Jane Kenny [00:01:31] When it was officially sanctioned as a high school sport in California, there were about 10,000 participants in the entire state and it’s grown over 300 percent. Starting in 2023, it was introduced kind of as a test in Southern California and high schools around the Bay Area started to pick it up as a club sport. And then since then, it’s been remarkable. All the stats point to its growth in the past two, three years and kind of growing into a national movement as well.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:16] I guess maybe for people who aren’t familiar with flag football, like describe the game for me, I guess.
Jane Kenny [00:02:22] Yeah, it’s very similar to boys tackle football at the high school level, just minus the physicality aspect of the tackling, similar kind of skill set in terms of arm strength and throwing and skill set. In terms of running.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:38] And they have the flags around their waists, right? And the goal is to like.
Jane Kenny [00:02:43] Oh, yes. So essentially the goal is to deflag a runner who has the ball.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:49] I know you talked with flag football players and coaches here in the Bay Area. What can you tell me about who is joining flag football?
Jane Kenny [00:02:58] I talked with Milpitas high school coach Matt Robbins.
Matt Robbins [00:03:02] Hey, good job on the pictures. We got that done. So now we wanted to see what we can get the best quality practice that we can in the remaining time…
Jane Kenny [00:03:10] He played for 15 years throughout high school and then kind of beyond recreationally after playing tackle football in high school.
Matt Robbins [00:03:19] I always imagine myself coaching my my son in football, right? So it’s been sort of this joyful surprise to coach my daughter in football and she’s the one.
Jane Kenny [00:03:28] He was recruited by his daughter, who’s a senior at Milpitas, to coach their program when they were bringing in on as a club team in 2023.
Matt Robbins [00:03:37] And I was just I was pumped. I was like my my high school daughter wants to be seen with me at school. This is this is pretty awesome. You know, she’s not embarrassed. This is great.
Jane Kenny [00:03:49] He was super excited about kind of just getting started and getting to spend time with his daughter and has been since taken back by the growth.
Matt Robbins [00:03:57] First year we did it. We were begging girls to come out. We only had 12 players and then the next year it became a full varsity sanctioned sport. We had 50 something try out the third year and this year we upgraded to varsity JV. We’ve got a camp for kids in the summer and we host the tournament.
Jane Kenny [00:04:14] So an interesting thing that he mentioned about numbers at tryouts are over I’d say about 40 percent would be freshmen. And then the next biggest group is sophomores. So what he pointed out to me was that now it’s becoming an option in these middle schoolers entering high school’s minds. So it’s become a younger and younger sport, but growing in that way as they grow and develop through high school.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:43] I know you talked with a player named Bren David. I wonder if you could tell me a little bit more about her and how she got into flag football.
Jane Kenny [00:04:53] I did speak with Bren David. She said that she comes from a background of kind of track and field and soccer and other sports.
Bren David [00:05:02] I wanted to join my freshman year, but I couldn’t really because I had sports. But then my sophomore year then is when I started getting into it and then I met.
Jane Kenny [00:05:13] She’s a quarterback. And I think what really sets her apart is her arm strength and her throwing ability and kind of field vision to find her teammates, you know, like 40 yards down the field.
Matt Robbins [00:05:25] The running ability is…I mean, she’s a ninja.
Jane Kenny [00:05:29] She has this running ability, this passing ability that Matt Robbins has talked about as just being super unique and very special and a special talent.
Matt Robbins [00:05:41] Like this one time in a game, she was running with the ball and there was three girls in front of her, one in front and like on either side. It was like impossible to get away, right? She jumped into the middle of them and then jumped backwards and they all kind of ran into each other and then she went around them. It was I was like, what am I watching? You know what? Who does this?
Jane Kenny [00:06:05] Early on in the 2024 season, Bren was named National Player of the Year by Max Prep, so she is a big deal in the sport.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:17] I mean, how does she talk about what she likes about flag football?
Jane Kenny [00:06:21] She was just super enthusiastic about the opportunity and being with her friends and being competitive.
Bren David [00:06:30] The adrenaline of like the night games, the night lights and like hearing your team cheer and just having that like hype around is pretty fun. And like all the other teams that we get to play, you get to show them your talent and show everyone around what you got.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:56] What is, I guess, driving the growth of girls flag football right now?
Jane Kenny [00:07:12] I think the introduction of flag football to the Olympic Games in 2028 in Los Angeles had a huge impact just about awareness. The NFL’s effort to grow the game has been huge for both boys and girls flag football. All 32 NFL teams now are either affiliated with flag football kind of club programs outside of high school or they hold camps on a smaller level. The growth happens when these middle schoolers, these eighth graders see their high school that they’re heading to has a program and it’s doing well and it has massive turnout at tryouts. And it’s on their radar.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:07:58] I also feel like it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that this is also sort of coinciding with the rapid growth of just professional women’s sports in the Bay Area.
Jane Kenny [00:08:11] Yeah, absolutely. That was something I had wanted to kind of pair in my mind when I was approaching my article because as a Valkyries and Bay FC reporter, I’ve noticed the success of the team. Yes, but the crowds in the turnout and the overwhelming support from San Francisco, San Jose, the entire Bay Area for those teams. And just I was like, why is this happening in the Bay Area? And if you look at it, it just makes sense that this is such a place that would support and has long supported women’s sports development. Flag football is just starting out in its early years. It’s essentially three years into it now. But maybe that’s the direction that it could be heading because, as you said, visibility is huge.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:04] What will need to happen in order for girls flag football to grow even more?
Jane Kenny [00:09:10] The next step would be implementing opportunities at a higher level outside of club and outside of high school. There isn’t the sort of scholarship infrastructure that like there is for other Division One sports. There are a few colleges that have programs, but that number is limited and there’s certainly room for a lot of growth there.
Matt Robbins [00:09:33] I want to see colleges committing to it as a full sport, giving scholarships.
Jane Kenny [00:09:41] In my conversation with Matt, he had told me about kind of hearing rumblings of colleges interested in introducing programs.
Matt Robbins [00:09:50] I just don’t know how long does it take, you know, institutions to change course. And I think it usually takes them a while. Anything involves money. But I don’t I just think that the girls themselves are going to demand it and make it happen.
Jane Kenny [00:10:06] Outside of college, there are regional teams. Bren David played on a regional kind of Northern California, best of the Bay Area Northern California team that competed along the West Coast. And then there would be a national team as well. But again, limited to kind of 15 to 20 of the best players nationwide.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:29] Remains to be seen. It seems like like how much this will will grow. But are you hopeful?
Jane Kenny [00:10:35] Absolutely. Yeah, I think all signs point in the right direction. The support from high schools and implementing kind of resources and spaces and the boys teams sharing their space and kind of seamlessly integrating girls flag football into the high school sports scene. I think it’s really taken over there. And it just points to kind of. Skyrocketing in the next few years, if you look at how much it’s grown since 2023, it’s only been a few short years and it’s kind of the beginning of a lifetime.
Jane Kenny [00:11:16] You look at how huge obviously boys tackle football is in high school. It’s such a cultural thing all over the United States, but it has 100 years history on girls flag football. And, you know, you don’t want to look too far in the future, but imagine where where this could be.
