ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- A part of Lily Ryan still can't believe she and her teammates are about to make history.
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When the Bennies take the field Saturday (April 11), the flag football era at the College of Saint Benedict will be underway.
 
The team begins its inaugural season by hosting a jamboree starting at 11 a.m., at the CSB Outdoor Athletic Complex. The Bennies will face Gustavus at 11 a.m., Concordia-Moorhead at 12:15 p.m., and Augsburg at 1:30 p.m. Each game consists of two 20-minute halves. Click here for full schedule.
 
Ryan - who played at Mounds View High School during the first season of Minnesota high school flag football last spring - is one of 20 players on the first CSB roster. The team is led by Joe Bartos,  who joins the program after serving as the head football coach at Little Falls High School since 2015 (read more on Coach Bartos here). 
 
"It's still so surreal that this is happening," said Ryan, who is also a member of the CSB basketball team. "That we're building a program from scratch. But it's been an amazing experience so far."
 
The addition of flag football is just one component of CSB's initiatives to grow enrollment on campus through intercollegiate athletics and club sports.
 
The NFL's Minnesota Vikings have contributed more than $1 million since 2022 to grow girls' and women's flag football at the high school and college levels. And the results are paying off.
 
Minnesota's first high school flag football league was started last spring as well, and it has more than doubled in size to include 104 schools going into year two.

"We have a few athletes, including Alaina Pundsack and Lily Ryan, who played last year at the high school level, which helps in the start of a new team. We have got a great collection of coaches, and most importantly, the young women who are on this team. They are competitive; they are high achievers; and they are hungry to learn. It has been a lot of fun to watch how fast they pick up on the game and how enthusiastic they have become," said Bartos.

Collegiately, CSB joins St. Olaf as newcomers this season in the Midwest College Women's Flag Football League. Augsburg, Concordia-Moorhead, Bethel, Gustavus Adolphus, Northwestern (Minnesota), Augustana (South Dakota) and Wisconsin-Stout got the league going a year ago.
 
"It's really a  special thing to be part  of a first team," said Alaina Pundsack, an All-State pick at Mounds View High School last spring. "The fact that I can look back in 30 years when this has become such a big thing and say that I was part of the start of it. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to say that."