Community Spotlight: From D1 Athlete to Tech CEO

"I am a step-into-the-arena type leader who thrives in challenging environments and excels at turning obstacles into opportunities."
- Hanna Howard, CEO, Rematch U.S.

There is a certain kind of leader who doesn't stumble into their role - they earn it through years of understanding what it means to compete, to recruit, to build a culture from scratch, and to win in pressure situations. Hanna Howard is that kind of leader. And right now, she is bringing all of it to one of the most exciting technology plays in youth sports.

As CEO of Rematch U.S., Howard is leading the American launch of a sports video platform that has already taken France by storm - 1 billion highlight views, partnerships with seven national sports federations, and a community of more than 850,000 users. Now she is bringing that same energy to the U.S. youth sports market, starting in Dallas-Fort Worth, one of the most competitive and sports-obsessed regions in the country.

Built on the Sidelines

Howard's path to the corner office runs directly through the basketball court. She played college ball at the University of Portland before embarking on a coaching career that took her across the country - assistant stints at UC San Diego, Utah State, and Fresno State, before rising to Associate Head Coach of the TCU Women's Basketball program.

Seventeen years of coaching isn't just résumé filler. It is a masterclass in the exact skills that make great leaders: recruiting talent, building team culture, strategic problem-solving under pressure, and aligning a diverse group of people toward a single, unified goal. Every practice plan. Every recruiting visit. Every halftime adjustment. It all translates.

But Howard didn't stop there. Before stepping into the CEO seat at Rematch, she served as COO of Valor, a Fort Worth-based specialty asset management company in the mineral and oil and gas space. Going from women's basketball coaching to COO of a financial services firm isn't a lateral move - it is the kind of pivot that reveals a leader willing to bet on herself in unfamiliar territory. That same instinct now defines her approach to sports technology.

The Problem Rematch Solves

Every parent of a young athlete knows the moment. Your daughter breaks free, makes the catch, scores the touchdown - and you were too busy fumbling with your phone to capture it. Or you recorded forty-five minutes of a game only to find thirty seconds worth keeping.

Rematch was built to solve exactly that. The platform's proprietary auto-rewind technology continuously buffers video in the background. When a highlight happens, you tap - and the app captures the moment that just occurred. No more missed plays. No more full games saved to your phone. Just the moments that matter, automatically organized, stabilized, cropped, and ready to share on a dedicated sports community platform.

"Rematch is more than merely a tool to capture highlights," Howard said at the U.S. launch. "It's a platform that celebrates the most amazing sports moments, offering an unparalleled experience for athletes of all levels."

For youth flag football families specifically, this matters enormously. Highlights drive recruiting visibility. They fuel NIL conversations. They are how a young athlete builds her story. And until now, most of those moments were lost on a parent's phone or never captured at all.

Why DFW, Why Now

Rematch U.S. is headquartered in Dallas-Fort Worth - and not by accident. The DFW region is one of the most active youth sports markets in the United States, with a density of leagues, clubs, tournaments, and families investing seriously in athletic development. It is the perfect proving ground for a platform that needs community scale to create network effects.

The timing is equally deliberate. The U.S. youth sports industry is a $42 billion market today, projected to reach $69 billion globally by 2030. Flag football alone is experiencing a historic growth moment - propelled by its inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and an explosion in girls' and women's participation that is reshaping the sport from the ground up.

Howard sees the convergence clearly. A generation of young female athletes is competing in a sport that is finally getting the mainstream recognition it deserves. Those athletes deserve highlights. They deserve visibility. They deserve a platform built to celebrate what they do.

Where Flag Football Finder Comes In

Flag Football Finder is proud to have Rematch as a brand partner. The alignment between our platforms couldn't be more natural. FFF connects families to flag football opportunities - the discovery layer. Rematch captures and celebrates what happens once they arrive - the highlight layer. Together, we close the loop from finding the game to owning the moment.

Our audience is more than 10,000 monthly active users, 93 percent of whom arrive through unbranded search - families looking for flag football near them before they know any specific organization or app by name. That is exactly the parent who is standing on the sideline wishing they had a better way to capture their athlete's moment. Rematch is that solution.

Still Building Teams

Ask Hanna Howard what coaching taught her about running a company and you'll hear a familiar theme: the game doesn't care about your credentials. It cares about execution. Building a winning culture. Finding the right people. Recruiting relentlessly. Adjusting in real time when things aren't working.

She spent 17 years doing all of that on basketball courts from San Diego to Fort Worth. Now she's doing it in the boardroom - and the field has never been bigger.

Download the Rematch app and start capturing your athlete's biggest moments: rematch.tv/us

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