Disclaimer: Future For Football is an initiative of the National Football Foundation, created to highlight the lessons and values that football imparts. Get involved and sign up to play today by visiting Future for Football for resources, a League Locator tool, and much more. 

 On any given night you will find Shannon under the bright lights of a football field.  Shannon loves the game of football and is the proud owner of NFL FLAG Ventura County.  She is passionate about the game and she is also paving the way for females in football. We are honored to sit down with Shannon to learn more about her passion for females playing football and how she is bringing our community together through this sport.

Football and Community

Tell us a little about yourself and your family?

My Name is Shannon Pugh. I have two children, a son who just turned 18 and a daughter who is 25. I have been married 37 years. I absolutely love sports, especially football. I started my career as a teacher. I have also been an Athletic Director and Activities Director for 22 years. I always knew I wanted to be in sports and activities so I made the decision to leave teaching to start my own business. My whole family has been actively involved in football. My husband has coached for 25 years and my son also helps coach and referee.  When the opportunity arose to start a flag football league I knew this was a perfect fit for us.

(c) Shannon Pugh Personal Photo

What is your background with football?

Most of my experience has come from being an avid fan and an Athletic Director for years. Football of any kind has always been my go-to sport. In high school in the 80’s girls were not allowed to play football, but we did have a powder puff football group that was very similar to what is now flag football.  Football has always been a positive part of my life.

What is your experience being a female owner of a football league?

It has not been easy to be a female in this industry. Even now I still have some issues and comments. In 2016 when I started, I was approached by some of the local football leaders at the time and most laughed me off. I was even told I would not be good at running a football league because I haven’t played football. But it is those exact comments that make me fight even harder.

I have worked so hard to offer flag football as an amazing new sport and outlet for women, something I wanted in the 80’s and was not available. Flag football is so fun as well and now there are local, regional and national tournaments. CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) sanctioned flag football as a sport last year for girls in High School and colleges are starting to give scholarships. For a game I love so much I could not be prouder of where this sport is going and that I am in a position to make a difference for boys and even more so for girls. It is a great time to be a female playing football.

What do you hope kids learn by playing football?

I hope kids who are interested in trying football feel encouraged to try it and see there are many options. I hope kids gain confidence from playing football and a new found level of pride that maybe they would not have gained from being afraid to play.

I hope they have fun and gain a love for the sport like I have. I see so often the positive impact on a child who might be in a family where there is no dad or a single parent.  The child finds that they are part of a team and have an amazing coach that mentors them.

I hope more women and moms get involved and begin to coach; I have three right now! I want more girls to see females playing football and be inspired by this.  I think all kids should at one time try a sport – there is something you get from being on a sports team that other things don’t offer. It is some of my best memories as a child when I played sports and football. I just hope they find a home in a sport they love and can spend many years and seasons playing and having an amazing time.

Female Football Coach With Local Players
(c) Shannon Pugh Personal Photo

What do you hope you teach other females who love the sport of football?

I hope they learn that the sky’s the limit and that anything they put their mind to they can achieve.  I see the sport growing and even more so for girls. This makes me very proud of the work I am doing for all kids. I get the best feeling when I see a young lady who may not have played a lot of sports get out on a field and learn something new. Seeing the joy a young girl feels from accomplishing something that for a long time only boys were allowed to do keeps me going.  It is the BEST feeling, and it is what drives me to keep working hard to make my league for both boys and girls better and better each day. I am in a place in life as I have gotten older, that I am in love with what I do, and I am very grateful that I get to get up each day and enjoy my job. To put it simply, I help kids enjoy the sport of football.

Find a Local Football League and More About Playing Football

How do you see yourself impacting your local community by providing a flag football league?

When I started my league, my goal was to make it more than just a 6–7-week season and be done. I wanted to have longer seasons, more practice time to understand the game but most importantly, I wanted my league to be a family. I wanted a place where families could be together during the season and also come together after.

I also want to make a difference in my community and give our players a chance to make a difference. In 2016 we created PCO – Players Community Outreach. Outside of the football season, players give back and get involved in the community. We do this through several events. PCO is one of my favorite parts of our football league and the players love it as well.

  • Simi Valley Senior Center

For 6 years now, we have run a low-income Christmas dinner drive for the Simi Valley Senior Center. We collect items in early December to make complete meals for a low-income senior family that feeds 4. We do 8 side dishes, and another local group provides the turkey or ham. We started off doing 25-30 dinner boxes and last Christmas we did 180 boxes with complete dinners.

  • Players handing out food
    Players During Local Food Drive
    (c) Shannon Pugh Personal Photo.
    Tower of canned food for a canned food drive
    Food Collected for Senior Center
    (c) Shannon Pugh Personal Photo

    Christmas Boxes for Troops

For four years we sent Christmas boxes for the troops when we were still in the middle east.

  • Coffee and Donuts for First Responders

We serve coffee and donuts to all Simi Valley Fire Stations, Police, doctors, nurses (at the hospital), AMR, Fish and Game, park rangers and fire stations in Moorpark.

 

Also, I am so proud that we offer our players the opportunity to play one winter game at SOFI and each spring season we play one game at Rose Bowl. I believe these types of experiences help them meet other kids and families involved in football in our surrounding community. It is also a fun opportunity for girl players to see that more and more females are playing football and connect with each other.

(c) Shannon Pugh Personal Photo

Football and Community

Shannon is a wonderful example of using her passion to encourage others and change her community. Through her work of offering more opportunities for females to play football and showing players they are a vital part of their community, she is paving the way for so many who will come after her.

Click here to learn more about Future for Football or find a football league near you.

We would love for you to follow our friends at Future for Football and the National Football Foundation for more about the good of the game! Learn more HERE.

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Cascia Smith
Cascia was born and raised in the Arizona heat. While receiving her Pre-Med degree at HIU in California, a blonde, surfing, skateboarding boy stole her heart. In 2004, she married Chuck and had many adventures living in Arizona, California and Colorado. They now call Simi Valley home and have three wild and curious children - Becker (10), Bodie (7) and Lyla (6). She has been blessed to be a teacher, summer camp staff/program director, SAHM and now the owner of Ventura County Mom Collective. Playing guitar, writing songs, and reading any and every parenting book helps keep her sane and happy! A good cup of coffee or a bubbly La Croix can usually be found in her hand! She tries to live by the motto "I'd rather recover from failure than live with regret.

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