There's the spark of interest, and then there's what's happening with girls high school flag football. From 10 teams two years ago, 20 teams last year, and 64 this year in Louisiana, and from 12 teams last year to 44 this year in Mississippi, the game and participation are blossoming on an exponential scale.
The initiative falls under the NFL and New Orleans Saints girls high school girls flag program, and it hardly could be progressing better as it moves from conditional sanctioning with the Louisiana High School Sports Athletic Association toward full sanction in the LHSAA (it is already sanctioned in Mississippi).
"The league is not only trying to enhance the growth and awareness of flag football, but it's also one demographic that had not really been the focus of efforts in years past," said Elicia Broussard Sheridan, Saints Vice President of Community Relations and Youth Sports Development. "Each NFL team activates differently than another. Some teams have had (the sport sanctioned in their states) for several years, some are in the process of being sanctioned like the Saints.
"We're just trying to give girls the opportunity to take advantage of all of the things that the guys have been able to take advantage of as a tackle football player. We've had girls who participated last year in the pilot program who are now in college on scholarships, having only played with us for a five-week season. The evolution of it is crazy to me."
That evolution is expected to reach beyond the Gulf South. "The NCAA has adopted it, it's going to be in the Olympics in 2028. Now we're expanding internationally with all of the flag efforts," Sheridan said. The Saints playing in Paris this season, in particular, presents a timely opportunity. "We're talking about doing something specific for girls flag in Paris (based around the Paris beaches, which runs from early July until late August), then when we go out for the game."
Greater New Orleans will have six divisions of seven teams each, but teams are spread throughout the state: The New Orleans region encompasses Orleans and Jefferson parishes, the river parishes, the Westbank, Chalmette and the Northshore; other regions are located around Baton Rouge, north Louisiana and southwest Louisiana.
De La Salle won the title in Louisiana the first two years, but with an increase in competition, a three-peat will be challenging.
"There were a lot of first-year teams last year who did very well," Sheridan said. "And that's the thing about it: It's not just public schools. There's private, public, charter, Catholic and everybody in between."
"It just shows how far girls flag football has come," De La Salle coach George Neumiller said. "A lot of people didn't think this day was going to happen, but with the NFL big-time behind it, the Olympics coming up — it's becoming huge for the girls. An opportunity for another sport to get scholarships in. It'll be a real high school sport. When they play flag football, they seem to fall in love with it."
Neumiller said participants aren't solely athletes from other sports.
"A lot of girls that we have playing right now, and we've got basketball players and softball players, track girls, but some of these girls — I'm not saying they're not athletes — but cheerleaders, dance-team girls, they're all coming out. And some of these girls have never played a sport in their life," he said. "So it builds their confidence to come out and make the team and contribute to a team for the first time. It boosts their confidence in more than just football, but in life."
Sheridan, who accepted the task of creating the schedule for Louisiana's teams, has an older daughter who plays for Dominican, and a younger one who's anxiously awaiting the chance to join her.
"I'm like, this is the work that we've done. To give my daughter an opportunity," Sheridan said.
