A new era: Seattle Seahawks, Mat-Su Sea Hawkers host girls flag football clinic

The Mat-Su Sea Hawkers annual youth football event has entered a new era.

For more than a decade, the Sea Hawkers, a local booster club for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks with a mission to support a variety of causes, brought the Play 60 program to the Valley, an NFL initiative encouraging youth to exercise at least 60 minutes per day. In recent years, the Sea Hawkers event has evolved to focus on flag football, following the NFL’s lead to promote and support the sport.

This year, the Sea Hawkers took the next step, co-hosting a girls flag football clinic for high school aged players with the NFL’s Seahawks. This was the first event just for girls.

About 70 players from around the state participated in the two-hour clinic July 11 at the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla.

“The timing's perfect. The season starts in a couple of weeks,” Dustin Wilson, the coach of the Palmer High girls flag football team, said during the event.

Flag football is now a sanctioned sport in Alaska. The Alaska Schools Activities Association hosted its first girls flag football state championship tournament in 2024.

The Mat-Su will have girls flag football programs at Palmer, Colony, Wasilla and Redington in 2025. Colony and Palmer had a combined team in 2023 and 2024. Wasilla and Redington played as a combined squad in 2023. Clark said the Moose should have enough players to have their own team this season.

“Palmer didn’t have enough athletes,” Wilson said. “Colony had enough and graciously allowed us to combine with them.”

Wilson said four of his players participated in the clinic.

Wasilla had about 20 players at the event, Warriors head coach Mat Bredberg said. Bredberg said he was excited about not only the number of his athletes there, but also the overall turnout.

“It was really cool to have this many girls from around the state. We are still such a young sport. We don't have a camp like the boys football camp,” Bredberg said of the All-Alaska Football Camp, which has been around for more than 30 years. “This is a step in that right direction. We had kids from North Pole, we had kids from West Valley, we had kids from Anchorage and the Valley.”

Wilson, Bredberg and Colony head coach Amy Fischer were a handful of girls flag football coaches from Southcentral Alaska who helped with the drills during the camp. But a current and former Seattle Seahawks were also there to work with participants.

Seahawks offensive lineman Abe Lucas returned to Alaska for another summer to appear at the clinic. He was joined by former Seahawks and USC standout Lofa Tatupu. Seahawks vice president of community engagement Mario Bailey directed the clinic.

Bailey was a player in Seattle and an All-American in college at Washington. Tatupu was a three-time Pro Bowl selection with the Seahawks, a two-time National Champion and an All-American at USC. Lucas is a starting offensive tackle with the Seahawks and was an All-Pac 12 lineman at Washington State.

Seattle’s popular mascot Blitz also appeared.

“It’s amazing to have them show their support,” Wilson said of the Seahawks.

Bredberg said it was also a good chance for his players to get some time on the turf before the 2025 season starts.

“See other competition, run against each other and say hey, how do I stack up. That's always good for competition for kids,” Bredberg said.

The Seahawks also made a $30,000 donation to ASAA for girls flag football in Alaska.

“That's a big number. That's not here, we'll donate $1,000, that's a huge number,” Wilson said. “We're excited to see that go and help the teams.”

Seahawks COO David Young said they are excited to continue to make the trip to Alaska each year.

“It's very clear that, first of all, the support for the Hawks up here, not just with the Sea Hawkers, but what we see out in the community from the 12’s is just amazing. It justifies the trip each and every year to come up here and support the community,” Young said. “You take a look at these 70 girls from all over Alaska, I understand some of them drove as far as from North Pole High School. That dedication is just amazing.”

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.