Laneah Bryan makes final U.S. Women’s flag football roster for Worlds

Laneah Bryan has made the final U.S. Women’s National Team roster for the 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championship, giving El Paso another player on the sport’s biggest international stage. USA Football finalized the roster after its third training camp at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center and a last evaluation against Canada in Los Angeles in the Rivalry Series.

The U.S. enters the tournament as the reigning world champion after beating Mexico 31-18 in Lahti, Finland, in 2024. It also reached the podium at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China, and at the IFAF Americas Continental Championship in Panama in 2025. USA Football says the women’s program has won the past three world championships, a run that has helped set the standard in a field that now stretches across 80 federations.

The 2026 championship will be held in Düsseldorf, Germany, from August 13-16 and will be the last World Championship before flag football’s Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. USA Football said the final roster includes 12 active players plus alternates, underscoring how tight the margins have become for a team trying to stay on top while new nations keep closing the gap. The 2024 world championships drew 32 men’s and 23 women’s teams from six continents, a reminder of how global the event has become.

Bryan’s path to the roster runs through Franklin High School and the University of New Mexico. USA Football’s media guide lists her as a DB/WR from El Paso, and its records show her on the women’s national-team pathway in 2024, 2025 and 2026. That continuity matters: national-team selection is rarely a one-year breakout, and Bryan’s repeated inclusion shows she has translated her game well enough to stay in the conversation across multiple cycles.

At Franklin, Bryan was more than a local standout. As a senior, she averaged 20.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3.5 steals per game while helping the Cougars win the Region 1-5A title. Those numbers reflect the same all-around skill set flag football rewards at the international level: speed, ball skills, defensive range and the ability to make plays in space. After four seasons of college basketball at New Mexico, Bryan returned to flag football and pushed herself back into USA Football’s national-team pool.

Her selection lands at a moment when more than 20 states sanction girls’ high school flag football as a varsity sport, widening the pipeline that can turn strong local players into national-team contributors. Bryan’s rise shows that El Paso can produce more than hometown stars; it can produce athletes ready for the world championship stage.