ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As flag football is growing in popularity among younger athletes, more girls are taking the field.

“‘Oh girls can’t play, it’s a boy’s sport,’ so I just came to prove them wrong,” Adallyn told us.

More and more, girls like Adallyn are proving the naysayers wrong. They believe football is for everybody.

James and Tia Martinez agree. The husband-and-wife duo coach two all-girls flag football teams in Albuquerque. They coach players from age eight to 14.

“Some of our girls are actually better than these boys. When you see them playing and they give it all they got, you’d be surprised,” Tia Martinez said.

Their team is a part of the NFL FLAG New Mexico league. They compete against all-boys and coed teams in the league.

To some of the girls, playing is about much more than touchdowns.

“I found these two last season and I was like, ‘they are actually pretty cool, I could probably hang out with them, try to be friends with them,’ and now we’re together as a team,” one player said.

“Confidence, I love when they play against the boys and outshine them,” Tia Martinez said.

The league is trying to get more girls to sign up and give a new meaning to an old saying.

“We can prove the saying wrong, ‘You’re playing like a girl.’ We can try and say that everyone is equal. That we can all do the same thing boys can do,” one player said.

The team’s first game is next month. Registration is open now for new players.

The team plans to play out-of-state and has other needs to cover so they have a GoFundMe page set up. Click here to access that.