Flag football gave Lansdale Catholic grad Caitlin Quinn a college opportunity she didn’t know was possible

Caitlin Quinn was focused on winning a collegiate national championship in women’s flag football, so there was no time to be awestruck by her soundings inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Atlanta Falcons play.

Now a few weeks removed from that National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics women’s flag football final, the Milligan (Tenn.) University receiver and defensive back marvels at how the game transformed her into a scholarship athlete with burgeoning leadership skills.

“It’s really crazy,” Quinn said in a phone interview. “I never thought that flag football would happen in college. I can’t even say it was a dream come true because it wasn’t even a dream for me. It wasn’t even possible.”

These days, she’s home in Lansdale, coaching the next generation of girls’ flag footballers, including her younger sisters, in hopes that the lessons that helped her overcome a devastating knee injury, better handle adversity, and earn a scholarship also will change their lives.

“I’ve learned that I’m a lot tougher than I thought I was,” said Quinn, who just completed her sophomore year. “I hope if they keep working they can be even better than me … so I’m really excited for the future.”

Down, not out

Quinn was a junior at Lansdale Catholic when she tore her ACL on the first drive of the first game in 2021.

She was playing for the Athena Warriors, the flag football program her parents, Tim and Katie, started for Quinn and her sisters in 2018.

She had just intercepted a pass at a tournament in Delaware when she planted her foot to change directions.

“When I went to cut,” she said, “it just went.”

The initial pain was minimal compared to what followed after surgery.

A few of her father’s former players, she explained, had become addicted to pain medication after having the same operation, so Quinn preferred to avoid taking them.

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After an excruciating week or two of postoperative pain that she dealt with naturally, psychological pain also surfaced.

“I was a three-sport athlete,” Quinn said, “and it felt like they were being taken from me.

“I didn’t think that I would be able to come back. It was just a very long, grueling process. A lot of emotions; a lot of depression.”

Coaching the 10- and 14-year-old teams at Athena somewhat soothed the loss of basketball, football, and track. And the threat of losing football, she said, made her realize how much she loved the game.

Before long, Quinn felt closer to herself again, cheering on her teammates while wearing a bulky knee brace on the sidelines.

Her exuberance, she said, even caught the eye of college coaches, who knew she was injured but offered her a scholarship anyway during a tournament.

“I was like, ‘Huh? What? But I didn’t even play,’” she recalled. “I don’t know how that happened. I was very confused.”

Live, learn

Adversity struck again, however, when Quinn learned that the coaches who had recruited her to Cottey College in Missouri had accepted jobs elsewhere.

About a week before she left for campus, Quinn also learned that the school didn’t have her major as she was told it would.

“It was definitely scary,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. What am I going to do? Do I just not play football?’”

Instead, she asked an Athena teammate who was visiting Milligan, which had previously offered Quinn, to ask the coach if he needed another player.

Milligan’s coach, Ryan Witten, who then was the interim coach, didn’t have a recruiting class, and indeed offered Quinn a scholarship.

Witten is the older brother of former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten.

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“I am so grateful for Coach Witten,” Quinn said. “He really has been an amazing human being and a great football coach.”

But plagued by injuries and low numbers during Quinn’s freshman year, Milligan didn’t have enough players to field a team.

Quinn then broke a toe early last summer, but kept playing and didn’t learn it was broken until six months later. Instead of missing her first official season of flag football, Quinn played anyway.

“I wasn’t supposed to have a season this year, but I was able to because I pushed through adversity,” she said. “It just helped me learn how tough I can be mentally and physically.”

A calmer, more grateful Quinn eventually caught the game-winning touchdown that sent Milligan to the NAIA women’s flag football finals.

“The hotheaded, temperamental, impatient me is gone,” she said, laughing. “I definitely learned from this experience.”

Ottawa (Kan.) University in Kansas eventually won the championship, beating out a field of 12 small colleges from around the country.

Now Quinn coaches her younger sisters, including Krista, a senior at Gwynedd Mercy Academy, who will play with Quinn at Milligan next season, at Athena.

On May 26 in Cumberland Valley, Krista helped her team representing the Eagles win the inaugural PSFCA Big 33 girls’ flag football tournament.

“To see our older girls come back and coach the younger girls and help them develop is the leadership I’ve seen in them,” Tim Quinn said. “They really do see themselves as trailblazers. They are the young women who are forming this sport, and I tell them all that I’m not doing this forever, so they have to come back and replace me.”