California is considering making flag football a school sport for girls, the Associated Press reported.
The southern section of the California Interscholastic Federation is expected to vote Thursday on making it an official girls’ high school sport. If approved, the state federation — which governs interscholastic sports in California — would take it up next month with a goal of making it an official sport for the 2023-24 school year, according to the news service.
(Update from KABC news: “The southern section of the California Interscholastic Federation voted Thursday to make flag football an official girls’ high school sport. The approval, at a CIF meeting in Long Beach, was passed by a vote of 61 in favor and 26 against, with two abstentions. Following the approval, the state federation – which governs interscholastic sports in California – is expected to take it up next month with a goal of making it an official sport in the nation’s most populous state for the 2023-24 school year.”)
Flag football already is a sanctioned high school girls’ sport in states including Alabama and Nevada. And it was added as a collegiate sport by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, with colleges in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, and elsewhere fielding teams.
Elsa Morin ,17, a senior at Redondo Union High School in Los Angeles County told the A.P. that “something about football just gets me really excited. I’ve always just wanted to play.”