Mo Myers
The girls flag football season kicked off this year with almost double the number of teams across the state. At LHS, the program continued to grow as well, with 40 girls trying out for the team.
Now, many schools have added JV teams, including LHS’, whose varsity and JV team rosters each have 20 girls.
OSAA Assistant Executive Director, Kelly Foster, says that the growth of the sport is due in large part to its low barrier to entry and team environment.
“Individual sports and team sports are just such a different animal,” Foster said. “The barrier to entry is a lot lower because nobody else knows how to play the sport either.”
Players say the game is unlike tackle football and powderpuff.
“It’s a lot more quick moving than tackle football and focuses more on agility,” said junior Margot Armerding. “I’d say it’s a lot more official than powder puff with great coaching and more formal practices.”
Armerding says the culture of the team is one of the biggest reasons she’s coming back to play a second year.
“The community and team environment is so uplifting and something so fun,” she says.
For Foster, the growth of the sport is both personal and professional.
“I wanted to play football growing up in middle school and high school and I wasn’t allowed to,” she said. “It’s just really exciting to see the growth across the country and into the college level and with the national team and going into the Olympics.”
This year, girls flag football will remain under OSAA Emerging Activity status, but Foster says the vote to officially sanction it as an OSAA sport could happen as early as next October if the program can obtain 50 schools participating across the state. From there, the sport will need at least a two-thirds majority vote from 39 OSAA delegates to become sanctioned.
With 53 teams competing this season, flag football is on track to obtain its new status as a sport.
LHS will face six of those teams in their regular season, including two match-ups against LOHS on April 4 and 19. Varsity opened their season on March 21 with a 25-22 win against Tualatin High School and will face LOHS in their next game at home.