DALLAS — This fall, there are 350 kids playing flag football in the White Rock YMCA league in Dallas -- and 348 of them are boys.
But when Coach Gus Cruz brings his Chiefs team of first-graders into the huddle, he has two options that no other team in the league can claim.
"We’re gonna do a trick play," he tells the team during a recent Friday evening contest. "Isiah, you catch it -- and then hand it off to Eleanor on the switch."
Cruz has reason to believe the call might catch the other team off-guard. A few minutes earlier, when the opposing Broncos got their first look at the Chiefs, a few of the boys on that squad laughed out loud.
One couldn't believe what he was seeing: "They got two girls!?" he blurted out as only a 6-year-old can.
But if the sight of the Hayden Simmons and Eleanor Mayer surprised him, just imagine what he was thinking when the Chiefs run their trick play -- and Eleanor comes streaking around the edge, blowing past every single Bronco on her way to the end zone.
At this point, a few games into the season, Hayden and Eleanor are used to the other teams' reactions.
"They kind of say, 'Why are there girls on this team? Girls don’t know how to play sports,'" Hayden says.
But these two do know how to play sports -- and play sports well. If they feel nervous when they step on the football field, it has nothing to do with a lack of confidence. It just has to do with the fact that they're so young, and they're trying something new. As Eleanor puts it: "I've never been on a football team before."
Of course, neither have many of those judgmental boys on the Chiefs' rivals.
As for Cruz, the coach doesn't mind the snide remarks. In fact, he says it can often work to the Chiefs' advantage.
"They underestimate the girls," Cruz says. "Other kids see the girls and they’re like, 'Oh they’re girls, they can’t play.' I'll have a girl line up in the back and she doesn’t get any attention. And then she gets the ball -- and boom! She’s gone."
A few minutes after Eleanor’s big run, it’s Hayden’s turn: The team pitches it to her in the backfield on the first play of the drive. And before you can look up, there’s a blonde pigtail flying down the field, all the way to the end zone.
Her mom Christie Simmons couldn't be prouder of Hayden's success on the gridiron.
"It’s fun to see my daughter be just as tough as the boys -- and be just as good, if not better than the boys," she says. "It's awesome!"
Meanwhile, Eleanor's mother Emily Mayer says her daughter is, well, very competitive. And flag football has been a good outlet for that.
"She was so tiny is what I thought [at first]," Mayer says. "But she doesn’t let any of it get the best of her. She loves to win."
The idea to play actually came from Eleanor’s older sister, and one of her friends.
"Her older sister actually [also] played on the boys team with another girl," Mayer explains. "They were the only two girls who played with the third grade team last year."
Her younger daughter, though? She took to the sport quick.
"I mean, she comes home from practices and she starts telling me plays in the car -- like, where she’s positioned and where all of her teammates are," Mayer says.
Sound like a dubious claim? Sure. But ask Hayden what she does on the field and she'll rattle off a description that would make Patrick Mahomes proud.
"When Eleanor had the ball and I ran that way, she ran that way," she says. "And then she handed me the ball. The guy was coming -- running for her -- but they had no idea. And they were like, 'Where’s the ball? What? That play works every time."
On this recent Friday night, the Chiefs beat the Broncos 24-16 to stay undefeated on the year. And, as soon as the teams have shaken hands, Eleanor runs over to the sideline to high-five her mom -- a little excited about the win, but even more so by the reward she's been promised.
"We can get ice cream, Mommy!" she says. "Because our coach said if we play really good and we have, uhm, a really good score, he would get us all ice cream!"
On this night, the girls have earned that ice cream cone -- as well as the other team’s respect, and the right to say they belong under the Friday Night Lights right alongside the boys.