Time for CIAC to add flag football as high school sport in CT

It’s about time CIAC joined California and New York in adding girls’ flag football as a varsity high school sport.

There is an increasing popularity. The sport is already played in boys’ and girls’ youth-level leagues across the country. A growing number of states are bringing it into high schools.

In fact, Connecticut Flag Football League president Brandon Jubrey said the goal is for CIAC to enact such a move for the 2024-2025 school year.

“I think it would be great,” said Northwest United’s Jennifer Garzone, the first female tackle football coach in Connecticut high school history and the first to lead a team to the state playoffs. “I absolutely think it’s a great idea.”

The CIAC has a multi-stage approval process. An email was sent to CIAC Media Director John Holt asking if anything had been officially presented to the organization and if it was currently being considered.

Holt replied that he had decided not to answer any of my questions anymore. CIAC Executive Director Glenn Lungarini and Deputy Executive Director Gregg Simon have not answered my questions for months.

Jubrey has not been in contact with CIAC but said Chris Fulton, Windsor’s sporting director, has been in talks.

“We’re working on it right now,” Jubrey said. “I founded CT Flag in 2018 and have been running it ever since. I have a daughter who is a freshman at Northwest Catholic and loves flag football.

“For the last year or so I’ve been trying to make progress. I was put in touch with someone from the New York Giants who was involved in bringing it to New York. I am currently working with Chris Fulton who is a friend of mine.”

A girls-only flag football jamboree is scheduled for April 29 in Windsor. As of last week, 11 schools were registered. The Giants, Dick’s Sporting Goods and USA Football help sponsor it.

“The event is meant to be the stabbing to hopefully bring high school to Connecticut in 2024,” Jubrey said.

The league’s 12-U Lady Matrix team recently competed at the Pro Bowl. Syniah Harding from Windsor and Hailey Morgan from Vernon have been selected to try out for the junior national team.

“Anyone can play flag football,” Jubrey said. “It’s non-contact. We have travel teams, boys and girls. We have five girls teams, U8, U10, U12, U14 and U17.”

“It provides another opportunity for the game,” Garzone said. “It’s not an expensive sport. You need very little equipment. The pushback I would see coming: What season is it running? Of course, it doesn’t run in winter up here, but whether it’s spring or fall, you’ll have competition from other sports. Smaller schools would be particularly affected.

“If they do it in the fall, I see the conflict of field availability. Some schools have varsity, junior varsity, freshmen in the field. That would be the only real downside from an administrative point of view, but why wouldn’t you do it otherwise? I know the NFL has been pushing it for a while, kids play flag when they are young and play tackle by the time they get to middle school.

For CIAC to control a sport, according to its manual, 20 percent of schools, or two percent of students of the same sex, must participate in that sport. In addition, nowadays there is the question of a sufficient number of civil servants.

Windsor, Glastonbury, Maloney, Bloomfield, Northwest Catholic, Hartford Public, Enfield, East Hartford, New Britain, Bristol Eastern and Rockville (a Pequot team) have registered for the April 29 event.

“Instead of opening the event up to the entire state, we decided to start with invitations to the CCC,” Jubrey said. “We expect to expand it as soon as people get wind of it.

“The New York Giants donated $10,000 to outfit the girls in uniforms. Each school will receive up to 20 Nike jerseys for their school to use this year and beyond. I would take more teams. I don’t know if I can promise more teams uniforms. If we can get more sponsors, absolutely.”

Jason Pinnock, of Windsor High and now with the New York Giants, will be at the April 29 event. Desiree Abrams, an NFL replay official, will be the main official. She will also appeal to the girls.

“I think the possibilities for the girls are limitless,” Jubrey said. “We have girls who want sports jobs. Why not flag football? Play, train, especially now that the NFL is investing heavily in growth.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of girls playing flag football in high school doubled to 11,000 in the decade leading up to 2018-2019. It rose 40 percent to 15,716 in 2022. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the number of girls playing on boys’ tackle soccer teams increased 39 percent to 3,633 during that time.

Schools have had “powder puff” games for years. In Connecticut, they are often played before Thanksgiving football games. Sheehan and Lyman Hall played the 51st Samaha Bowl last season, an annual tradition between older girls that averages 3,000 spectators. It’s the year 2023, we don’t use the term “powder puff”.

Flag football will do.

Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, has pushed for flag football to be added to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. As a Super Bowl commercial proves, movement in the NFL is a big deal. It’s also kind of two-pronged. Keeping kids in flag football until they reach higher tackle football classes can keep them interested while helping to prevent injury until they are older. And with boys or girls wanting to play flag football well into adulthood, the sport is growing in popularity. The NFL has partnered with the NAIA to develop collegiate women’s teams. There are adult and professional leagues. Individual NFL teams supported the state’s switch to high school collegiate flag football.

All of this means more interest in the sport.

“I’m back in a women’s tackle league and playing girls almost half my age,” said Garzone, who played flag football at Waterbury for a few years. “If you want to go to high school, you play with boys. More kids playing flag football would increase interest overall, especially in the adult, flag and tackle leagues.”

injuries? Garzone, a multi-athlete, has had ACL injuries in both knees over the years.

“I also never did weight training growing up,” she said. “I went to Sacred Heart. There was no weight room. There was a chapel. There was no fitness center. I learned about weightlifting in college.”

Studies have shown that girls excel in team sports. Football as a spectator sport remains the national pastime. It’s a part of the lifestyle of hundreds of thousands of families.

From shorter fields to fewer players to no helmets, there are a number of different rules. Yes, there would be some complaints from fall soccer teams and spring outdoor running teams, but here’s a bet that flag football would be hugely popular in Connecticut — especially with city schools.

And that’s an important area that calls for improvement.

raise the flag

[email protected]; @jeffjacobs123