The Mat-Su fielded its first girls flag football teams three years ago. The teams head up to North Pole for the Railbelt Conference playoffs on Thursday.
The Moose open against the 2024 state champions, North Pole. The young Palmer High team is the underdog. It won one game this season. But the Moose aren’t measuring their season by the scoreboard. In three years, the program has grown from five players on a shared team with Colony to nearly 30 players at Palmer High.
The Palmer team has three seniors. The younger players lean on them. Captain Kilee Gose says the tough season taught the seniors how to lead. She says that it’s hard to lose. She steps in and hypes the team up. She is a role model.
Gose notes that the flags are misleading. She says that flag football is pretty physical even though it’s not supposed to be.
Sophomore Bri Parrent is a quarterback at Colony. She leads the country in total yards and in points, according to MaxPreps. She led the Knights to a 21-to-nothing shutout of Dimond High earlier this season. Dimond was the top-ranked team in the state at that time according to Van Williams of the Alaska Sports Report.
School board member Ole Larson advocates for engagement with kids. It helps keep them in school. He says it is also fun. He was an early champion of flag football in the Mat-Su. He is running for re-election this fall.
Larson read Anchorage Daily News coverage of girls flag football back in 2020. He wanted a team sport for girls in the Mat-Su who might never have played athletics. He urged the board to support it.
The Alaska School Activities Association needed flag football teams from three districts to hold a championship. The state got its third district when the Mat-Su teams took the field in 2023. A year later the championship came to Wasilla High.
Larson says that the sport has taken off. He is proud of how fast the sport grew and that girls are earning college scholarships.
Palmer captain Zyra Gonzalez played on that shared team. She says that it’s their team at their school now. They can do it their way.
Palmer captain Gose says there’s a role for everyone on the team. Players can be fast, they can be slow, they can be really good at catching, or really good at blocking.
Palmer freshman Emma Bues always wanted to play football. She started flag football in sixth grade at Palmer Junior Middle. She helped the eighth grade team reach the championship game last year. She made varsity at Palmer High this fall.
Palmer Coach Dustin Wilson says that’s how the program grows. He sees them come in as freshmen. They continue to play and they grow.
College coaches as far away as Iowa call Wilson. They tell him that recruits from warmer states don’t want to play in the cold.
He laughs. It’s Alaska. His girls play in the cold.
The top three Railbelt teams will advance to the state championship. It will be held October 8 through 10 at Wasilla High.
Whatever happens in North Pole, Palmer Captain Gonzalez says the seniors know what they helped start. She said, “It’s pretty cool to be part of the very start of something.”
To include in the print version: Van Williams’ story was published with permission in the Mat-Su Sentinel.
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Emily Forstner reported this Page Two article and yours truly, Lee Henrikson produced it. 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, September 29, 2026.
Photo: Palmer High Flag Football Team courtesy of Dustin Wilson