Florida A&M grad aims to win more gold at Flag Football World Cup

During the day, she is a graduate of Florida A&M University. Deliah Autry is a pediatric physical therapist. After hours, the 29-year-old is a member of the U.S. women’s flag football team. national team She could be found coaching young girls who want to pursue the game, or figuring out as a part of her own training program.

In March Autry created it fourth national team. In previous international competitions she won two gold medals and one silver, and she’s going to fight for an additional medal this 12 months at the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Flag Football World Championshipwhich can start on Tuesday in Finland.

The Tampa, Florida, native fell in love with flag football as a school student Robinson High School in her hometown. Florida became first state approve girls flag football as a varsity highschool sport in 2003. But because no colleges within the state offered flag football as a varsity sport when Autry was in college just a few years ago, she continued playing on clubs and intramural teams.

While Autry attended Florida A&M from 2017 to 2020 for physical therapy, she played on the Rattlers flag football team. During the faculty admissions process, historically black colleges and universities weren’t discussed at her highschool, she said, but attending Florida A&M was a welcome experience for her.

“I just felt like I belonged there and I felt super empowered being there,” Autry said. “I was like, ‘Wow, they really don’t show you the glory of going to an HBCU.’ … I just felt so much more connected to myself and my family, my roots, going there. That’s why I always say it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Autry said her experience growing up helping her brother battle diabetes, in addition to being surrounded by other black future doctors at Florida A&M, helped her learn the way to take care of the young patients she now treats.

“It helps me advocate more for people, knowing that there are already stereotypes about minorities in our health care system that doctors may not see or vice versa, or they just aren’t understood,” Autry said. “So I definitely feel like I can empathize and understand and connect with people who are going through these things. The pride of being able to represent minorities and come from a minority program and come from a minority program, I carry that with me every day.”

As a member of her club soccer team, Autry learned to play multiple positions, which prepared her for a profession in international women’s flag soccer.

Even though flag football just isn’t a Division I collegiate sport, the trail to making the U.S. Women’s National Flag Football Team included playing in tournaments across the country and catching the eye of national team members and scouts.

The international model for girls’s flag football is five-on-five, with players often switching between offensive and defensive roles. Autry has experience as a quarterback, wide receiver, defensive back and center.

“That’s how she got on the team, because she could do a lot of things,” said Christopher Lankford, former U.S. women’s flag football team coach. “Her greatest strength is that she can play a lot of positions, but Deliah is also someone who is going to learn. She wants to be the best at all of those positions.”

Autry’s younger brother, Darius, remembers watching her study for physical therapy school and practice flag football, and her family still supports most of her national team commitments after more than a decade of playing the game.

“She’s an intelligent player and a student of the game. It’s like watching her play chess. She knows what to do, when to be there and how to do it,” Darius Autry said. “She’s one of the fastest, most cunning and smartest, and she uses all of her attributes in a way that makes her shine and be a presence and a force to be reckoned with when she’s on the court.”

He remains to be delighted Autry’s touchdown caught behind the top zone at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. He also remembers how the support of his family all the time motivated his sister to play harder and set higher goals.

“There aren’t a lot of brown girls out there doing what she does at this level. She’s one of the smaller girls on the team, and she’s also a doctor, she owns her own business, she owns her own camp for kids,” Darius Autry said. “She does a lot of things to give back, and I think she just leads by example. There’s something about Deliah that they can relate to, an inspiration, especially if you’re a young brown girl in this sport.”

Autry feels the sport has given her quite a bit and loves passing on the knowledge she has gained over time to younger players.

“AND I feel like the sport is just so inclusive. Most of the time, in my experience, you look at a team and it’s diverse because the thing about flag football is that it’s a sport for everyone,” she said. “There’s a job, a responsibility, a position for everybody, no matter color. Flag football has grow to be, like, a secure space for everybody

Autry describes herself as a perfectionist who’s all the time focused on improving. After making the national team for the primary time in 2021, she was able to play without fear, but as her flag football profession progressed, she hit a roadblock. It became increasingly difficult for her to compete mentally, so she consciously tried to put as much work into her mental health as she did her physical health to prepare for competition.

Autry sees a mental health skilled once per week. She said she actively works to eliminate negative self-talk and focuses on positive affirmations.

“At the end of the day, it’s about enjoying the experience. There are very few people selected from across the country who get to play and represent your country,” Autry said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment. You have to be able to enjoy the moment and literally play and react to what’s happening in the moment.”

Even though Lankford isn’t any longer the national team coach, he still follows this system and has seen the outcomes of Autry’s change in attitude.

“Her biggest growth right now is that she’s 100 percent confident in her abilities and understanding that she’s now the captain of the U.S. national team defense,” Lankford said. “She really understands how everyone should be positioned on the teams they’re playing against. She knows exactly what those teams like to do.”

Watching the Olympics earlier this month fueled Autry’s enthusiasm for the long run of flag football. Olympic debut in 2028 in Los Angeles.

Autry said the inclusion of flag football within the Olympic program demonstrates the expansion of the game and provides additional opportunities for young girls.

“It all has a direct link to how far (flag football) has come and how much excitement, emotion, hope and inspiration the sport generates,” she said.

In the meantime, Autry is targeted on the upcoming international world championships. The U.S. team accomplished a training camp in early August and is now in Finland, where the U.S. team won gold medals at the last two IFAF Flag Football World Championship.

“We all feel very, very confident in our work, in each other, in our coaches and in our system,” Autry said. “We’re super excited and we understand it’s different than last 12 months. We’re going to have quite a bit more competitive teams and we’re going to see quite a bit more competition on a much bigger stage, which is stressful. But I feel our trust in one another and our relationships with one another goes to be what gets us through this whole thing.