An all-female football league is coming to the city's public high schools, after girls expressed a strong interest in the sport, says a new report today. And perhaps one day we will see boys with pom-poms cheering them on!
The city's Public Schools Athletic League is launching an all-female flag football league next spring, after about two dozen girls showed up to an informational session at Tilden High School in Brooklyn. "We're looking to grow girls sports and offer them richer athletic opportunities. There's interest in flag football," said a PSAL spokesman. There are currently 15 high schools here with informal female flag football clubs, and according to the NFL Girls Flag Football Leadership Program, more than 19,000 high school girls played during the '09-'10 schoolyear.
Girls flag football isn't a full-contact sport requiring the use of helmets and pads—think less tackling and more grabbing a flag off of your opponent's back. PSAL wants the games to played on a field half the size of a standard football one, so that two games can be played at once. Schools can request new teams online and PSAL will hold informational sessions as the season approaches.
