It’s time for Page Two: News that might not make the front page for Tuesday March 24, 2026.
The kids call him “Coach Yoda.”
They say it’s because of a story from Coach Dustin Wilson’s youth. Someone commented on his big ears when he was a baby—and the nickname stuck.
But the nickname could just as well reflect Wilson’s wisdom when coaching girl’s flag football. Like Yoda, Wilson teaches more than skills and drills. He teaches values. He teaches “integrity, adaptability, accountability, and love.”
He says these lessons transfer to other aspects of life.
Love? Page Two asked? On the football field? Wilson didn’t flinch. He wants his athletes to think about their teammates with love and respect.
“I just feel like if you’re doing it for your friend, who’s across from you, who’s gone through all that sweat with you, you’re going to play much harder,” Wilson says.
Sometimes he imagines what his athletes would be doing if they weren’t playing sports. He worries that they would just “stay at home on their couches.”
It’s hard to imagine Zyra Gonzalez sitting on the couch for any length of time, at least not voluntarily. Gonzalez is a co-captain of the Palmer High girls’ varsity flag football team. She’s a junior.
She started playing flag football in eighth grade after moving to Palmer. She just fell into it. She said, “I was looking for a way to just make friends and try something new.”
The middle school program was a club. It was not a sanctioned sport with referees. It was also coed. Gonzalez didn’t feel respected by some of the boys on the team.
She stuck with it anyway.
High school was better. She was able to shine. She likes playing cornerback. She can be “aggressive on the defense side, and just get the job done.”
A dislocated knee in her freshman year benched her. The doctors told her it might be a year before she would recover.
It was “gruesome,” Wilson said.
Gonzalez said, “I thought I wasn’t going to be able to play sports after this again, but I just put in the work and tried my hardest.”
She returned to the field her sophomore year.
Wilson was impressed with her recovery. It would have been easy for her to give up. But she doubled down. Now she’s an enthusiastic leader. She often asks Wilson to “get the girls together” off season for planning.
Women’s flag football is finally getting some respect. It will be at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Colleges are taking it seriously as well. The University of Nebraska offered a flag football scholarship to a high school student from California this year. They were the first Power Four conferences school to do so, according to Sports Illustrated.
The Associated Press reported that there are over 40 NCAA schools with women’s flag football teams. That number is expected to rise.
Wilson is out there raising funds for his team when not teaching or coaching. They need mouthguards and warmup gear. And helmets.
The sport is in transition in Alaska. Helmets are required in some areas, but not all yet. It seems odd to have one team play with helmets against another team without them. Wilson says the helmets make the game safer whether they are required or not.
He’s looking for sponsorships from local businesses to help buy helmets.
Not everyone has been enthusiastic. One business owner told him that girls should not be playing sports.
But Wilson counters that “these girls are tough. They don’t want to be treated like it’s the 1950s.”
Coach Yoda might have put it differently. He might have said “Tough, these girls are.”
You can email Coach Wilson to find out how to sponsor the Palmer High girls’ flag football team. Or check out Coach Wilson’s Palmer High flag football website.
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This Page Two article was written by David Cheezem and read by Lee Henrikson. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Tuesday March 24, 2026.