For Alicia and Taylor Jones, whether or not they would play football in high faculty was by no means actually a query.
When the an identical twins stepped foot onto the football subject as freshmen in 2023, they grew to become the fourth and fifth daughters of their household to hold on the household custom of taking part in flag football. It’s all occurred on the ladies flag football dynasty constructed by Robinson High School in Tampa, Florida, a program that is racked up 10 state championships.
“Our sisters tried so hard, they put in all the work,” mentioned Taylor. “So it lets us do the same thing.”
They’re hardly alone. Girls flag football is quickly spreading by means of high schools within the U.S., with 14 states sanctioning it as an official high faculty sport within the final three years. The development has been helped alongside by tens of millions of {dollars} from benefactors like Nike and the NFL and has unfolded as curiosity in girls’s sports activities explodes.
But for Florida and its neighborhood stuffed with households just like the Joneses, it’s nothing new. Girls have been taking part in flag football there for over 20 years, and up to date participation numbers within the state have over 10,000 ladies throughout 4 divisions and greater than 450 schools.
The “entire world” of Florida ladies flag
It all began again in 2003. Florida grew to become the primary state to sanction high faculty ladies flag football and since then, it’s been adopted on a county-by-county foundation — and has taken fairly a foothold.
Certain schools have developed into dynasties. Robinson is one and, simply half-hour throughout Tampa, Alonso High School is one other. Alonso has 4 state titles of their very own, and the groups starred in a Nike industrial collectively 4 years in the past.
“When I got introduced to it I didn’t realize there was an entire world behind it,” mentioned Natalie Fischer, a sophomore at Alonso who found the game after transferring from Malaysia to Florida. “It really changed my life.”
One of the principle backbones of that world is the generations of girls who performed flag earlier than it was part of the nationwide consciousness – they usually’re serving to usher their beloved sport into its new period. Most Thursdays you’ll find one in all them, Deliah Autry-Jones, on the sidelines of Robinson apply, watching the crew run drives up and down the sector because the solar units.
“I decided what better way to give back than to the program that just absolutely changed everything for me?” she mentioned.
That second that modified every little thing was when Autry-Jones found flag football at Robinson again in 2009. She’s now spent 5 years on the U.S. Women’s Flag nationwide crew and has an actual shot on the 2028 Olympics, the place flag football will make its debut. Returning to Robinson as an assistant coach was an essential verify on her record.
Autry-Jones is only one instance of an early adoption perk: packages have been round lengthy sufficient for star alumni to come back again as coaches. She is joined by fellow alumnus Kylee Gorngpratum on the teaching employees at Robinson, and alum Letrice Hall is on employees at Alonso.
“It’s really just nice to have somebody in your shoes. It’s such a prestigious program, not everybody understands,” mentioned Paige Halverson, Robinson’s quarterback. “To have somebody that you can go to and that understands what you’re going through, it’s really important.”
National curiosity in these prestigious packages is solely growing, and for Alonso coach Matt Hernandez and Robinson coach Joshua Saunders, meaning quite a lot of messages.
“If you google girls flag football coaching, our names pop up,” Saunders mentioned. “So about once every month, I’ll get a coach that just says ‘Hey, I’ve just started a program in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Do you have any advice?’”
He tells them to deal with “patience, really. And give yourself some grace. It’s still convincing a 15 year-old girl that this is going to be important to her.”
What’s up subsequent?
If requested to look ahead, various Florida high faculty gamers have goals of taking part in flag football in faculty – “I love it so much, I wouldn’t be able to stop playing,” mentioned Robinson junior Sarah Williams – and the collegiate alternatives are slowly creating.
Currently, at the least 65 NCAA schools sponsor ladies flag football on the membership or varsity stage, with the bulk being on the membership stage. It was not too long ago authorized to hitch the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, step one to presumably turning into an official sport for Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 athletics. Players are nonetheless hoping and pushing.
“Seeing the freshmen last year was a really big thing for me because half of them wanted to play in college. Half of them are like ‘Hey, it’s possible,’” mentioned Alonso senior Gabriella Werr.
“Flag is going to keep growing very fast, and I think that’s going to be a shock to some people,” mentioned Werr, “but not to others.”
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AP sports activities: https://apnews.com/sports activities