‘It’s all about them’: How flag football became a way of life for this Camden family

Aaron Clark knows his daughter Arianna is short in stature, but he believes she has more than enough heart on the football field.

He actually was concerned maybe she had too much toughness when she expressed a desire to play tackle football.

Clark played growing up and had uncles who coached, so getting into the family business just made sense after his career at Woodrow Wilson High ended and he graduated from college.

Clark, now 36, started coaching boys first and then fielded a boys’ flag football team in the Camden Police Athletic League around a decade ago.

Before long, he couldn’t keep his daughters, Arianna, now 15, and Adrianna, now 13, off the field.

On Saturday at the Proving Grounds in Conshohocken, Clark’s daughters will play for his Land of Opportunity Sports squad in the We Run the World flag football tournament.

“For a long time, football was just for the boys, and now a lot of girls love playing football,” Clark said. “Now they have their own sport. It’s all about them.”

Clark benefited from tackle football as a kid but was reluctant to let Arianna — a 5-foot-2 junior receiver at Mastery Camden Charter — play the sport.

“In my life, I’d say [football] definitely prepared me for real life,” he said. “It really did a lot for me, actually, because I was kind of going down the wrong path, and it helped me, kept me out of trouble.”

The emergence of flag football years ago, however, eased his mind. Today he also coaches the Mastery Camden girls’ flag team.

“Boys are a lot more aggressive,” he said. “She’s petite. She’s tough, but she’s tiny. Boys can be mean, especially when they see a girl on the field. In flag football, she can compete with the boys all day long.”

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Arianna was about 7 when her father started Land of Opportunity Sports.

“There was just a bunch of violence in Camden at the time,” he said. “We just wanted to create opportunities for kids with our organization.”

Adrianna, who will start eighth grade next year, was 8 when she started playing.

Since his daughters started, Clark has noticed that they’re more confident, especially Arianna.

“She was kind of shy and not really talking to people, staying mostly to herself,” Clark said.

Now, she’s a menace on the field, cutting, catching, and scoring her way to last season’s Washington Junior Football League flag football player of the year award.

Clark’s program also has grown. He started with about eight girls in 2016 and now boasts more than 50 across five age groups. He has six coaches for his boys’ teams and 10 for his girls’ squads.

And his daughters aren’t the only ones who have reaped flag’s benefits.

Gabriella Nicolo, now a junior at Gloucester County Institute of Technology, struggled when she joined the team at quarterback.

“When she first came out,” Clark said, “she was shy and struggled a little bit. Now, she’s one of the top quarterbacks in the country.”

Saturday’s event guarantees teams three games in pool play, Clark said. On Sunday, a single-elimination tournament will determine champions in various age groups. College coaches likely will be in attendance.

Tim Quinn’s team, the Athena Warriors, was one of the first girls’ flag football teams in the Philadelphia area and has helped several girls earn college scholarships.

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For Clark, that means his organization could indeed provide opportunities for girls.

“I think that means a lot,” Clark said of potential scholarship offers. “Giving them flag football as an outlet and now the opportunity to earn scholarships is really big.

“I want people to give flag football a shot. A lot of girls are still on the fence, especially girls who play other sports. They don’t want to leave their main sport. They don’t have to. I would just like for more girls to give it a shot.”