Rockwall-Heath's Matthew Jones has been named the Kendra Scott 2026 Girls Flag Football Coach of the Year by Cowboys in the Community, earning a $2,000 grant along with the honor.

The award was announced Tuesday, July 28, as reported by the Rockwall Herald-Banner. It caps a championship season for the Lady Hawks program. Jones co-coached the team with Kenley Harper to the inaugural girls flag football state championship on June 14 at DATCU Stadium at the University of North Texas in Denton.

Rockwall-Heath beat Houston Memorial 25-6 in the title game after going undefeated across the two-day tournament.

The Lady Hawks trailed early after Houston Memorial, previously unbeaten, scored on the opening drive. Junior quarterback Haley Harper answered with two touchdown passes and was named the team's MVP. Freshman Laurelea Carlyle sealed the win with a pick-six on the game's final play.

"I told the girls on the first day of tryouts that if you are in this huddle, you will win a state championship," co-coach Kenley Harper said after the June 14 championship game, according to Sports Illustrated's recap.

That confidence proved well-placed despite the roster's inexperience. Of the 17 Lady Hawks, an estimated 13 or 14 had never played flag football before the season started, Harper said. Only two players, Haley Harper and freshman Charlotte Traa, had club experience with Texas Fury before pushing to get the program added at Rockwall-Heath.

The state championship tournament was organized by the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans as part of a broader push to grow girls flag football in Texas. The two NFL franchises have helped establish more than 200 scholastically-based varsity teams across the state, according to a joint press release. Eight teams competed in the June event, split into Cowboys and Texans brackets. Rockwall-Heath swept the Cowboys bracket, beating Carrollton Newman Smith, Austin L.C. Anderson, and El Paso El Dorado 24-0 before facing the Texans bracket champion in the final.

Girls flag football is not yet sanctioned by the UIL. The UIL Legislative Council directed staff in June to develop an implementation plan and survey before revisiting the issue at its October 2026 meeting. If approved, sanctioning would not take effect until the 2027-28 school year at the earliest, according to El Paso Matters reporting.

The sport is set to debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics, and the NCAA added women's flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program in January 2026. The UIL council's October meeting is the next scheduled step toward official sanctioning in Texas.