They only won one out of their three games, but at the time, Brody said he was “happy as heck” about it.

Still, Brody wanted more.

He wanted to bring flag football to the high school level. That’s when he met Matt Stone, the current flag football head coach at Hamilton.

“I just happened to be on Facebook,” Brody said. “Matt Stone had posted, ‘Hey, looking into starting girls flag,’ and so I called him up immediately and said, ‘Hey, I'd love to help you out.’ "

From that initial interaction, Brody and Stone became a part of the foundation that helped turn flag football in Arizona from a club to an AIA-sanctioned sport, with Brody even becoming the defensive coordinator at Hamilton.

But when the opportunity came to coach in the same role at the school his sons played football for and graduated from, being a Black Hawk was something Brody said he couldn’t pass up.

In fact, Stone encouraged it.

“I was a little bit nervous to reach out to him,” Brody said. “But we always talked, and he said, ‘If you ever found a head coach job, you know you deserve it because you've put in work.’ "

Brody spent the 2024 season as the defensive coordinator at Williams Field before being elevated to head coach in 2025. The team is 2-3 and preparing to host Chandler on Tuesday. 

“Coach Brody is someone who coaches for the right reasons,” Stone said. “I was very happy for him when he got the head coach position at Williams Field and continue to enjoy seeing him build the foundation of a successful program.”

Building that foundation is also something Brody said he enjoys, so much so that he’s taken on the responsibility of being the head coach of both the varsity and junior varsity teams.

“I love it just because, you know, it's something that's a passion of mine,” Brody said. “I'm hoping that now that we have a JV team, that's going to spark more girls to come into the program.”

Brody’s passion for growing his team and the sport is something that’s recognized by other coaches in the state, including Mesa Mountain View flag football head coach Rene Elizondo, who had many positive things to say about Brody’s team after they defeated the Black Hawks on Sept 25.

“Look out for them in the future,” Elizondo said.