Girls’ flag football coming to a high school near you soon

“I never had any doubt it would pass,” said Steve Sell, Aragon head football coach and athletic director, who voted at the CIF federated council meeting in Long Beach Friday morning as a Central Coast Section delegate.

According to the National Federation of State High Schools Associations, California joins Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Florida and Nevada that offers flag football as an official high school sport.

“Everyone feels good about it because this is a sport that will create opportunities for girls. … This is a sport where there are very few barriers to entry. A kid can show up and play,” Sell said.

Sequoia athletic director Melissa Schmidt had a bit more insight into girls’ flag football. She said she has talked with one of her football assistant coaches, who is involved in the sport. She also has a former assistant soccer coach who is now a member of the U.S. Women’s Flag Football Team.

“I am very excited about offering another sport for girls. I think it’s a cool opportunity,” said Schmidt, who is also the Raven’s head girls’ soccer coach. “I think the more team sports we can offer, that don’t require a ton of outside experience, the better.”

The Associated Press reported in the decade leading up to the 2018-19 school year, the number of girls playing high school flag football doubled to 11,000, according to NFHS.

The bigger number, however, is 100,000. That is the difference between the number of boys and girls who compete in high school sports.

“There are roughly 450,000 boys who play sports, there are roughly 350,000 girls (in the state),” said Sell, who is also president of CCS. “I truly believe (with girls’ flag football)… you’re going to get some new athletes who currently don’t play sports.”

While schools can now, officially, begin developing a CIF-supported program, now the hard work begins, because right now, there is very little infrastructure in place at any level.

“I think the conversations are just starting to get real this week. People are just starting to get the ball rolling,” Schmidt said. “We just started a conversation with ADs in the area about what the plans are and how are we going to get this started?”

In addition to setting up flag football rules and bylaws, which currently don’t exist for the high school game, schools and districts will have to find funding for new programs, which would include a stipend for a head coach, uniforms and officials, among other investments.

“Some are concerned about funding. … There are definitely concerns,” Schmidt said.

While schools can begin fielding teams for the upcoming fall season, the chances of getting everything lined up is a daunting task. School districts have to approve the formation of new programs, schools need to have enough interest to field teams and then ultimately decide when, where and who they will play. A Peninsula Athletic League-sponsored flag football league is probably not in the cards for the 2023-24 season.

But Schmidt, for one, is looking to hit the ground running.

“I’m going to look to move quickly, if the interest is there,” Schmidt said. “But it can’t just be [Sequoia]. We need [teams] to play against. A lot of things have to fall into place and the interest has to be there.”