Steve Young explains why Sacramento’s fastest-growing high school sport is ‘made for girls’
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young saw it early while coaching his daughters’ high school flag football team in Atherton last fall.
“Last year for us was (about) just getting started,” Young said. “The competitive nature of this — this season is going to be crazy.”
Crazy could also describe the upcoming season of the region’s fast-growing high school sport, which will nearly double the number of teams in the fall.
The California Interscholastic Federation sanctioned girls flag football as an official high school sport for the first time in the fall of 2023. And its momentum, aided by the Hall-of-Fame quarterback’s advocacy, is expected to carry over into 2024, particularly in the Sacramento region as it gears up with practice in the coming months.
The Sac-Joaquin Section had 69 out of 180 full-member schools create girls flag football teams last season. This year, that number is expected to grow to 130, making it the area’s fastest-growing high school sport since the turn of the century. The popularity is expected to rise similarly across the state.
“At least in the Sac-Joaquin Section, (it was) an absolute, unmitigated success,” said Will DeBoard, the section’s assistant commissioner. “To see that number the first year, it was really great. And it was really kind of surprising.”
DeBoard said the CIF typically creates playoffs for a sport when roughly one-third or more of member schools field teams. In its first season, girls flag football had two divisions, each with a 16-team bracket. The rapid growth became apparent when CIF member schools submitted their end-of-year survey to help plan for the following year.
The findings led to an additional 61 new schools fielding teams for the first time in 2024. DeBoard said playoffs will expand to include four divisions this year. Last year, Del Oro and Christian Brothers won the Division I and II championships, respectively.
Internationally, the sport has grown so much that it will be featured as a women’s and men’s event in the upcoming 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“Football is made for girls,” Young said, speaking at a media event for the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. “The detail of a play, as choreography, as a dance step ... What the NFL is today is Bill Walsh, right? It’s all a fulfillment of the West Coast offense. Flag football, because there’s not the tackling, that’s the game.”
Young served as a volunteer coach for his two daughters, Laila and Summer, last season at Menlo School in Atherton, just 27 miles south of where he used to throw touchdown passes to Jerry Rice at Candlestick Park. Young coached quarterbacks and used the lessons learned from Walsh, whom many consider the foremost offensive coach in football history, against other Menlo opponents.
“They got really good,” Young said of his players. “And to the point where at the end of the season, the last game, I turned to the head coach and I said, ‘Johnny, I think in a non-contact flag game, they’d beat the boys.”
Young said the months after he decided to coach were “some of the most fun, exciting, and revelatory months of my life. ... For the girls, the feeling of inclusion was palpable.”
Girls flag football is played as seven-on-seven with no offensive or defensive lines. Instead of a typical pass rush, the quarterback is deemed sacked after five seconds, and the ball is placed where she was standing. DeBoard said games will now expand from 20-minute halves to 24-minute halves this season. To increase scoring, the number of flags on players’ belts will go from three down to two.
The sport takes place in the fall along with girls golf, tennis, cross country, water polo, and girls’ volleyball. It doesn’t compete directly with winter sports like soccer and basketball, or spring sports such as softball and track and field.
