With the emergence of flag football throughout the country, Anna Maria College had announced adding the sport to its women’s athletic program. Designed to be fast-paced and highly competitive, the program would have expanded women’s access to collegiate athletics and contributed to the evolving landscape of women’s sports.

AMC had announced the hiring of Bridget D’Amelio as the inaugural head coach of the program in November 2025. At that time, D’Amelio stated, “I am honored to be named head coach of Anna Maria College Women’s Flag Football. Now that women’s flag football has emerged, it has become my passion to help bring this sport to girls and women now and in the future. I’m grateful for the opportunity to empower young women to showcase their strength, skill, and athleticism.”

D’Amelio has extensive experience and a commitment to the sport, having coached youth flag football teams and built the girls flag football program at Wachusett Regional High School. Her teams have earned top conference finishes, statewide recognition, and opportunities to compete on prominent stages, including Gillette Stadium.

But then, unexpectedly, on April 23, Anna Maria announced it would permanently close its doors at the end of the Spring 2026 semester after 80 years in existence, citing unsustainable financial pressures and declining enrollment.

With the shutdown of the private Catholic college came layoffs of staff and faculty, affecting 150 employees, and 1,000-plus students scrambling, looking for a place to continue their education. According to D’Amelio, students are reaching out to colleges such as Worcester State University, Dean College, and Springfield College that are working to accept the displaced undergraduates.

“The first season was to be next spring,” said D’Amelio, “and we had athletes committed to play here, but now they have to look elsewhere. It’s tough, but not as detrimental to our program as some of the others [sports programs at the college] as we hadn’t started yet. It is still hard on all the athletes already here.” 

In a statement from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, Commissioner Noe Ortega wrote, “The Department continues to work with President Ryan [of AMC] and his leadership team to ensure that students who are not graduating this spring have opportunities to transfer and complete their degrees as seamlessly as possible.” 

With the first season set to begin in the spring of 2027, D’Amelio had been using all of her connections to recruit girls to play for AMC. She had reached out to athletes who had played on the high school level from all of her coaching experiences so that she would have had a team by the fall 2026 to begin practicing and be ready for their inaugural season. 

AMC was slated to play in the Mass State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), where they would have been the third New England college to participate in female flag football, the second four-year college, and D’Amelio the first female coach. 

While it never came to fruition, D’Amelio’s appointment was historic. She would have been the first female coach in New England to lead a women’s flag football program at a four-year college. Her work with youth leagues, summer programs, and New England Patriots Girls Flag Football initiatives underscores her commitment to player development and program building.

An athlete growing up and a soccer player in college, D’Amelio has always held football dear to her heart. She thought that she had been given the chance of a lifetime and wanted to make Anna Maria proud. While she will not get that chance to be one of the first females to coach flag football on the collegiate level, she will continue to coach the girls at Wachusett Regional High School and mentor the student athletes.   W