California is turning flag football into a girls’ high school sport

On Friday, California approved a plan to make flag soccer a girls’ high school sport amid the game’s skyrocketing popularity and a push to get more female athletes on the field.

The decision of the California Interscholastic Federation, the state governing body of high school athletics, makes flag football the official sport for girls in the country’s most populous state for the coming year 2023-2024. The plan was unanimously approved by the organization’s Long Beach federal council, agency spokeswoman Rebecca Brutlag said.

Paula Hart Rodas, CIF South Section Council President-elect, said the goal is to get more girls into high school sports and tap into the widespread love of football among those who don’t like to play tackle. Southern California schools stretching from Long Beach to Corona are hoping to create teams in the fall, and the approval will allow districts to add sports to their budgets, according to Hart Rodas.

“You can love the game of football and dislike being captured, but still want to participate,” Hart Rodas said. “The flag right now is directly about getting more girls into athletics by adding another sport that we know girls across the country are interested in but don’t want to do tackle for various reasons.”

The move adds California to a growing list of states that have included a girls’ football flag in high school sports programs, such as Alabama and Nevada. The New York State Public High School Athletic Association took a similar step this week and expects to host the first state girls’ soccer championship in the spring of 2024.

The California vote comes amid a surge of interest in flag football among young recreational league players and growing support from the NFL and teams like the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. Southern California.

The dozens of schools that signed up to participate in the pilot project and those who were selected to do so, as well as the active young players who participated in it, are widely recognized as pioneers in the sport.

Paul Schmidt said being part of the startup was exciting for his 14-year-old daughter, who had never played college football before trying out for Redondo Union High School, one of the league’s participating schools. Officializing the sport, he said, should make it easier to get playing time and give a boost to a tight-knit team of girls who have banded together around starting something new.

“She loves, loves. It is interesting to engage in a new sport,” he said.

The growing interest in flag football, in which no one is caught in a tackle and the game ends when an opposing player pulls the flag from a belt around the ball carrier’s waist, comes amid concerns about the risk of concussions and other injuries when playing a tackle.

In the decade leading up to 2018-2019, the number of girls playing flag football in U.S. high schools doubled to 11,000, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Without CIF approval, California high schools could organize flag football clubs. But coaches said allowing official interscholastic competition would likely encourage more schools to build teams and develop player recruitment.

Troy Vincent Sr., the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, wrote in the Sacramento Bee that times have changed since he began playing professional football, which at the time was “widely considered a man’s game.” play in and out of college as universities have also expanded the sport.

Vincent is also pushing for flagship football to be added to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“It’s no longer just a backyard sport for girls playing pickup during family reunions,” he said.