The Bears welcomed five Illinois high school girls flag football programs to Halas Hall Tuesday to watch a training camp practice and participate in a clinic inside the Walter Payton Center.

All five schools — Danville, West Aurora, Lakeview, Joliet Central and Zion Benton — are set to kick off the first season of their girls flag football programs after the sport was sanctioned by the Illinois High School Association back in February.

To help kickstart the programs, coach Matt Eberflus donated a home and away set of Nike jerseys to every girl on each team. This is the third year Eberflus has provided jerseys to girls flag teams across the state.

"Girls flag is an awesome way to get more people involved in football," Eberflus said. "Growing the game is what it's all about. This is a big part of that. You can see that not only with girls flag football here, but across the United States and internationally. That's our call — being in the NFL and at the top of that — to make sure we grow the game."

Eberflus and the entire Bears organization have been instrumental to the sport's rapid growth in Illinois. While the sport will be overseen by the IHSA, the Bears will remain close supporters of the teams and continue to use Halas Hall as a home for girls flag.

Danville coach Gary Gritton has already felt the organization's support ahead of his team's first season, which he said has been "instrumental in us getting our program started."

Gritton has leaned on Bears manager of youth and high school football Gustavo Silva to help him organize the program, learn about the sport and find teams to schedule games with. The opportunity to then bring his team to Halas Hall and thank coach Eberflus for the jerseys was something he described as "an incredible experience."

"The generosity of coach Eberflus to do that is special," Gritton said. "That was one of the selling points for us when taking it to our school board to get flag football approved was that we had some of the backing, financially, of the Bears. For coach Eberflus to pay for a full set of uniforms, that's just huge for our school. We aren't financially very wealthy, so to get a full set of Nike uniforms that look amazing, it's pretty special. The girls feel special from it, and our community is really behind this. We're very appreciative of the Bears' support."

Gritton has already seen flag football positively impact the girls at Danville. When the sport was first introduced, over 70 students signed up. During each of their summer workouts, at least 30 girls were in attendance.

"The girls had to get up this morning about four in the morning," Gritton added. "Our bus pulled out at five. It's a long drive to get up here, but they all made it. They are excited and I just think that shows the impact of what this is about."

Danville freshman Kali Bacys and senior Nickiya Shields both expressed their excitement about joining the school's first-ever flag team and the team's first trip together being a visit to Halas Hall.

"Its really cool," Bacys said. "We've just been playing for a short time but we've had a lot of fun, and we owe it all to the Bears and to coach [Eberflus], so it's really exciting to get to meet them."

"It's crazy to be here," Shields added. "You never think you would get to do stuff like this."

While the majority of the teams have started summer workouts and practices, Zion Benton had yet to begin training. the clinic at Halas Hall was their very first introduction to the sport.

"It's pretty fun," Zion Benton senior Aubri Neil said. "I've never played flag football before, so the drills at the indoor field, that was awesome. I always wanted to play football when I was little, but it was a boy's sport, so I was like, 'this is my chance.'"

For Zion Benton coach John Lindstrom, Tuesday was a learning experience for both him and the entire team. After feeling the team's energy on the morning bus ride to Halas Hall, Lindstrom knew this experience would be life-changing for the girls.

"To have the Chicago Bears associated with a town like Zion is super, super cool," Lindstrom said. "Normally for us, we watch people go through things like that; we're not necessarily a part of it. For us to be a part of it and now get uniforms donated and the USA Football equipment donated is super sweet. It really gave us that springboard to say, 'alright, we can do this, and the time to do it is right now.' That is such a peace of mind for any person going into just starting something fresh."

The girls flag football season officially kicks off with games starting Aug. 26. This year, the IHSA will allow teams to hold up to 25 contests. The first-ever IHSA state final will be hosted Oct. 18-19.

The Chicago Bears Girls Flag Football Program is brought to you Buffalo Wild Wings, Gatorade, Nike, and Visa