The RC Girls’ Flag Football Team won the 2026 Turkish High School Championship.
Winning the 2026 Turkish High School Championship in flag football represents more than a successful season for RC. It marks a milestone in the growth of a sport that has expanded rapidly across Türkiye in recent years. Robert College has been part of that growth from the beginning.
Flag football is a non-contact variation of American football. While still relatively new in Türkiye, it has become increasingly popular, particularly among girls and young women globally. The RC Flag Football Club was established more than a decade ago. Founder Yasemin Tekgürler RC 15 recalls that the idea emerged almost by chance after she learned the game from friends on the boys’ team. “There was no major plan behind it,” she says. “We were just excited to create a team.”
Building a team meant introducing people to an unfamiliar sport and challenging assumptions about who could play it. “We were constantly explaining the sport and trying to show that women could play it seriously and competitively,” Tekgürler remembers. The initiative gradually grew into a lasting program. This year, the first national championship tournament for high school girls’ flag football was held in Türkiye, and under the leadership of Coach Jake Becker, the Robert College Girls’ Flag Football Team captured the national title.
Tekgürler is delighted: “We wanted more girls to join, we wanted the team to continue after we graduated, and we wanted more women’s teams to form,” she says. As flag football continues to grow nationwide, this first championship will be remembered as an important moment in the sport’s history. For RC, it also stands as the culmination of more than a decade of dedication, community, and belief in a game that few could have imagined would come this far.
