NEED TO KNOW

• Klam’s parents founded the Texas Fury after she struggled to find girls’ flag football opportunities in Austin

• The Team USA defensive back helped win the 2024 world championship and could compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

• Klam will join the NFL-backed Premier Flag Football league after starring for Cal Poly’s inaugural women’s team

Ashlea Klam has made a habit of keeping her head down and pushing forward.

A product of hard work and timing, the 22-year-old flag football star has long faced adversity when it comes to playing her beloved sport — at first recreationally, then professionally. But the doors keep opening — whether it’s her or her family kicking them down, or society catching up to the rapidly growing game of women’s flag football.

“I’ve really grown alongside this sport,” Klam tells PEOPLE. “We really never had that many opportunities, and now in the past five years, it’s just completely blown up. I’m really honored to be a part of that process.”

The Austin, Texas, native first fell in love with football when she was 6 years old after watching her older brother, Peyton, play. Shortly after, she decided she wanted to play, too. Klam recalls playing on boys’ football teams before her parents, Jason Klam and Amber Klam, took on the task of starting a girls’ flag football team for their daughter and her friends. 

“My journey really has been all about support,” Klam says. “My parents saw there were no opportunities for flag football for me, so they created it. They’ve always done everything for me.”

The Texas Fury, the football team Klam’s parents founded, began with just six players but soon swelled to more than 60 girls from the local Austin area, according to KUNC. The moment reassured Klam of her dream and put her back on a path that led to her becoming the youngest player on the United States women’s national flag football team roughly a decade later, when she was just 19.

Klam and the U.S. women’s team won the IFAF Women’s Flag Football World Championship in 2024, and they’ll soon represent their country at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. 

The star defensive back has been at the forefront of other milestones for women’s flag football this year, including playing for Cal Poly in the inaugural NCAA Women’s Flag Football season, and is poised to be one of the top players set to join the new women’s flag football league next season, started in partnership by the NFL and Tomorrow Sports.

The Premier Flag Football league was announced by the NFL on Monday, Nov. 2, with Klam named as one of its leading ambassadors.

“It’s such an honor to be one of the faces of this sport,” Klam says. “Growing up, we never really had role models to look up to in the flag football space. And that wasn’t because people weren’t playing this sport — people were playing this sport; their stories just weren’t being told. We had to look up to other female athletes or other male tackle players. So now, knowing I could be a role model for a younger girl, it’s such a privilege.”

Klam says the NFL’s partnership and assistance in starting a league with Tomorrow Sports is “going to completely change our lives,” as well as the opportunities for future generations of women flag football players. “It’s going to completely change the game,” Klam says, adding she believes in the mindset, “If you see it — if you see her — you can be her.”

“I just want to make sure that the younger generation knows what a flag football player is,” Klam adds.

The athlete has also worked with the NFL to push the league’s “NFL Flag 50” campaign, which aims to get all 50 U.S. states to start high school girls’ flag football leagues — a goal Klam hopes to see by the end of her professional career.

In the standout defensive back’s case, she looked elsewhere for her role models growing up: Tennis star Serena Williams and former U.S. Women’s National Soccer team star Alex Morgan were two of her biggest inspirations, primarily, Klam says, because they “always showed their emotions and showed their passion.”

Klam always felt connected to that — especially growing up as a child actor at the behest of her grandmother, “G.G.,” who pushed her to pursue the arts because of her “bubbly personality.” The Texas native appeared in numerous roles on television as a child, including the NatGeo miniseries “The Long Road Home,” alongside stars such as Jason Ritter and Patrick Schwarzenegger.

Eventually, Klam pressed pause on that career path because her passion for football outweighed the arts. “It was the best jump I’ve ever taken,” says Klam, who can still be seen on TV during the NFL season in commercials promoting flag football.

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By all indications, Klam surely made the right “jump.” The multi-tool player led the college flag football league with 27 touchdown receptions on offense during her 2024 freshman club season before following that performance up with 14 interceptions on defense the next year.

And with the 2028 Olympics on the horizon, Klam has the potential to be a breakout star of the Summer Games.

“Every single athlete, as a young child — every athlete — you have dreams of being an Olympian,” Klam says. “You have dreams of being a Division I athlete, and you have dreams of being a professional athlete.”

Klam is on track for all three by 2028, between college flag football, joining the Premier Flag Football league and likely suiting up for the 2028 L.A. Games. The slate makes for an admittedly busy schedule, but it still makes Klam laugh when someone tries to give her sympathy for always being on the move. 

“I am so grateful to have this schedule, because that means opportunities are happening for women in flag football and women in football in general,” Klam says. “It’s just gratefulness for being able to talk about my favorite sport, being able to tell my story, and for being able to show the younger generation what flag football is all about.”

Read the original article on People