Empowering Girls Through Football: Pleasanton Teens Go Big

PLEASANTON, CA — Play football like a girl? Three Amador Valley High School juniors want to show the next generation of young girls why that's a good thing.

Ana-Paula Pachuca-Rodriguez, Shruti Sonekar and Jane Wang — all 16 years old — founded nonprofit Football With A Catch this school year to empower young people to tackle academics and athletics with the same vigor. They run a weekly flag football program at Tawny Park and offer tutoring services at the Pleasanton Library, for free.

Football With A Catch started out as a dream to start a girl's flag football club at Amador Valley High, but the teenagers decided they wanted to reach younger kids too, said Pachuca-Rodriguez, who played the sport herself. She and her friends saw that girls were underrepresented in contact sports, and wanted to help the "brilliant and creative" younger generation to achieve their goals through flag football, a sport that teaches leadership and cooperation, she said.

"People say that (girls are) too weak or they're not able," Pachuca-Rodriguez said. "We know that girls can change the world."

The three athletic teenagers also sought to incorporate academics into their organization's mission, Pachuca-Rodriguez said. They work with clients to find a time that accommodates their schedule, because Football With A Catch doesn't want time or money to be a barrier to receiving academic help, she said.

The objective is to help out a younger generation, not to make money, she said. To prove it to their community, they became a nonprofit.

Getting a nonprofit off of the ground wasn't easy with such limited resources, Pachuca-Rodriguez said. It took a long time to create their website. Sonekar and Wang called around trying to advertise their organization and speak about their work at schools.

"We were all putting in a lot of effort," Pachuca-Rodriguez said.

Football With A Catch isn't "just a thing three high schoolers are doing," she said. Pachuca-Rodriguez said she, Sonekar and Wang are passionate about serving their community — and making sure the people they serve feel included and have fun.

"We knew that this would pay off and we would create an impact on our community," Pachuca-Rodriguez said.

The flag football program is open to girls in grades one through eight, with classes every Friday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Tawny Park (538 Tawny Drive). Register here.

Boys and girls in grades one through eight may sign up for a tutoring session at Pleasanton Library (400 Old Bernal Ave.) here.

To learn more about Football With A Catch, visit its website.