Catch a California wave: High school girls flag football has arrived

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – San Bernardino High School is one of the oldest schools in the Inland Empire. Back in 1906, it was one of the founding schools of the Citrus Belt League.

Friday this ancient school held an event for the CIF-State’s newest sport, girls’ flag football. 

A week before the San Bernardino City Unified School District begins its first girls’ flag football season, about 100 girls gathered at the venerable high school to watch a dozen women’s professional players demonstrate the game. The event was in partnership with the Los Angeles Rams and former Ram running back Greg Bell was in attendance.

Dozens of teenage girls had a chance to participate, as well.

“My boyfriend plays, and my dad played,” Ammhy Ferrel of Indian Springs High in San Bernardino said. “It’s a huge step up. Guys think we’re not tough enough or coordinated enough. We want to prove them wrong. We want to step up to the plate and show what we can do.”

Daisy Santiago of San Bernardino High agreed.

“I just want to be included,” Santiago said. “Anything guys can do; girls can do better. It’s empowering.”

Fifty years after the passage of Title IX which allowed girls and women to pursue athletic and academic opportunities equally, flag football is being rolled out across the Golden State. In December, the CIF-State Federated Council elected to make flag football a sanctioned varsity sport starting in 2025.

“They needed to get an early start,” Bell said. “We don’t want to be behind any other county. It’s the greatest game in the world. The life skills learned will be second to none. It will give them a sense of confidence that they can do things people said they couldn’t.”

The SBCUSD league begins Friday, April 14. The games will continue through the end of the school year, with a championship game planned for May. Next school year the games will move to the fall.

CATCH A WAVE

The wave is building. A quick scan of the job bank Edjoin.org showed these high schools in both Northern and Southern California advertising for flag football coaches: 

Canyon Springs and Vista Del Lago of Moreno Valley, Tustin, San Ramon Valley, St. Francis of Mountain View, Dublin, Newport Harbor, Lynbrook in San Jose, Agoura of Agoura Hills, and Calabasas.

A Los Angeles Times story said Serra of Gardena, Hawthorne, Long Beach Poly, and a wide swath of Orange County and Corona-area schools are also on board. The San Francisco Section has been competing for Academic Athletic Association championships for almost a decade.

“I don’t really think everybody understands how big this is going to be,” Hawthorne coach Corey Thedford told The Times.

It's gaining ground throughout the country. Florida is considered the hub for girls high school football and NFL Hall of Fame offensive lineman Tony Boselli told SBLive Florida that the new opportunities are "awesome," (see video above). 

He has three daughters playing currently. 

"Girls, young ladies, women have been playing football for a long time," Boselli said. "My little sister played with me in the backyard when we were kids. Maybe she was sort of a pioneer (smile). It's great that it's more formal now and that there are more opportunities." 

TOO MUCH FUN

At San Bernardino High, the opportunities were abound. As hip-hop music poured out of the speakers and the sun beat down, the girls were put through their paces. 

Wearing a myriad of brightly colored uniforms, they formed two lines and ran pass routes. “Whoooo!” the girls yelled as a spiral was hauled in.

But even Jerry Rice didn’t catch them all.

“Use two hands and you would have had that,” a women’s pro player yells to a hopeful.

Questions abound. Among them are scheduling, coaching, budget, rules, and more. But for now, the girls in San Bernardino are having a ball.

OPPORTUNITY

There is talk of flag football becoming an Olympic sport and eventually an NCAA sport, too. That would mean athletic scholarships for young women – a half-century after schoolies for girls was a foreign concept.

“I just realized I can get a scholarship for this,” Cajon High of San Bernardino’s Rose-Lynn McDonald said. “I want to get my business degree and come back and help my community. I see the homeless and I want to figure out a way to help them with a non-profit organization.”

Standing near an LA Rams’ easy-up where T-shirts were distributed, Bell admired the proceedings.

“It gives me a good feeling because I know how much I love this game,” he said. “I think of the days my daughter could have done this, but people said, ‘Women can’t play football.’ This game is for anyone who has the passion.”

John Murphy is the sports editor of the Century Media Group of Southern California and an SBLive contributor. Follow him on Twitter at @PrepDawg2.  

All photos below by John Murphy