The first time Madison Perea threw a ball in flag football practice, she knew this was going to be the most fun fall of her life.
It was more enjoyable than blocking while the ball sailed above her or she created a hole for someone else to run for a touchdown. In her first season of flag football, Perea has gotten to be the star for Liberty-Brentwood, after three years as an offensive lineman on the tackle team.
The senior is one of a few dozen girls facing a choice across the state during the first year of California Interscholastic Federation-sanctioned flag football. Stay in tackle football, or make the leap to girls flag, where opportunities are potentially better?
“It’s a lot of fun, and I think everyone is shocked how many girls were interested,” said Perea of her first flag season. “They’ve had to cut girls because so many want to be here.”
Tackle participation for girls across the CIF declined 23% from 568 to 435 in 2023 after seeing steady growth since 2015. The first CIF-sanctioned flag football data included 639 girls in the 2023 census, but that number is expected to rise drastically next season after the first completed year of the sport.
St. Francis High School football players Kate Longo (13) and Coco Heith (82) stand on the sideline during a break in practice in Mountain View.
Scott Strazzante/The ChroniclePerea is pursuing a college basketball career after three years of tackle football, including spending her junior season as an offensive guard on varsity.
Because tackle football is so physical — and there are limited opportunities for girls beyond high school — dual-sport athletes often face a tough choice. Flag gave Perea a chance to stay in football without sacrificing her body before basketball season.
As the only player with football experience, she slotted into the quarterback role and is running the offense.
“It’s a little frustrating because not everyone’s on the same page,” she said. “We’re all learning together. It has helped me to have played football before, though.”
Kate Longo of St. Francis-Mountain View grew up playing flag football, starting when she was 7 years old. Seeking a new challenge, she made the switch to tackle her freshman season, and made varsity this season as a wide receiver.
St. Francis High School football players Kate Longo (13) and Joseph Paul Payer practice in Mountain View.
Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle“I knew what I was signing up for,” Longo said. “I played basketball and soccer; I’m used to some physicality. I wasn’t afraid of contact.”
Her teammate, junior Coco Heith, is a kicker — a position women have traditionally played when they participate in higher levels of tackle football because of the lower level of physicality.
“Before I started playing, I couldn’t tell you more than two rules,” said Heith, who plays soccer in the winter. “I had no idea anything about football. But now I genuinely enjoy watching the NFL and college football.”
Since such a small percentage of tackle players in the state are girls — around 0.5% — only a few girls have had to choose between staying with the team they’ve spent their high school career with or joining the new girls team.
The two versions of football are drastically different. In addition to the minimized physicality, flag football games are much faster, with a 20-minute running clock each half. Each team has just seven players on the field at a time, not 11 as with tackle football.
St. Francis High School football player Coco Heith works on her placekicking during practice in Mountain View.
Scott Strazzante/The ChronicleFew girls play college football. Just two have earned scholarships, though around a dozen women have played in college football games. Last month, safety Haley Van Voorhis of Division-III Shenandoah University became the first woman to play in an NCAA game at a position other than kicker.
As of 2023, there are 18 NAIA schools in 10 states that offer varsity women’s flag football. It plays a spring schedule, and has been sanctioned as an emerging sport for the past two years.
With the money the NFL and Nike have invested in girls flag football the past few years, it seems likely the NCAA will eventually go down that route. In 2022, more than 580,000 kids — both girls and boys — participated in the NFL Flag league, a 40% increase from the year prior. Youth flag football now has a higher participation nationally than does tackle football.
The NFL has been pushing for flag football to be an Olympic sport as soon as 2028, and teams including the San Francisco 49ers have invested resources into flag locally to create a pipeline.
The growth has been almost all girls. More than a half-million girls in the U.S. ages 6-17 are playing organized football. The addition of sanctioned high school flag football in several states has contributed to the boom.
“It’s fun being a part of something that hasn’t existed before,” Perea said.
Reach Marisa Ingemi: marisa.ingemi@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @marisa_ingemi
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.
