“The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.” - Nelson Mandela.

By the same token, there is no substitute for experience.

As the United States women’s flag football national team held tryouts and took a step on the Road to Chengdu as one of eight nations preparing to head to The World Games in August, both youth and experience stated a case for places on the USA roster.

The Americans’ success – three straight IFAF Flag Football World Championships and a continental title two years ago – have been guided by irrepressible quarterback Vanita Krouch. The only blot on their copybook is a loss to Mexico in the final of The World Games in 2022, a title the USA covets heading into this summer’s competition in China.

Krouch is nicknamed the Tom Brady of flag football for good reason, with her accomplishments on a par with the seven-time Super Bowl champion who also stands unparalleled on his version of the football field. Most recently, she was nominated for The World Games Athlete of the Year 2024 award.

There will inevitably be challengers aiming to claim Krouch’s throne, or perhaps a potential future quarterback brought into the fold to develop in the shadow of the GOAT.

Ava Wallace, still a high school student and a star of the highly successful Texas Fury club team, is one potential mentee who showcased her talents at national team tryouts in North Carolina last weekend. The 18-year-old sees her second time going through the selection process as the latest step in her development and progress towards to realizing a dream of one day leading her nation from under center.

“The first thing I think about is how lucky I am to look up to Vanita Krouch as a role model and to learn from her,” says Wallace. “This is an incredible opportunity to become a better player, a better athlete and a better teammate. Following in her footsteps would be an honor because she’s taught me so much.”

Twelve months ago, Wallace was not selected from among 60 athletes targeting a place on a provisional squad of 18 players that was eventually whittled down to the 12-player roster that went to Finland and successfully defended the IFAF world title. This year, she hopes to make the cut for The World Games and the IFAF Americas Continental Championships and spent the interim preparing for this latest opportunity.

“I went through a year of just hard work and looking back at how far I've come since,” she explains. “I've improved both mentally and physically, significantly so. Knowing that there is a chance to make the eighteen and then hopefully the twelve is just motivating. I'm not worried about anybody else. I'm focused on myself, on what I can control.”

Wallace has already caused the flag football world to sit up and take notice. Named the inaugural Girls National Flag Football Player of the Year, she passed for 6,056 yards and 101 touchdowns in 2024 and has won multiple championships with Texas Fury. Later this year she will join US national team world champion Ashlea Klam on the flag football roster of Keiser University in Florida.

The winning mentality that courses through the US set up is also evident in the club team where Wallace has risen to prominence.

“When we started going to these big tournaments with Texas Fury, the organization’s role model was the US national team,” she explains. “So just as it was an expectation for the US to win gold every tournament, we were focused on getting better but also winning every time.”

Wallace juggles a busy school and home life outside of flag football, also plays golf and recently started a flag football club team at her high school.

“Balancing all that kind of stuff, it's hard, it is a challenge,” she admits. “But I've got my priorities set straight and have time set aside for each thing I'm doing, each and every day.  It can be a grind in itself and it's more of a challenge than people think, but because I have my priorities set, I’m able to do all these things.”

In her football-crazy home state of Texas, Wallace watched NFL and college football with her dad as a youngster and was intrigued enough to want to play the sport. She soon became the only girl on a boys’ flag football team and played tackle football during middle school. Then Texas Fury came calling.

“Luckily I found a girls’ team, or I should say a girls’ team found me,” she explains. “At one of our games they came over and started talking to me about this girl's flag football team and I was intrigued because I'd always been the only girl that I knew of to play flag football.

“Knowing that there was something out there something that gave opportunity for a sisterhood was really exciting. It was really intriguing, and I wanted to be a part of that, so I joined Texas Fury.

“Now I'm here at the national team tryouts to try to become one of eighteen of the most incredible athletes in this country and that's all because of flag football. It's awesome to think about.”