NFL awards Women’s Flag Football International Scholarship to Spain, Canada stars

The NFL and RCX Sports Foundation awarded the 2026 Women’s Flag Football International Scholarship to Laura Hernández Sánchez of Spain and Ella Sowden of Canada, giving two top international prospects a direct route into the U.S. college game. The announcement sharpened the sport’s recruiting map ahead of flag football’s Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028 and the 2026 IFAF World Championships.

Hernández Sánchez arrived with immediate on-field credentials. She had just finished her freshman season at Kansas Wesleyan University, where she served as a team captain, and she is set to transfer to the University of Texas at Arlington for her sophomore year. She also helped Spain win bronze at the IFAF European Championship, a result that placed her among the continent’s most visible young standouts. Sowden has committed to Lindsey Wilson University and has already been part of Senior Women’s National Flag Football Team identification camps in Canada, marking her as a player moving through both the domestic and international pipeline.

The scholarship was launched in 2024 to support female student-athletes from Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia who have been admitted to U.S. colleges or universities with women’s flag football as a varsity sport. RCX Sports also said it would run 8 to 10 college showcases for female flag football athletes and oversee championship finals at the NAIA and NJCAA levels, building a more formal bridge between youth participation and college competition.

That bridge matters because the sport is expanding faster than its institutional structure in many countries. RCX Sports Foundation executive director Ericka Newsome said the scholarship is meant to widen access and strengthen the path from youth play to college and beyond. NFL senior vice president of global flag football Brian Flinn pointed to the combination of talent, resilience and leadership that Hernández Sánchez and Sowden bring, a profile the league wants to surface in emerging markets.

Canada’s system already shows how that talent can be identified early. Football Canada’s Senior Women’s Flag National Team competes at events including the IFAF Flag Football World Championship, which is held every two years, and its pathway includes a National Team Identification Form, virtual or in-person combines, regional talent identification camps, and domestic and international events. The broader ecosystem is growing as well: RCX said women’s flag football was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program following the 2026 NCAA Convention, NFL FLAG drew more than 700,000 athletes last season, and more than 2,800 advanced to the NFL FLAG Championships, set for July 23-26 in Westfield, Indiana.