ST. PAUL, Minn. — Even strong gusts of wind couldn't match the energy Saturday.

Seven teams gathered on the campus of University of Northwestern-St. Paul to kick off the newly established Women's Flag Football League with the first of three scheduled jamborees.

The Vikings, along with the NFL, have partnered with the initiative and contributed $140,000 to support the league and participating schools: Northwestern, Augustana University (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Concordia College Moorhead, Gustavus Adolphus College, Bethel University and the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Despite crisp, Minnesota pseudo-spring air, most of the women paired shorts — and enthusiastic smiles — with their jerseys.

Vikings Vice President of Social Impact Brett Taber joined representatives from six of the colleges for a pregame press conference. He noted the women's flag league is one of the first of its kind, and the largest, in the United States.

"This is really about creating opportunities for women and young girls to see themselves in the sport of football … and to give them opportunities at the post-secondary level," Taber said, adding that the Vikings have now committed more than $1 million to supporting girls and women's flag football in the Twin Cities and across the region. "I'm honored to be joined here by all these institutions and these seven schools that have chosen to make this a priority in creating opportunities for female athletes on their campuses and to help [women's flag football] grow as it becomes a sport in the Olympics in 2028.

"We're excited to see that growth in here in the Upper Midwest and to lead that charge at the NCAA level," he added. "We as the Vikings organization are just honored to be a part of that."

University of Northwestern Athletic Director Matt Hill expressed gratitude to the Vikings and NFL and said he and the school have been "super excited" about the new league and that the energy has shown up in the Eagles practices.

"We're thankful that these other six institutions have decided to also start flag and get the ball rolling," Hill said. "It's only going to get bigger and better."

While some of the women participating in the inaugural season play other sports (including soccer, basketball and hockey) at their respective schools, others registered with less athletic experience but just as much fervor.

Augsburg Head Coach Melissa Lee, an '04 graduate and one of the top infielders in Auggies softball history, reflected on the impact of leading the women's flag team from a grassroots level.

"This past Tuesday we handed out uniforms, and I have women on my team that have never been a part of any team. This is the first uniform they've ever worn in their life," Lee said. "I think several of our programs this year have a lot of dual-sport athletes currently competing in another sport on our campuses. But my proudest moment was the why — 'Why am I doing this? Why am I offering this opportunity for the ladies at Augsburg?' It's for those women that have never worn a uniform. They've never had the school spirit [that comes with] being a part of a team. So that was a really important moment for me.

"The interest is there, the excitement is there, and it means a lot," Lee continued. "I asked the ladies if anyone had any experience, and what's the [common] answer? 'We played powderpuff at homecoming our junior and senior year [of high school].'

"And that was all it took for me. I said, 'You're in. You're on team,' " she added with a laugh. "It's really exciting to grow the sport … and to give them this opportunity. For me, being a female and a champion of [women's] sports, I'm just really excited."

Augustana Head Coach Kiley Coyne echoed Lee's sentiments.

Coyne, who also plays semipro football for the Sioux Falls Snow Leopards of the Women's Football Alliance, expressed pride in continuing to champion women's sports.

"The good thing about flag football is it's so inclusive. You don't have to be a freak athlete to play flag football. So these women that came in that maybe played softball or basketball in high school but didn't get recruited to any university to play that sport, they can [play flag football] here. And the NFL and the Vikings have really set up a great league for us to get that started."

Coyne is also thankful for the support of Vikings fullback and Augustana alum C.J. Ham, who has been a long-time proponent of girls flag football from the youth league level, and she pointed to him as a significant reason Augustana (also nicknamed the Vikings) felt strongly about joining the women's league.

"It's just a such cool connection with C.J. … and we wanted to do this in South Dakota," she said.

Just down the road from the University of Northwestern, Tavian Swanson works as an assistant coach for the Bethel University men's tackle football team and will also serve as the women's flag head coach.

Swanson explained that while the contact element of tackle football obviously is removed, there are many parallels in coaching approach.

"Now I got to break it down to the basics to get these girls ready to go," he said. "That could be just stances, to running … to watching the ball, to not watching the ball, all these different types of things. I've got to really break it down to the bare bones and build them up from that.

"For me, it's also a learning experience of teaching the women, 'Hey, you're not form-fitting going in for a tackle; you're form-fitting going in for a flag," Swanson noted.

UW-Stout Athletic Director Duey Natz, who is coaching the school's team, also acknowledged and is embracing a learning curve along with his players.

"But as [Swanson] mentioned, it's really getting back to the fundamentals," Natz said. "There are a lot of similar things. You're not wrapping up and taking them to the ground, but you still have to break down to grab that flag."

Energy emanated from all seven teams throughout Saturday's jamboree, during which three teams (UW-Stout went 2-0; Augsburg and Bethel went 3-0) were undefeated in their games. The institutions will reconvene Saturday, April 12, at Wisconsin-Stout, for a similarly organized jamboree.

The league will hold its inaugural championship tournament Saturday, April 26, at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center's TCO Stadium.

"The great thing about flag football is the opportunity to open it up to a new demographic of football fans. They talked about some of the dual-sport athletes, but we see nationally, 50% of girls that play flag football don't participate in any other sport because they identify as football athletes," Taber said. "So now we can open this up, and that's going to be a whole new generation of players who are playing flag football at the high school level, at the collegiate level, at one of these seven institutions who are hopefully [also going to be] interested in watching some of their favorite stars on Sundays — Justin Jefferson, J.J. McCarthy — and what they're doing."

Taber added with a smile: "Hopefully we can get some more Vikings fans in the Upper Midwest, but I'd like to think that we already have them there. Duey will work on Wisconsin and see what we can do."