Cheers and whistles filled Hayfield High School’s football field on Oct. 14, not for the usual field hockey or football game, but for a new sport: girls flag football. Until the start of the 2025 school year, girls across FCPS never had the opportunity to play flag football, one of the country’s fastest-growing sports, for their high school team. However, due to a new partnership with the Washington Commanders, FCPS is currently piloting girls flag football.
This addition to FCPS athletics follows on the heels of two recent varsity programs: girls wrestling and boys volleyball, both collegiate scholarship and Olympic sports. Similarly, girls flag football was recently approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to be included in the 2028 Los Angeles games. Additionally, girls flag football became a collegiate sport in 2020 when the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) approved it as a varsity sport.
Kaitlyn Marshall, senior, said, “Flag football is a great opportunity for girls in FCPS to learn, grow, and meet new people in a competitive environment.”
Information and rumors surrounding a possible flag football league have been spreading around FCPS since last year.
“When we found out there was gonna be a team, I told Matthew [Athletic Director] that I play [flag football] and he was like, okay, we won’t even post the job, you got it,” Dennis Johnson, or Coach DJ, coach of the Girls Flag Football team, said.
“I heard about West Po’s flag football team for the first time from a friend last spring. I didn’t know whether it was true or just a rumor,” said Marshall. “I heard about the interest meeting on the West Po Athletics Instagram page and attended the meeting to see what it was all about.”
For many players, participating in girls flag football has offered a unique bonding experience that comes with being a part of the trailblazing season.
“My favorite part of the team is connecting with my teammates and bonding over the sport that is new to all of us,” said Marshall. “I love laughing with my teammates at practices and getting ready for games together.”
“I think the girls are bonding really well. We’ve got a lot of upperclassmen and a lot of lower classmen to level it out to where the older classmen are teaching the younger ones how to be a student athlete,” Johnson said.
The new league has been split into five different pods, each consisting of five schools that will compete against each other across the regular season. Each pod will have a champion. The five pod champions will be seeded for the County Championships and will compete against each other from Nov. 10-12. The first game of playoffs will be a play-in game between the fourth and fifth seeded teams. The semi-finals will be played on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 6:00 pm at Woodson HS and will be immediately followed by the finals, which will be played at 7:15 pm.
“For girls interested in playing next year, it’s an incredible opportunity. It’s not very hard to pick up, and there’s always a spot for everyone,” Marshall said.
