1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Troy Hassebrook & Mandy Brandt, Girls United Flag Football: March 6th, 12:00pm

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Troy Hassebrook & Mandy Brandt, Girls United Flag FootballAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-the-ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Ah, yes, thanks for joining us here today on 93-7, the ticket day. The Big Voice says it's Derek Pearson, but Derek Pearson is, as he often is sometimes, at least, traveling and on his way to the airport. So we can step in and have a fun show in his absence. I'm Jake Boccovin in studio.

And what's going to make this show fun is I'm joined by some guests, Troy Hassabrook and Mandy Brand of Girls United, to talk some flag football, of course, a sport that is exploding across the nation girls' flag football. And we want to know how it is going on locally here. So plenty of things to break down as we get into it. But Troy, I did want to start off and ask you what it was like to win Homecoming King in 2000.

too. Oh, there we go. There we go. Start it up. Actually, you know, part of it was more of not knowing that what was to transpire, I guess, was actually going to happen. So walking out of the field, I was worried about the game itself to be announced itself and then afterwards not like, wait, that just happened. That actually just happened. So it was amazing. It was great to celebrate with family and friends that were there. But just a, I guess, rewarding thing for everybody around me, just not myself who got me there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I found that deep in the archives. So I thought I'd have to bring that up. Epic, by the way. Well done.

Well done. Is that, is that like, you know, maybe it's not like crouching the other Heisman trophy winners, but is it kind of like, is there a brotherhood among homecoming kings? They're not really. No, there's not. I didn't even get a crown. They gave me a football. The white sign football of Nebraska player, which I was on it. Yeah. It's like, hey, here's your football. Like, I got one of those.

So I'm still waiting for my crown. So University of Nebraska, I need a crown for this. Yeah. It's got to come at some point. It's then also, so many might recognize Troy has Brooke obviously played in the late 90s, 98 to 2002 for the Huskers. And then Mandy Brand is in here also a former Husker, right? Mandy. Correct.

From what true, tell me somewhat of a trendset of yourself as far as pole vaulting goes. Yes. Yeah, I was one of the first four female pole vulters at the University of Nebraska. That is incredible. How did that come to be? Well, I did track my whole life. And I knew a lot of the coaches down here just from, I did summer track also. and when they were adding it to, just like they are with women's flag football, Nebraska,

when they were adding pole vault, they reached out and said, hey, we think this is something you might be good at. I wasn't doing track at the time. They were like, you've got some speed. I actually did cheerleading, so I could do a little tumbling. They like, you have some great body awareness. You want to come try it? And I was like, sure, why not?

Who doesn't want to fly through the air with a pole? So, yeah. That is awesome. Very cool stuff. So a bit of a trailblazer here. and here we are again, trailblazing the path for girls flag football here. You guys are with Girls United. So let's just get a basic idea of kind of what that is and what it means for here in Lincoln, Omaha, the surrounding area.

Well, the girls flag football, it's originated from Miller United Sports. It had up about about seven years now. I think it's seven or eight years. Seven or ten. We got involved when Lily was in third grade. And I let Mandy tell that story because it's kind of a neat way of how we got into flag football. But from my background, it went from coaching here at Lincoln High. I got done with college, got recruited to go coach there.

Then I spent about three years with Bo Pliny and the staff as a just an assistant helping out for three years there. Time commitment, everything else just fell back into just world life things. I became a firefighter here in town for a while. And then Lily showed some interest and Mandy brought it up. So I'll let her talk about that story. And then we'll jump right into Fly Football. Yeah, it just so happened that I think Lily was in second grade at the time.

So I do medical device sales and I at the time Nebraska or the VA was building a new garage. And so you had to park at this parking lot way far away. And so they would shuttle you there. And there were certain days that I was there all the time. And I got to know my little shuttle driver and he was awesome. And we were talking about our kids one day. And he's like, oh, yeah, my daughters play girls flag football. And I'm like, what?

Because I played in college. And I was like, that's so cool. Where do you guys do it? And he said through Miller United. And I'm like, well, when the signups happen, would you please let me know? He's like, yeah, give me your email and he sent it to me and we signed Lily up. And here we are, you know, what is it six years later, still playing and now starting a select team. All right.

So go back on the archives. We've talked about Homecoming King, but Mandy actually has a national championship in flag football, co-ed at the university of Nebraska. Well, there you go. So you have a big ring? Yeah, so they can be a crown or anything for that? We got no crown and no ring. Got a T-shirt, I'm sure.

Oh, we got a T-shirt. There you go. Yeah, and a terrible bottle of champagne, I'm pretty sure we saw it was. So there you go. But yeah, no, we started it. Troy Streeter is kind of our ringleader. So Miller United Sports, Troy Streeter's done a found. He's the founding father of our program at Miller United. Once we got involved, then it just kind of grew.

Our girls got really involved with stuff. And we thought, what can we do more? And so I think a couple years ago, we had about 100 girls. And then in 2024, we went to 120. And then this last year in 2025, we had over 200 and I think 30 is what he said. Wow. So we've just been out publicizing it, talking about it, expressing. the interest for it. And watching these girls get into a five-on-five girls-vers-girls

has been outstanding to watch. So Middle United, you know, through the sport program, we do a three-through-fifth grade and sixth-to-eighth grade program for all the girls. And if a girl is younger than that, first and second grade, they put them in a co-ed version to get them to that point. Now, with the numbers as we start growing and growing, we're going to be able to narrow it down to third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and the seventh, eighth, and this last year, we actually formed our first high school program, played through Miller United, but through another program called Athletes Rise up in Omaha. Andrew Mather is a kind of the ring leader that used to be in Miller United with his girls.

His girls aged out after eighth grade and thought, what do we do? Where do we go? And so he did an outstanding job of creating that. His girls are called the Junior Stockman. And so they have the program that they also go through the Omaha type of thing. So our high school girls were able to play. So we're trying to just build this whole picture. all the girls from young to high school until the NSA picks it up and makes it a girl's sport.

And now, right now, currently in the U.S., 17 states, now this could be old news or a little while ago, but there were 17 states that had it as a varsity sanctioned sport at the high school level, whether it was in fall or spring. There were 15 states on top of those doing a trial period to test the waters to see if this is something. So 33 states out of the 50 states we have were. using girls' life football as a program. So we're hopefully that because Nebraska has picked it up as a varsity sport that NSA sees that, hey, there's a need for it. We need to funnel some of our girls to Nebraska to represent the state. So just going backwards instead of moving forward, typically it goes

middle school, high school, and then college. But at that point, that's where it's at right now. Yeah. Lincoln also started their first program, girls program last year. They do a middle school program in the summer and a high school. So, and I think they started another high school group also that they're trying to get in and help or be in our season. It's in the fall at the moment. So currently the feeling in Nebraska, we got the Lincoln Youth Football Program with Mike Salvage and Jim Sandman are the two founding of those two. Kwame, he's over at the Malone Center, started his own little program. So Kwame has been kind of a big asset here in Lincoln just to get things going on.

And I think he was able to get the mayor involved last year. And we did a camp for the girls. I think it was April 27th. The mayor of Lincoln declared all girls' flight football day. Okay. Wow. So we're coming up on our anniversary for celebrating girls' flight football. So, I mean, it's dabbling.

It's growing. I know the Lincoln Youth Program has their season, June and July. I do believe you're going to have theirs. Yeah. Our season is in the fall. So our season starts up at Miller United Sports for the girls in August. So we're signing up,

registering wise. And our season goes from August to September to October. And we'll have our championship is it end of October. End of October. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, and then with us, this is our second year of girls select travel flag football. Last year we started up. We had 13 girls approximately tried out. And we took all 13 girls and we traveled in Kansas City. We had a tournament here we played in. And then this last year, because we've grown it so much, we had 70 plus girls try out this last year. Wow. Wow. So the tough part for coaches is it's awesome to see these girls, but it's a tough way of cutting girls. I mean, you know, I'm a girl dad,

hashtag girl dad kind of thing. I've got Lily's 13 and I would hate for that. But to be able to have this program to travel through Kansas City, we've got tournaments in Minnesota. And if we qualify, we'll go to nationals in Indianapolis. So, I mean, you see us on the ESPN watching our girls

aired out. Wow. So, yeah, very exciting stuff. And you can see it. I mean, all these different things that you're talking about. It's like you can feel the sport literally evolving. and kind of exploding here. Correct. How cool would it be someday as we, as we watch the girls, a basketball state tournament to someday have a similar thing.

That would be awesome. Absolutely, right? Yeah. That was the one thing with Troy that we were talking about with the sisters that they hired to coach at Nebraska. Like, hey, what a get because they have five national championships under their belts. Like, if Nebraska did an awesome job on hiring them, that was great. A little plug that it would be great if Troy could help out somehow with them and their coaching staff. Also, I feel like our job between us and Andrew and Mike down here and Lincoln is to build up our program between middle school and high school so that these coaches have girls to recruit from Nebraska instead of California, Arizona, and Florida.

Let's get our own girls playing here and let them become Huskers. I will tell you that one person that we didn't talk about was DP. DP has been a founding father of girls fly football in not just around here. here, but in the U.S. He runs, and I was having a conversation with him yesterday, just the fact that he knows the people. He knows the systems. He's coached the systems. He would be a good asset for Nebraska to consult. And I don't know why they haven't, but again, it's all new. It's a founding. But he would be the godfather of a Nebraska. And he's just right down the street. So we had that conversation. I think that's something they need to look into. D.P. is a great asset for just the sport itself.

He knows the people. He knows where it's at. And we were talking about hosting a tournament. He goes, don't do that. And we're thinking, why would we not? I mean, I'm trying to get a, I've been talking to Matt Ruhle a couple of different times about some stuff about possibly hosting a tournament down at Nebraska Stadium. Sure. And DP's like, hold off on that. What about doing a combine kind of thing where it's a talent search and girls from all the Midwest can come out. Instead of running through a tournament, now you're going to see the girls run agility and run it like a combine. So now the whoever, you know, the coaches could come in and watch these girls. And now we have a baseline of what's around in the area. Here's the talent that we have in the area. At least there,

we can build from there and get the interest. Go ahead. I don't know. As you say, USA flag or USA football, they do combines, but I mean, nothing's close. Nothing's around here. You have to travel. The girls have to go somewhere to be able to do that. And they do have high school showcases, but normally they're in California. So if we can, we get the right people to push it. Absolutely, we can have those things here, which would be great. 100%. The biggest one for us is, if you're listening, sponsors. This is a, and I say it all over and over again, we need to build the foundation of girls fly football.

And in the state of Nebraska, there's a lot of people that have a lot of great money that wants to support stuff. We don't have facilities in the state of Nebraska to facilitate flag football, period. There's a couple places that we're able, even through our programs, we have a small little corridors that we're practicing

and to compete at the national level. It's going to be tough. Yeah. We are a winter state where we have a ton of snow. It's tough to get outside. So if you're listening, this is our plea to say, hey, help us out. Reach out, let us know. I would love to build a facility that's three flag football indoor,

that garage rolls up and we have three outdoors that just facilitate flag football all year own. Then we can compete on the national level. Yeah, that is incredible and some thoughts there, like you said, to kind of help grow the sport. For those that are kind of wondering, too, you know, what does it look like? You said five versus five. and sometimes, you know, at certain levels, gets to seven versus seven.

Yeah. So, right. And honestly, it depends on the state. So in high school, some states play five on five, some play seven on seven. Really the difference between five on five and seven on seven is you, clearly you have two extra players. So usually you have in defense, you have some defenders, and which in five and five, you do not. And on in the seven and seven, then you have a couple extra receivers. So the great thing about seven on seven is you're giving more girls opportunity to go out.

out and play and learn in college, it's seven on seven. The interesting thing is that when you get back to the national teams, it's five on five. The Olympics will be five on five. So really USA football and NFL flag need to get together and kind of streamline everything. So it all looks the same. All of the rules between the two are also a little bit different. But really that's the biggest difference, Troy, don't you think, between five and five and seven on seven?

Even here in Nebraska, the reason why we do five on five is just numbers. We are considered one of the fastest growing female sports in America. And, you know, you got about a month and a half ago, the emerging sports of women's program voted to have it. But it's just getting the girls out. Because right now you've got volleyball. We're a state of volleyball. And football is slowly grown, but we have those things. And they've a lot of girls in the high school level already know, here's what I play.

I'm a softball girl. I'm a volleyball girl. Now it's getting that middle school program. And we just had, Troy Street had a great discussion with the Kansas City Chiefs and just talking about how they're, going to help the state of Nebraska out because we don't have a professional team and it's ran through the NFL. It could have been Minnesota or could have been Kansas City Chiefs. His discussion with the chiefs have happened and hopefully with the future wise, I'm not sure exactly what they're going to do, but they're going to put some money into the middle school

programs to grow the idea, the thought and the, hey, the buy-in for the girls there, and that will stretch to the high school level. And it is a very bare minimal. I mean, so like high schools around the Nebraska. There's not much cost to it. You have the fields. You buy some flags. You already have cones and stuff sitting around for tackle football and jerseys. And then it's just matter of going out and competing. What is the, what is the field length? I know like even on, you know, for eight on eight football or something like that, the short and it is that. We've made so many changes. So like in our program, we have, we use normal field and we, to make it a better experience to girls that are learning the sport. We narrow the field from

second hash to the sideline. And we go from 40 yards. going into the end zone. If we're going to a tournament play, different ballgame. The field width is 75 feet or 25 yards, and it could range anywhere between 70. It depends on how the end zones are set up. If we're setting up three fields on a normal football field, our end zones could be seven yards deep. And so, and some tournaments are 10 yards deep. So you've got to have to know where you're going, what tournament you're playing in. And then the level is different. In our normal season, we want the girls to get a good experience and understand the concepts of what fly football is about. And a lot of times

they're just getting into that. We go to tournament play. In normal season, we have 45 seconds to call a play, get on the line and run. In a tournament play, it's 25 seconds. And it is two 12 minute halves with a one minute half time and it's boom, boom, boom, off you go. Yeah, it's one o'clock. It's fast.

If people who don't think that it's fun and it's slow and it's not competitive, it is very fast in tournament play. And those girls are very physical even though it's flag. So it's a lot of fun to go out and watch. Well, you better have the The water cooler is close for that one minute of half. That's exactly right.

Yeah. I mean, because it's like, hey, you guys are doing great. Hey, it gets a waterless roll. Yeah.

All right. We got to take quick break. Of course, coming up here at about 1.30. We'll be, uh, we'll have another game here between Lincoln North Star and Millard West.

But until then, we've got the excellent company of Troy Hassabrook and Mandy Brandt in studio here, uh, from Girls United to talk about girls flag football. We'll continue that next year on one on one. When we come back on the other side of the break.