On Wednesday, Sept. 18, at a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) board meeting in Mechanicsburg, PA, girl’s flag football officially became a sanctioned high school sport by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Once the sport is official in more schools and has more teams together, the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) and PIAA  have announced that they will have championships at the end of seasons. 

Thanks to NFL franchises, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, girl’s flag football has grown to finally become a sanctioned high school sport. It hadn’t become a sanctioned sport until Sept. 2024, but back in July 2023 the board of PIAA considered it an “emerging sport.” For a sport to become sanctioned, it requires a 100-school threshold, which means that at least 100 schools had to accept girl’s flag football into their high school’s sports program. Girl’s flag football reached that threshold in April 2024. As of now, the PIAA board plans to initiate a rulebook in January 2025.

“I would be interested in joining a team, if I was with a group of my friends,” Presley Malsch, seventh grade student, stated. “I feel like it’s a good idea to start a girl’s flag football team, so girls can play football without getting hurt and some people might want to play other sports than what we already have. Either a lot of people would play or there would only be a few.”

“Girls flag football could be a good benefit because it would bring more sports opportunities to our school. I think people would probably participate because there are a lot of girls that go to Mr. Mohrbacher’s flag football camp during the summer,” Kylie Dambach, eighth grade student, said. “I would be interested in playing and my friends would probably play, too. Although, I feel like the first year there wouldn’t be a lot of people. After a few years, I think it will have a really good turn-out.”

In 2022, girl’s flag football had 16 teams, compared to now, the sport has reached up to 65 teams. Right now, more than 1,600 girls are playing in the Philadelphia Eagles Girls’ Flag League. To support the growth of girl’s flag football, the Philadelphia Eagles have held many things, such as coaching clinics, jamborees, and championships. The Eagles and Steelers are giving a $3,000 stipend for first-year teams, and for returning teams, a $1,500 stipend. Other programs that have helped grow girl’s flag football include USA Football and Nike, they will try to include uniforms, flag kits, belts, footballs, etc.