Pictures: Helen Cooper

Players at Maidstone-based Kent Phoenix have a genuine chance of competing at the Olympics.

That’s the view of club chairman Ian Miles after flag football – the non-contact version of the sport – was added to the schedule for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Success is nothing new to the Phoenix, who became the south-east’s first youth-only American Football programme when they set up base at Shepway Green eight years ago.

Indeed, they’ve seen youngsters play for Great Britain, earn spots in the NFL Academy and secure university places through their efforts with the Phoenix.

The addition of flag football to the Olympics is another game-changer in a sport that is growing in popularity in the UK.

“We’ve done what we set out to do when we set this programme up,” said Miles.

“So the focus is now, how can we take the success and build on it and give more kids the opportunities?

“Flag now being like an Olympic sport, it’s how do we get kids to the Olympics?

“How do we allow them to take their involvement here to improve their opportunities beyond sport, schooling, whatever it is?

“Kids who may not have aspirations to go to university, suddenly can go to university because they can go and play American Football.

“Scholarships are available for children playing American Football now, so there are more and more opportunities and we can hopefully push them on a different pathway.

“Flag becoming an Olympic sport is massive. It’s probably the single biggest opportunity to develop and grow the sport because of the focus.

“We’ve already seen an uptake in interest and you’re now seeing coverage in the mainstream media.

“No one has said what the qualifying criteria will be for the Olympics but I think the GB women’s team have just moved to fifth in the world and the men are just outside the top 10.

“So the opportunities are there and any child getting involved now has an opportunity, maybe, to go on and represent GB and push towards that if it’s something they want.

“There’s very few sports that go one cycle and finish and flag football meets an awful lot of the criteria the Olympics are looking for.

“It’s multi-gender and it doesn’t require a huge expense to participate. You need flag belts and off you go.

“We’ve had players play for GB, we’ve had players go to GB trials.

“It’s absolutely possible that anyone who comes in and wants to be part of this sport, if they work hard enough, they could achieve that.

“Some of it is out of our hands -whether the team qualifies or not, we can’t control that – but we certainly can get players to that level.”

Kent Phoenix typically cater for boys and girls aged eight to 14, meeting at Shepway Green on Sunday mornings.

Those aged 15 and over can join the South East Legion kitted programme, which runs alongside, while still being able to play flag football.

Kitted football can be expensive, but all equipment is provided, while the club have use of their own facilities after securing the lease on a disused building at the green.

It’s been transformed inside, helped by a £35,000 investment after joining forces with a charity that renovates community sports buildings.

Those with Olympic ambitions include the chairman’s daughter, Casey.

She represented GB at the Under-17 European Championships in Serbia in September after spotting an advert for trials on Instagram. Now 16, she first played flag football aged six, and has also coached. She got back into playing flag about a year ago after stepping back for a spell.

The Euros were intense – nine games over three days in extreme heat – but she loved the experience and it’s only increased her appetite to reach the Olympics.

“Long-term, that’s the ambition,” she said. “LA 2028 is there.

“I think I’ve got one or two more years left in the under-17s, because of the structure, and then it’s get in the women’s squad, go to the worlds and constantly go up and up.

“I can definitely do it. In four years there’s a lot of improvement to be made but if I think back to last October or this time last year, when I just got back into flag, the improvement I’ve made and the resilience I’ve found, both through representing GB and playing contact football, is incredible.”

Miles plays contact football with the South East Legion, a collaboration of clubs in the region, including Phoenix.

It’s done wonders for her confidence, finding her way in a largely male-dominated field.

She’d love to see more girls get along, however, and works hard to spread the word at school.

“I’ve built so much confidence in myself,” said Miles.

“We do need to recruit more girls. Most of the girls I know play rugby so they’re already into that tackling aspect of it.”

There’s a real family atmosphere at the Phoenix where parents mingle and enjoy a cup of tea while Phoenix and Legion players are put through their paces. Holly Till is one of the mums watching from the sidelines.

Son Zack, 13, is a member of the under-14 flag squad, while daughter Phoebe, 10, is in the under-11s.

Out of the blue, Zack asked if he could take up American Football about three years ago.

“For Zack, it was very much more about exercise for mental health, so he’d struggled a lot with bullying at school and didn’t really find his place,” said Holly.

“He came to me during a pretty tricky time, to be honest, said can I play American Football and I was like, sure, let’s look at it, we found the club and the rest is history.

“He became captain of the under-11s, suddenly he found his place and the club’s given him opportunities.

“He went and trialled for GB so he’s quite a success story in terms of it really turned him around.

“For Phoebe, she was stood on the sidelines and thought, I’ll have a go at that. She was the only girl in the team for a very long time.

“They seem to have encouraged more girls since but she was a bit of an anomaly. It didn’t worry her at all.”

Zack and Phoebe have been home-educated for the past two years. It gave Holly the idea of reaching out to the club with a view to putting on sessions for home-educated children.

The Phoenix were in favour and sessions have been running on Mondays since September.

For information on how to join Kent Phoenix, visit kentphoenix.org