Girls flag football became California’s newest sanctioned high school sport on Friday.
The California Interscholastic Federation’s Federated Council approved the proposal 146-0 and play will begin this fall, one year from when the Southern Section launched the initiative.
Sections are not mandated to play in the fall, but if they don’t they would not be eligible to play in regional or state championships.
Some schools will be ready to play next school year,
but the quick turnaround will present hurdles for some sections. Signing up players where teams didn’t exist previously will take time, and field availability could be a challenge as it will coincide with boys tackle football, boys and girls soccer and girls field hockey. Fall athletes playing field hockey could also limit potential roster spots, but in the spring, lacrosse could create the same issue.
Then there’s officiating — availability is a concern since most football officials will be booked for boys tackle games.
The San Francisco Section, which began sponsoring the sport in 2012, has 10 teams participating this season, with the first games scheduled for March 1 and the postseason in April. It is unclear if historically spring programs will jump to the fall as an official CIF sport in the next school year or will wait a little longer.
“It would be awesome if we could have a state champion,” Lincoln quarterback Joelle Wang said to the Chronicle in the fall. “I would have loved to have continued my season after we won the section. If (the CIF) makes it an actual sport, we could be a state champion.”
Flag football has long been offered at youth levels, mostly co-ed, but in recent years girls competition has flourished. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of girls playing flag football at high schools in the U.S. doubled to 11,000 between 2008 and ’19. From 2019 to ’22, that number jumped 40%, to 15,716. Girls on boys tackle-football teams increased 39%, to 3,633, during that period.
Flag football has previously been sanctioned at the high school level in Florida, Alabama and Nevada. Plenty of questions remain, as they do for any new sport. Scheduling, budgets and Title IX compliance all have to be addressed in the coming months.
Until the National Federation of State High School Associations establishes a rule book, the CIF will use rules for girls flag football provided by the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association, which includes seven-on-seven play and 12-minute quarters.
The 49ers, Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams have pledged to help schools with startup costs, which could be several thousand dollars per team.
Marisa Ingemi is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]
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