St. Louis Park flag football coach Kayla Ross points to the sky after the Orioles scored against Robbinsdale Cooper in their first game at Champlin Park High School in Champlin on April 27. “I’ve coached a lot of things,” Ross said, “and this is it.” (Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In the biting wind, fingers fumbled as girls pinned numbers onto their soccer hoodies, volleyball T-shirts and softball sweatshirts representing St. Louis Park High School. Freshman Lauryn Pohlman, luckily, had already bought bright pink football gloves — yet to be broken in, but providing relief from the April cold.

When St. Louis Park athletic director Andy Ewald told 26-year-old P.E. and health teacher Kayla Ross the Minnesota Vikings were sponsoring an expanded high school flag football league and the Orioles would have one of the league’s eventual 51 teams, Ross, who also plays receiver and quarterback for the Minnesota Vixen professional women’s tackle football team, stepped up as its quarterback — the metaphorical kind, in this case.

As Ross began to spread the word to interested girls — ones she taught at the school in the first-ring suburb of Minneapolis, others she coached and their friends — she asked what they wanted from the season.

“[The girls] requested to have other female coaches,” Ross said. “I promised them I would find some ones that I think would be a good fit.”

For more on Ross and the Orioles, click here to read this story on startribune.com.