Vanita Krouch never intended to play flag football, much less quarterback.

Only a few years removed from playing point guard at Southern Methodist University (SMU), she began playing flag football around the Dallas Metroplex after searching for a new competitive outlet.

Krouch soon met U.S. women’s national team coach Chris Lankford, who was then a noted local player, coach and referee, and he quickly saw Krouch’s potential. Lankford agrees with Krouch’s recollection that he “tricked” her into playing quarterback.

Before long, Krouch was playing flag football just about every night of the week and staying to watch other games in hope of learning as much as she could.

“Once I drank the Kool-Aid, it was over,” she said.

Wide receiver Bruce Mapp took a more conventional pathway to earning a spot on the U.S. men’s national flag football team. A standout receiver at Coastal Carolina before briefly pursuing a professional football career, he first began playing flag football in his native Philadelphia before relocating to the Dallas Metroplex, where he was soon playing up to seven nights a week.

Fast forward to today, and the 41-year-old Krouch is expected to quarterback the U.S. women’s national team for Flag Football @TWG2022 Presented by the NFL and the 28-year-old Mapp is expected to again be among the top receivers for the men’s team in Birmingham this summer at The World Games.

U.S. national teams in football are assembled and managed by USA Football, the sport’s national governing body and a member of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

“I’m just excited,” Mapp said when asked about his expectations for The World Games. “I’m excited to try to four-peat. It’s going to be exciting to see if we can both win gold again.”

This will be the first time flag football will be part of The World Games, and flag football enthusiasts hope it serves as a stepping stone to the sport being added to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

The U.S. men’s and women’s teams earned gold at the 2021 International Federation of American Football World Championships last December in Israel. Both teams defeated the men’s and women’s teams from Mexico in gold-medal championship games.

The other men’s teams competing at TWG2022 are Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Panama.

The other women’s teams competing at TWG2022 are Austria, Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico and Panama.

If the U.S. women want to win gold again, Krouch’s play will be pivotal.

“She is the most humble player that you’re going to find, and she’s the best player,” Lankford said. “I can speak volumes about Vanita on the field and off the field. She’s team-first. She’s family-first. She doesn’t take anything for granted. She works extremely hard. She’s just that person.”

Krouch also has an inspirational backstory that sounds like a Hollywood script.

She’s the daughter of Cambodian immigrants who escaped the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s. Her father left the family once they arrived in the United States, which forced her mother – who knew no English when she arrived – to work multiple minimum-wage jobs to support Vanita and her three older brothers.

Krouch remembers the family living in a cramped one-bedroom apartment and sharing a bed with her mother.

“My mom is everything to me,” Krouch said. “She’s my hero. She’s my foundation, my motivation for so much.”

She also credits Toni Niebes, her elementary physical education teacher to whom she refers as her “second mom,” for introducing her to sports and inspiring her.

Quarterback Vanita Krouch, 41, continues to be a key reason the U.S. women’s flag football team wins international championships. Krouch hopes to add a gold medal in The World Games 2022 to the team’s list of accomplishments. (contributed)

Krouch excelled academically and athletically in high school in Carrollton, Texas – a suburb of Dallas – and earned a scholarship to play point guard for SMU’s women’s basketball team.

She became an elementary school P.E. teacher and coach after graduation and also runs her own clothing company, 4ward Apparel.

Krouch is also among the world’s elite female flag football players and said she still feels like she’s “at the top of my game.”

“I sometimes doubt myself, but people tell me, ‘You’re still in your prime’ and ‘There’s no one like you,’” she said. “Fortunately, as a quarterback, I don’t have to have all the moves I used to.”

Mapp also has a compelling off-the-field story, as he owns his own food truck business called So Icy, which specializes in homemade water ice, which is similar to Italian ice, a treat from his hometown of Philadelphia.

“When I moved to Texas, I noticed nobody knew what water ice even is,” he said. “It’s very popular back home (in Philadelphia). Everybody down here had snow cones. I thought, ‘Hey, let’s bring water ice here and see what happens.”

So Icy has since become Mapp’s full-time job, and it also allows him to make time for his flag football career.