Area high schools are developing a game plan to launch girls’ flag football as early as this fall.
Pitt County Schools Director of Athletics Rob Maloney told the Board of Education on Monday that local schools plan to join a growing number of across the state offering the non-contact sport.
“One of the greatest trends around the country is the growth of flag football for high school females,” Maloney said. “Eventually, we’re hoping this will be an official sport.”
Plans call for Pitt County’s six traditional public high schools to field teams to compete with half a dozen teams being formed in Beaufort and Craven counties. The pilot season would include four weeks of Saturday games in November and December.
“I have no doubt in my mind that this is going to be big all over,” Maloney said. “This is going to become an official sport, I think, in the next next five years.”
Already, flag football for women and men is slated to be added to the 2028 Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles. Closer to home, South Central High School graduate Amber Clark played defensive back on USA Football’s 2023 U.S. Women’s Flag National Team.
In North Carolina, where the sport is receiving financial support from the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte-Mecklenburg became one of the first districts in the state to form teams. The number of girls’ high school programs grew from 19 in 2021-22 to 61 this school year, including teams from Wake, Cabarrus, Union and New Hanover counties.
With Pitt and a half a dozen other school districts interested in starting programs, the number of teams is expected to grow to 79 in the 2024-25 school year, with nearly 2,000 participants, about four times the number from three years ago.
According to a survey from the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of girls playing football — particularly flag football — continues to climb nationwide. A total of 20,875 girls participated in flag football in 2022-23 — an increase of 32%, NFHS reported.
Girls’ high school flag football is a sanctioned sport in 10 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New York, Nevada and Tennessee. North Carolina is among seven states where sanctioning efforts are in progress.
Panthers Charities is providing $2,500 per school in grants to get programs off the ground, funding that Maloney said will provide everything from equipment to coaches’ manuals. He said the organization has pledged to continue the financial support until the North Carolina High School Athletic Association approves girls’ flag football for sanctioning.
The idea has been met with a positive response from coaches and athletic directors, Maloney said, adding that some have indicated they would like to coach high school girls’ flag football. The proposed timeline for the new sport is to follow tryouts for winter sports so that flag football does not interfere with those teams’ start-up period.
Maloney said he expects that following the high school teams’ launch, middle schools will want to begin teams as well. He said Pitt County Community Schools and Recreation plans to start a middle school flag football league this fall to help provide opportunities for that age group to participate in the sport.
Athletic eligibility
Maloney also provided an update for the board on updates in NCHSAA eligibility requirements, some of which have changed since 2023, when the state Board of Education assumed the role of making rules. Among the eligibility rules are:
A student may only participate in interscholastic athletics on behalf of the school to which the student is assigned. Maloney said this rule means that students attending one of Pitt County Schools’ early college high schools, which currently do not offer sports program, are not eligible to compete on other high school teams.A student will not be allowed to participate in interscholastic athletics following a change in primary residence unless it is made for a bona fide purpose. A bona fide purpose means that the change in primary residence was made with the intent that it be permanent and not primarily for athletic purposes. The entire family must make the change of residence; no family member may remain at the original residence.After initial entry into ninth grade, a student who transfers to another school in the district must sit out of athletics for a full calendar year, unless there is a bona fide change in primary residence.A student transferring from one school district to another must sit out from athletic participation for 365 calendar days following the student’s enrollment in the new school except by mutual agreement of the districts involved. “If the original school says we think this (transfer) has something to do with athletics, that’s when the NCHSAA gets involved, to make sure there hasn’t been recruiting,” Maloney said. “You’d be surprised how often we deal with a lot of this now because so many of our students are playing travel ball. They have many, many friends from other school districts, so this is a growing situation statewide.”To remain eligible for athletics, a student must pass 70% of the previous semester course load along with being on track to graduate.Pitt County Schools will require that all students in grades 9-11 be enrolled in a minimum of three classes per semester to be considered for eligibility for the next semester.A senior who is on track to graduate with credits may take a minimum of two classes for the fall semester of their senior year and one for the spring semester. Dropping any of those courses will cause the student to be ineligible.
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