Kansas City athletes named NFL FLAG Player of the Year finalists

Two Kansas City-area high school athletes, Kate Mikuls of Shawnee and Quinn Miles of Overland Park, were named finalists for the 2026 NFL FLAG Player of the Year Award Presented by Toyota. The NFL and Toyota selected five girls' finalists and five boys' finalists, putting both local players in a national field that will eventually produce one boy winner and one girl winner at NFL Honors.

Miles brings the more defined on-field résumé of the two. The Shawnee Mission West High School freshman is a four-year flag football player who lines up at wide receiver and safety for the KC Shockers, giving him impact on both sides of the ball. That kind of two-way role has become part of the sport's top-end talent pool, and Miles' finalist spot shows that players from the Kansas City suburbs are now breaking through on a national stage before they finish high school.

Mikuls represents a different piece of the same pipeline. The Mill Valley High School student is also tied to the KC Shockers, and her finalist selection gives Shawnee another name in the sport's growing list of elite youth players. With Mikuls and Miles coming from separate schools but the same club, the finalists reflect how the region's strongest flag football programs are feeding the same national conversation.

The KC Shockers' own profile helps explain why. The club described itself in a social-media post as holding 11 NFL FLAG regional championships and three NFL FLAG Super Regional championships, a record that signals consistent success in the tournament structure that sits below the national championship stage. That kind of club pedigree gives players regular high-level reps, stronger competition and the visibility that comes when major organizations start narrowing the field.

The broader scale of the sport is rising with them. NFL FLAG says more than 350 girls' and boys' teams compete at the NFL FLAG Championships presented by Toyota in Westfield, Indiana, with the event hosted by the NFL, ESPN and RCX Sports. Against that backdrop, two finalists from Kansas City is more than a local note. It is evidence that the metro is producing flag football players who can hold their own in a national award race and keep Kansas and Missouri in the sport's upper tier.