COVER STORY
Hurrah for girls flag football!
Last weekend, we heard a lot about the (alleged) conflict between girls who love Taylor Swift and the guys who play football.
In Illinois at least, there’s now a third group – girls who play football! On Wednesday, the Illinois High School Association sent a valentine to young women athletes by announcing that they’re officially sanctioning a girls flag football season and a state series, starting this August.
DuPage County has been a leader in making flag football available to girls. In 2022, Willowbrook won the 2022 state championship and was the national runner-up in Las Vegas. Last year, they placed third in Illinois in events hosted by the Bears and the Chicago Public League.
Willowbrook High School joined the Chicago Public League in submitting a potential bylaw proposal for girls flag football to the IHSA’s Legislative Commission before its fall 2023 meeting. The proposal was ratified 36-0 by the commission, and member schools went on to vote overwhelmingly in favor of letting Illinois girls play flag football.
I’ll always be a soccer mom at heart, but I’ll be cheering for our girls’ flag football teams in Illinois next fall!