Four University of Texas at Arlington flag football athletes have been selected to represent their nations at the 2026 International Federation of American Football (IFAF) World Flag Football Championship in Düsseldorf, Germany.
A milestone for the Mavericks program
The quartet — Tessa Davis, Amelie Prosser‑Shaw, Tomoyo Yagi and Laura Hernández‑Sánchez — will wear the colors of Australia, Japan and Spain respectively, turning a local program into a global pipeline for the sport.
Davis and Prosser‑Shaw become the first Australians to earn NCAA Division I scholarships for flag football, a testament to the growing recognition of the discipline at the collegiate level.
Road to the 2028 Olympics
The Düsseldorf tournament serves as the final qualifying window for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, meaning each match carries weight beyond continental pride.
Prosser‑Shaw, who topped the NSW Stat flag football rankings in 2025 and 2026, will look to add another chapter to her nation’s campaign, while Davis helped Australia secure silver at the 2025 Asia‑Oceania Continental Championships.
A glimpse into each competitor’s journey
Yagi led Japan to a third‑place finish at the 2024 World Championships after guiding the team to the 2023 Asia‑Oceania Continental Championship, while Hernández‑Sánchez transferred from Kansas Wesleyan to UTA and propelled her new squad to a bronze medal at the NAIA Nationals and a KCAC Tournament victory.
Their selections underscore the expanding reach of the Mavericks’ flag football program, which now feeds talent into competitive scenes across three continents.