Braden River senior Maddie Baehr earns spot on Ireland flag team

Braden River High School senior Maddie Baehr earned a spot on Ireland’s women’s national flag football team, a call-up that pushed an 18-year-old Manatee County soccer player onto an international roster with the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics in view. Her route was unusual even by flag football standards: a soccer-connected coach handed her a football, her Irish citizenship came through her grandmother, and a family trip to Ireland helped turn curiosity into a national-team tryout.

Baehr did not enter Braden River expecting football to become the next stop. She was set on soccer, and maybe track, until the ball found her through a coach who saw enough speed and athletic carryover to suggest flag. Once her father encouraged her to apply, the process moved fast. She tried out in late winter, made Ireland’s squad by early March and later attended training camp twice before her first tournament in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

In flag football, Baehr’s speed and footwork have translated into defense, the part of the game where quick breaks and clean angles matter as much as raw strength. That crossover is becoming more common as national programs hunt for athletes who can adapt to the sport’s pace, spacing and short-field demands. For Baehr, it also came with another commitment: she is headed to McNeese State on a soccer scholarship, so her college future still runs through the sport that introduced her to elite competition in the first place.

Ireland’s program is 21st in the 2025 women’s world standings, while the sport’s global field keeps widening ahead of its Olympic debut in Los Angeles. Flag football is a five-on-five, non-contact version of American football played on a 50-yard field. The 2024 world championships in Lahti, Finland, were the largest ever, drawing 55 teams from 32 nations, including 23 women’s national teams.

American Football Ireland’s 2026 Claddagh League has 10 teams, up from 8 in 2025, with the top five set for Claddagh Bowl III and the bottom five set for the new Fianna Bowl, both finals scheduled for July 25.