MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Girls’ high school flag football is on the rise in our state. Nearly 50 years since Title IX opened doors for women in sports, girls’ flag football has made its way to the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Alma Bryant held their first practice yesterday ahead of the season opener on Sept. 12. Forty-four other Alabama high schools will field a team as part of this pilot program. This was possible thanks to a partnership between the Atlanta Falcons, NFL FLAG and the Alabama High School Athletic Association. According to AHSAA rules, games will be 7V7 and 48 minutes long. There are no hard helmets allowed, but pads are optional.
Hurricanes head coach Zach Ward has coached varsity boys’ football for the past 10 years, but he’s excited for this new opportunity and his 23 new players are too.
“I’m getting to teach everything from the ground up,” said Ward “so I’m pretty excited about that and getting to see how excited they are. I’ve been getting text messages all weekend. “We are practicing Monday, right? We’re not just meeting?’ So yeah, we’re gonna get after it a little bit.”
Most of the players on the team are dual sport athletes, some of them also playing soccer, basketball, softball, and running track. Mari-Margret Grayson is a point guard for the girls’ basketball team but she’s no stranger to football. Grayson will be the Hurricanes quarterback, throwing to her sister at wide receiver.
“When we were little bitty, we played with boys that actually tackle. So, when we heard that they’re having a flag football team, we raced to it.”
Running back and wide receiver, Andee Hudleston, has football in her blood. Her dad has coached football at Alma Bryant and her brother played here during his four years. Now Hudleston is glad girls like her get the opportunity to play the sport.
“It’s a sport that was kind of made for boys and the girls get to do something with that and I just think that’s something that is pretty good for Bryant High School… just being able to start new things.”
These girls are ready to play and when they kick off their first game this fall, Grayson says, the Hurricanes are going to be prepared.
“We’re very excited. We’ve already done some studying on YouTube. We’re just getting ready and seeing what kind of plays we need to run. We’re gonna smash everybody to the ground. We’re competitive.”
Alma Bryant will kick off their season at home against McGill-Toolen and Satsuma on Sept. 12.
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Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
