Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The era of girls flag football has arrived.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the addition of flag football as an Olympic sport at the 2028 summer games in Los Angeles, and the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) recently added it as an official sport and will crown a state champion this coming spring.
One example of the potential future of the sport is the Oregon Lady Eagles, a 10U girls flag football team that competed in the NFL’s Flag Championships in Canton, Ohio from July 17-20.
Gary Allen, who is the physical education teacher at Jerusalem Elementary, is the head coach of the team.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “Our expectations going in as coaches were to show up and compete and to see if our girls could compete with the best of the best. At the end of the day, I thought our girls achieved that goal.”
The nine-member squad is comprised of: Emersyn Stelmaszak, Brooklyn Dunn, Evelyn McCloskey, Bailey Schultz, Adalyn Meyer, Graylee Niese, Addison Allen, Brighton Free-Knack and Kaylie Kanavel.
Allen said his team earned a spot in the competition by winning the Indianapolis regional, and the competition in Canton was fierce. He said it’s the only tournament where it’s invite only and that you can’t register your team or buy a way in.
Many of the games were aired on ESPN and its streaming platforms.
“We showed up, and we competed,” Allen said. “That was the goal for our girls. Obviously, as a competitor, you want to win. But we just wanted to see if our girls could do it. We showed up, and we battled, and we have a lot to work on.
“Being able to experience this shows us what we have a lot to work on but being able to experience this shows us what we need to work on, and we have the girls and the families and the support to be able to do that.”
For the NFL’s event, the team took on the Lady Colts name because they were the Indianapolis regional’s representative.
The squad competed in three pool play games before falling in the first round of bracket play to a team from Arizona.
“We kind of got put through a gauntlet, which was great,” Allen said. “We wanted to play the best and see how our girls could do against some of the best teams. We got to play teams from San Diego, Jacksonville and Dallas.”
Allen said the girls started playing at the Oregon Rec two years ago. All of the girls on his team were his students at Jerusalem Elementary at one point, except one from Genoa.
The decision from the IOC to make flag football an Olympic sport was a big catalyst in the growth and interest in the sport from the youth level, Allen said.
“I think that was one of the biggest things,” he said. “That’s what got my daughters interested in it, and they were too intimidated to compete with boys. So, once the Oregon Rec said they were going to start a girls division, I was all about it. My girls had some success, and it was fun. We're starting to try to reel more kids in to have some fun with it.”
Flag football has teams of five players on the field at each time. With the event in Canton, Allen rotated his nine girls in and out against some of the best competition in the country.
“We kind of rotate to try and get the girls as much playing time as possible, but once you start to compete with those nationally ranked teams, you get some girls who are just absolutely unbelievable,” Allen said. “You kind of don't want to take your best athletes off the field.
“That's where you're more competing to win games as opposed to right now (with us where) what we're doing in Oregon is to try to build the sport up so the girls are having fun, (and) not necessarily win.”
Allen also said he takes his players out to the Rossford Dome to compete in competitive leagues. Those leagues base participation level on grades as opposed to the Canton event, for example, which determines levels based on their ages.
“This past spring I took our girls that we went to Canton with, and we were on a team that was third, fourth and fifth grade girls,” he said. “We went there and competed against a bunch of other older kids, which was fun. I know that the Dome, that organization, has their own travel girls team called the Toledo Ladybirds. And they pull girls from Toledo, Anthony Wayne, Perrysburg, all over the place to form their team.”
Allen said his team was in Canton when the OHSAA made its announcement that the organization will sponsor a state tournament.
“I think it's going to provide another outlet for girls that want to compete in your non-traditional sports,” he said. “Because from my understanding this is going to be a spring sport so it's going to have to compete with softball, track and field, girls lacrosse and whatnot. But at the end of the day, as long as you find the right person to help run it and you have the right people involved, you can share athletes no problem.”
Now that the girls know what’s possible not having to compete with or against the boys, too, Allen feels the sport will grow exponentially.
“I just hope that it continues to grow to what we want it to be and what's best for the kids and what they want it to be –- because I know that my two girls are all in with it,” he said. “And as long as they're all in with it, I'm gonna be all in with it for them as well.”
