After two years of explosive growth as a pilot program in Colorado, girls flag football is at a critical juncture.
The sport will either become sanctioned at Tuesday’s CHSAA Legislative Council meeting or it will be voted down, in part over concerns about logistical issues involved in getting flag football off the ground.
Ten states have sanctioned the sport so far, with Tennessee the latest. Colorado’s pilot, which started with 25 teams in 2022, grew to about 1,300 players across 52 schools this past season. The pilot was largely funded and organized by Denver Broncos Charities, while Denver Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District and Jeffco Public Schools also sponsored it.
“Going into a couple years ago we knew there was some interest, but I didn’t realize the level of support and engagement we’d get it, the adaptability of the sport to our state, and how fast it would take off,” said Patrick Simpson, Jeffco’s executive director of athletics.
“In initial conversations, we were talking about 10 to 12 girls per team. But right away, from the first tryout, I got a text from the AD at Chatfield that he had 85-plus girls at tryouts. It’s been unbelievable the amount of girls interested in playing.”
Despite the popularity, several groups of schools will vote no Tuesday on sanctioning, including the Front Range League, the Patriot League and the Northern Colorado Athletic Conference.
One main concern is field availability and scheduling. The 2024 CHSAA rule book calls for a field that’s 40 yards wide and 80 yards long — a change from the 30-by-60-yard fields that “jamborees” (single-day tournaments usually featuring six teams and three games going on at once) — were played on during the pilot.
The larger size aligns with what is most common in other states, although CHSAA’s proposed rules also say 30-by-60-yard fields “may be used for lower level and Regular Season Invitation formats.”
“If the field size changes, you can’t play a jamboree, because you can’t play three games simultaneously,” Kylie Russell, the district athletic director for Adams 12 Five Star Schools, said on a CHSAA Zoom call Thursday. “That completely changes the outline of the game and what that looks like with scheduling.”
Travis Stinar, the athletic director at Platte Valley, said his Patriot League “doesn’t know if the logistics are all in place for it to function the way it needs to function.” Those logistics include concerns over the availability of officials for a fall season when tackle football is also underway. The Broncos organized and trained officials over the past couple of seasons.
The current lack of a flag football committee, which would be immediately formed if Tuesday’s vote passes, is also an issue for him.
“The timeline to flip it from April to August, and have all of these pieces in place and make sure our (officials) assignors can handle this, is a bit short for us,” Stinar said. “Getting a little bit more time to get refined would make it a better product for the schools from the get-go.”
The NFHS is putting together a task force to appoint a rules committee and write a national rulebook for the sport. NFHS executive director Dr. Karissa Niehoff said “there is urgency (to streamline the sport) because it is growing so fast,” and the organization hopes to have the rulebook ready by the 2025-26 school year.
According to the latest NFHS participation survey, 20,875 girls played flag football nationwide in 2022-23. Most were in Florida, which has sanctioned the sport since 2003.
Florida has found success with flag football as a spring sport, when it doesn’t have to compete with tackle football for officials and field availability, but FHSAA flag football commissioner Jeremy Hernandez acknowledges the “wide variety of rules and regulations” are becoming a common talking point amid the sport’s growth.
“Arizona is playing on a full 100-yard field and kicks field goals; some states play on 60-yard fields, some play on 80-yard fields,” Hernandez said. “Some are using NFL Flag rules, some are using (National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association) rules, some are using their own combination.
“It’s kind of a hodge-podge right now, and it’s all over when it comes to specific rules, the size of the field, rushing (on offense and the QB), contact, even the type of flags that are being worn.”
Also complicating the matter locally is the Broncos’ uncertain role in the sport going forward.
“We wouldn’t be here without the Broncos, especially this fast,” Simpson said. But athletic directors are unsure what role the Broncos will play should the sport become sanctioned.
Broncos grant money paid for equipment and coaches’ stipends during the pilot program, and the pilot state championships were held at the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse. Home and away jerseys were provided by Nike using the Broncos’ connection.
The Broncos declined to comment for this story, but Fossil Ridge athletic director David Walck said the Broncos’ director of youth and high school football suggested at a recent meeting the team might still offer some financial help.
“He said he would do their best to help support it, and one of the questions we did ask in that conversation was, ‘What happens if this proposal doesn’t pass? Are the Broncos going to continue to (financially support) the sport?’ He couldn’t speak to that at that moment.”
Supporters of sanctioning flag football now say the hurdles shouldn’t stop CHSAA.
“Girls wrestling and Unified (bowling), when we brought those in, it wasn’t like we knew exactly what that picture was going to look like at the end,” Lakewood athletic director Michael Hughes said on Thursday’s CHSAA Zoom call. “We took some things on faith and (with the mindset of) we’re going to come up with the best possible situation for our kids in that emerging sport.”
In addition to the high participation numbers, flag football’s relatively low cost is around $10,000 annually per school, a figure that includes travel, coaching stipends, uniforms and equipment, according to estimates by multiple athletic directors.
That would make it one of CHSAA’s most affordable sports for schools and for individuals, who only need to purchase cleats and a mouthguard. Add in the fact that last year’s CHSAA participation survey revealed about 52% of players weren’t planning on playing a fall sport, and Cherry Creek director of athletics Larry Bull argues the sport is connecting with a previously untapped sector of female high school athletes.
“It created a sense of pride and community and purpose, and it’s a great opportunity for a group of young ladies to be connected to their schools, the majority of whom previously weren’t going to be doing anything with their school in that season anyways,” Bull said.
Women’s flag football is also gaining traction at the college level, with a variety of NAIA schools currently offering it, and will be debuting in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in a five-on-five format.
For all those reasons, Arvada West star junior quarterback Saylor Swanson — who led the Wildcats to the championship last fall — says sanctioning the sport “would be a step in the right direction to provide opportunities for all the girls who have built this sport in Colorado to have the chance to play in college (and possibly for the national team).”
Ralston Valley’s Addison Cadwell and Arvada West’s Sara Walker got invites to try out for the U20 national team, with Cadwell headed to play at Kansas Wesleyan University. Plus, Mountain Vista’s Braelynn Looney earned the MVP of the West Region at the USA Flag Football Talent ID Camp, with a likely invitation to try out for the U17 national team on the way.
“My hope is for a lot more opportunity, and for scholarships, for girls like that,” Arvada West coach Mario Lopez said. “I had a lot of young female athletes who were playing multiple sports but really loved flag and stuck with it in the second year and took it seriously as a sport. It being an official high school sport will benefit those female athletes in Colorado a ton.”
CHSAA commissioner Mike Krueger, who can’t vote on the matter, described himself as a “staunch supporter” of the sport’s attempt to become sanctioned. But he also painted a picture in which flag football’s momentum toward official status could be derailed if the vote fails.
“If (districts) wanted to continue to pilot it, my response would be, ‘To what extent?’” Krueger said. “‘What are we going to learn in an additional two years of pilot that we don’t already have the data to support?’
“It could just go away if no (league or district) is willing to pilot it again, and just become a club or intramural sport.”
Simpson, Bull and Denver Public Schools district athletic director Kevin Bendjy, all of whom have been pushing hard for sanctioning, are determined not to let that happen if Tuesday’s vote doesn’t go their way.
“It’s not a matter of if flag passes, it’s just a matter of when it passes,” Simpson said. “I would be 100% in support of going through another pilot process and helping answer questions for schools that voted against it. If their concern is that we haven’t established proof of concept and we needed to extend the pilot, we would keep it going (in some capacity). … It’s just a matter of what we’ve got to do to take that last step.”
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