Ava Dowdell looks to deflect the ball on defense. One of the rising, talented athletes in the western communities is 14-year-old Ava Dowdell. She is a passionate and proven flag football player who plays travel flag football for the TRU Skillz team and recreational flag football in the Breakthru Athletic League. Meanwhile, Dowdell is now an alternate on this year’s USA Football National U15 Girls Flag Football Team.
What’s impressive about her is that Dowdell has only been playing flag football for a short period of time. She started playing the sport in July 2022 and quickly grasped the fundamentals of flag football.
Like many young promising athletes, Dowdell has been positively influenced by a member of her family.
“I really enjoyed watching one of my uncles, Fred Pickett, play high school football for Glades Central and Pahokee, and college football at Marshall University,” said Dowdell, who feels that she has good hands, great speed and the ability to get open as a receiver.
Like many great athletes, it’s difficult getting her off the flag football field, since she plays as a receiver on offense and a safety on defense. On offense, her job is to catch passes thrown by her quarterback, and on defense, her mission is to intercept passes thrown by the opposing quarterback.
According to Dowdell’s mother, Jalisa Steele, she was invited to attend a regional USA Football flag football tryout in Charlotte, North Carolina, back in March. Dowdell made such a strong impression that she was invited back to Charlotte at the end of May for the USA Football Flag Football National Trials.
As a result of those two performances, she was selected for USA Football’s U15 Girls National Team. Dowdell was then asked to travel to California for a final practice session to earn a spot on the unit that’s competing in the International Cup on July 19 in Encino, California, but a nagging hamstring injury prevented her from making the trip. As a result, she’s now listed as an alternate. Still, her flag football future looks bright.
Dowdell’s most recent flag football triumph was being a part of the winning TRU Skillz team that won the “Summer Showout,” which was contested Sunday, July 7 at Wellington High School.
This fall, Dowdell will enroll at Seminole Ridge High School, where she plans to play for Seminole Ridge’s girls flag football program under the tutelage of head coach Scott O’Hara next spring.
Long-term, she is aware of the fact that flag football for men and women will be contested at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. She would love to be on that USA National Women’s Olympic squad.
“That would be a fun team to make,” Dowdell said.