Girls’ flag football is one of the fastest growing high school sports in the country. The 2024-2025 school year saw a participation rate increase of 60%, with nearly 1,000 schools adding the sport to their roster.
Part of the increase in the sport is due to an NFL initiative trying to grow the activity. This year, the Cleveland Browns sent an email to Hayes and all other high schools north of Route 70 in Ohio, about considering flag football.
This spring, Hayes is joining the growing number of schools sponsoring the sport.
“We might as well be ahead of the curve a little bit…as [flag football is] starting to grow, and not wait to get involved later,” football coach Ryan Montgomery said.
Montgomery is the current head coach for the boys’ football team, and he will be an assistant coach for the flag football team. Other football coaches, Nathan Cornell, Mason Davis and Jahi Broussard-Nash, will also be coaching flag football.
Cornell, who will be head coach for the girls’ team, first heard about flag football coming to Delaware through the social media platform X. Soon after, he started talking to Montgomery and Steve Glesenkamp, the Hayes athletic director, about the possibility.
“It kind of just came out of nowhere,” Cornell said.
Despite the rapidity, he jumped on board.
“We were really excited about adding [flag] football to the school,” Cornell said. “Just the more football the better.”
For the first two years, the team will have relatively modest beginnings as a club. The staff will be volunteers and the team will not receive funding from the school besides transportation. In addition, the practices will be on Sundays, in hopes that student athletes will join the team while still competing in other sports.
However, the NFL plans to aid with some of the start-up costs by paying for the girls’ uniforms and starting equipment.
“That kind of got the base floor going,” Montgomery said. “I think the program itself can start fundraising as they continue to grow.”
However, just because the team is not yet a varsity sport doesn’t mean it won’t be treated as one.
“It’s not just us putting together a team,” Cornell said. “We are going to treat this the same as any other sport in the school. We are going to be organized, we are going to practice, [and] we are going to train hard.”
Girls competing on the team will face the same eligibility requirements as varsity sports. Their grades, behavior, and attendance will still be enforced by the school.
Furthermore, the team will be competing against other schools in the area through a schedule generated by the Ohio Student Athletic Association, or OHSAA.
The team, as Cornell put it, is “not powderpuff.”
Powderpuff is a sport usually played during homecoming season in high school and college. The game is not the same as flag football, but it has the same basic rules. In other words, all powderpuff is flag football, but not all flag football is powderpuff.
Students at Hayes have the ability to play powderpuff for House games each year, a competition which lasts only a few weeks.
For some students, the duration of powderpuff is too short. Ella McMahon, a junior who tried out for the team, agrees.
“I really enjoy powderpuff and the stuff we do in House for that,” McMahon said. “I just thought it will be a great experience to continue playing football, and it to not just be in the fall.”
Whether students are playing for more flag football experience, or just to try something new, the team will be a new experience for everyone involved.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity for girls to go out and try something new… and [to] experience what [the boys’ team] get[s] to experience on Friday nights when [they] play,” Montgomery said.
