Unna Törmänen paves the way for exchange students playing flag football

Unna Törmänen, selected as the Rookie of the Year for the Women’s Vaahteraliiga 2024, is currently studying and playing flag football at Sprayberry High School in Georgia, USA. According to tradition, she is the first girl from the Finnish American football family to be a high school athlete.

Unna Törmänen’s 2025 season did not go as planned in Finland. After moving from Tampere Saints to Helsinki Wolverines, Törmänen spent her summer of 2025 on the sidelines leaning on crutches instead of on the playing field. After the summer, once her injuries healed, she headed towards the USA and is now paving the way for young Finnish players in flag football. This is how Törmänen explains how she ended up in Georgia with the help of Universal Players Global: -The area selection was made to the south because there is more flag football in schools there at the moment. We also looked into private schools but did not find a suitable one. Now, in the fall season, the sport is flag football. The goal is to train as diversely as possible this year, so after the flag season ends, the plans include basketball, soccer, and track and field. Sprayberry Yellow Jackets’ season started at the beginning of October. In a couple of weeks, it will be clear whether Unna’s team will make it to the championship games:

-This week and next week are still regions games, from which we should find out if we continue to the semifinals.

So far, the young Finnish player is satisfied with her performance and how she has adapted to her team:

-Playing has gone really well! Most often, the problem has been that I haven’t been able to substitute even once in the game to catch my breath, so the speed from Hämeenlinna has been more than sufficient, and I’ve also had a lot of responsibility on both sides of the ball.

Unna encourages pursuing dreams

So far, Törmänen’s highlight of her flag football career took place in September 2024, when she was part of the women’s national team competing for bronze in the U17 category at the IFAF European Championship tournament in Serbia.

Now, her first experience with American student athletics has gone smoothly, and it is likely that the next highlights of her career will be seen on the fields of American football and flag football. Unna hopes to inspire others to follow the same path by her example:

-It would be a great honor to be the first Finnish female athlete in high school. I hope that through this, I encourage other young people to pursue their own dreams!

 

Flag football is rapidly growing in U.S. colleges

Flag football, which has been included in the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, is currently the fastest-growing new sport in U.S. colleges. The first Finnish athlete to receive a flag football scholarship to an American university, Lotta Wulff, has started her studies at Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky in the fall of 2025, and her performances on the field will be seen and followed in the spring of 2026 when flag football is included in college athletics programs.

When Wulff was looking for a place to study in the U.S., flag football was just beginning to gain a foothold mainly in NAIA colleges. The Olympic sport has now quickly spread to NCAA colleges as well, being part of the programs of nearly a hundred institutions.

Hopefully, in the coming years, more Finnish athletes will follow in Unna’s and Lotta’s footsteps to try their wings on U.S. flag football fields.

Learn more: Colleges Offering Flag Football — West Coast Blitz