The Coventry Cougars UK Flag American Football Team

<p>There is evidence that marginalized UK women and girls continue to be alienated by “traditional” British sports (such as soccer, cricket, rugby, and netball) as they often remain embedded in hegemonic masculinity norms. Although the mainstream UK sports marketplace is both crowded and highly contested, a gap exists for innovative, differentiated sports to enter the field. This research presents ethnographic data collected through site visits, interviews, and participant observation of the Coventry Cougars (an American football club), along with an attitudinal questionnaire. It finds that the Cougars have developed a unique intra-group community, where shared leadership (SL) facilitates informal learning (IL). The ethnographic study builds on the field of creating new opportunities in sport for girls. It suggests that socially bonded women and girls can co-create a powerful, transformative, and competitive organization that thrives in a space vacated by traditional British sporting culture, thus challenging how UK sport is constructed and gendered. The findings promote the assertion that recomposing the generic constrictive diet of female sport (dominated by soccer and netball) can lead to opportunities for women to develop a collective group conscience, positive self-identity, and social bonding.</p>