Fort Worth ISD graduates blaze a trail as some of Texas’ first college flag football players

Isabel Ibarra stood beneath the fluorescent lights of North Side High School’s gym, flanked by her family, coaches and a big blue Texas Wesleyan University backdrop.

Her pen hovered for just a moment.

Then she signed.

The moment, once only an unbelievable dream, had arrived. She was going to play college football.

“I’m going to play the sport I love. Before, I didn’t think I was gonna go play the sport, but now that it’s actually happening — it’s crazy to me, surprising, exciting,” she said. “I just can’t wait to go play.”

Long before the scholarship offer, before the undefeated season, before those big plays at Farrington Field were forever etched into her memory, Ibarra was an 8-year-old girl playing tackle football against the boys. 

Not co-ed. Not in some youth flag league. Full contact, shoulder pads and helmets, and she was the only girl on the field. 

“She’s always been a beast, bro,” said her dad, Jose Ibarra. “She’s always just had that mentality since she was super young. Even on the boys (teams).”

She never thought twice about being the only girl out there, she said. She just loved the game.

Eventually, the boys got bigger. The hits got harder. Ibarra stepped away. She missed football but, at the time, there weren’t many other options.

It wasn’t until high school that football came back into her life. The Dallas Cowboys launched a girls flag football league in 2022 with Fort Worth ISD as one of its inaugural participants. That opened a door.

Ibarra gave it another shot during her freshman year but didn’t feel the spark right away. By her sophomore year, though, something clicked. The joy returned. The fire came back, she said.

“I always knew I could throw the ball,” she said. “I was just playing just because of that, and then as it kept going I started to love the sport and I wanted to keep going.”

That same year, Ibarra led North Side to an 8-0 season after a 1-8 campaign the year before. She earned district MVP honors — as she did during the 2024-25 season. She was the quarterback, the leader, the turnaround, said Irwin Garcia, former head coach at North Side High. 

“She was a big part of it,” he said. “We knew then and there that she was special — not just on the football field, but off of it also.”

She doesn’t shy away from the spotlight, either. She embraces the pressure. Her playing style is aggressive, fearless, determined, Garcia said. She’ll take the risky throw. She plays to win, he said.

When Texas Wesleyan came calling, that aggressiveness paid off. Ibarra became the first female quarterback in Texas to sign with a college flag football program. 

She won’t be the only Fort Worth ISD player on the field, either.

Vaughn Aden — a safety from Benbrook Middle-High School and one of Ibarra’s former opponents — also signed with Texas Wesleyan. 

The two faced off just weeks before the signing. Ibarra — and Garcia — remember the moment clearly.

“It was the fourth quarter, 12-0, and it was like third-and-15,” Garcia said. “(Ibarra) put the prettiest ball that I’ve seen her throw — right in between the hands of her future teammate.”

Now, those two standouts will wear the same jersey. They took a picture with each other after the game. 

But behind the cheers and the championship drives is a quieter motivation for Ibarra. 

Her grandfather died not long before she committed. 

“He always kept our family together,” Ibarra said.

Now, she plays for more than herself. She plays for her family. For her roots. For the Northside community.

“I want to make everybody proud, obviously, and keep going,” she said.

She plans to study nursing at Texas Wesleyan. She left North Side High with a 3.5 GPA and a scholarship to play the sport she loves. She’s a student, a future nurse and a role model, not just a quarterback.

She knows younger girls in Fort Worth — and the Northside — are watching.

“With everything, girls can do whatever,” she said.

As Coach Garcia said before every game: “Go be special.”

She always did, he said.

And now, she gets to keep doing it. 

At home. 

In Fort Worth.

As the girl who pioneered. 

Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1. 

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

Related