Girls’ flag football booming in NC high schools. It’s also closer to being sanctioned

Girls’ flag football, buoyed by becoming an Olympic sports in 2028 and a 105% increase in participation nationwide, took a big step closer Tuesday to officially joining the high school ranks.

The National Federation of High Schools (NFHS), which governs high school athletic associations across the country, announced it will begin drawing up official rules for flag football, in time for the 2024-25 academic year.

“We’re seeing participation numbers going through the roof,” Karissa Niefhoff, the NFHS’ chief executive officer, said of flag football.

Girls’ flag football is sanctioned in 12 states, while 19 other states, including North Carolina, have pilot programs. South Carolina does not yet have a pilot program.

The number of girls playing flag football, in either sanctioned or pilot programs, climbed from 20,875 in the 2022-23 school year to 42,955 last year. Last year’s participation numbers in North Carolina were not available Tuesday.

Schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg were the first to sponsor girls’ flag football, starting in spring 2022 with strong support from the Carolina Panthers. Schools in Cabarrus and Union counties joined the flag football movement last year.

More than 35 high schools in the Charlotte area plan to sponsor flag football this year, and the sport has added another 30-40 schools in the Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington areas.

One-quarter of the NCHSAA’s membership, or 111 schools, must compete in a sport before the organization will consider sanctioning it. A sport also can be sanctioned if 50% of the members in one of the NCHSAA’s four size classifications are fielding teams.

Riley Fields, director of community relations for the Panthers, said the NFL team hopes to see the sport become sanctioned.

“We are excited about the progress which has been made,” Fields said. “The prospect of girls competing for state championships for their schools is exciting.”

During a news conference streamed nationally Tuesday, Heather McGowan, athletic director at Ben Davis High in Indianapolis, said participation growth in girls’ flag football was phenomenal at her school.

“By year 3 of our program, we had to make roster cuts,” McGowan said. “That’s how quickly the program grew. We had enough players for a JV team, but there weren’t any other schools fielding JV teams.”

She said adding flag football didn’t hurt participation in other girls’ sports during the same season.

“The majority of the girls playing flag football were not participating in another sport,” she said.

One problem in North Carolina is getting schools to agree on when to play flag football.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg has a spring season. Schools in Union and Cabarrus counties are playing in the fall, as are most schools in the Raleigh-Durham area.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg athletic officials have said they will follow NCHSAA guidelines on when to play — once the NCHSAA sanctions the sport.

Football leads the way

The other big news from the NFHS on Tuesday was the rise in participation in high school sports.

High school teams across the country had more than 8 million participants in the 2023-24 academic year, setting a record. That is up 210,469 from last year, marking the first time the number of students playing high school sports have surpassed the participation figures from before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The No. 1 sport for boys was 11-man football, with 1,031,508 participants. The pre-pandenmic high was 1,006,013. For girls, track and field was No. 1, with 486,355.

NFHS officials said the biggest increases were in boys’ and girls’ wrestling, girls’ flag football, boys’ and girls’ track and field, and girls’ volleyball.

Among the 10 most popular boys’ sports, participation increased in football, track and field, soccer, wrestling, golf and swimming and diving. It dropped in basketball, baseball, cross country and golf — although all of the decreases were slight.

Among the 10 most popular girls’ sports, there were increases in track and field, volleyball, soccer, fast-pitch softball, tennis, cross-country, competitive spirit and lacrosse. The only decreases were in basketball and swimming and diving.

“If you remove the roughly 1 million participants in football, the remaining 7 million are split almost evenly between boys and girls,” Niehoff said.