The GHSA officially sanctioned flag football for the first time this year, and some Central Georgia teams have seen success
EASTMAN, Ga. — It’s not just football playoff time for the boys, but for the girls too!
The GHSA officially sanctioned flag football for the first time and Dodge County is enjoying some early success.
“It’s definitely something new and I never thought this would be something that would happen, but I always loved to get in the yard and throw the ball, so this was like a dream come true,” said team co-captain Logan White.
The team’s other co-captain, Aniya Showers, says it’s pretty good that girls can work on their running and strength training with a group of girls and not guys.
The pair lead 21 other young women who are standouts in softball, basketball, track and field, soccer and now flag football.
“It’s 7-on-7. It’s supposed to be non-contact and it’s as non-contact as basketball, so there’s some contact. There’s lot more throwing; there is still some running. We still play defense…there is no tackling, but you have to break down and react to grab flags like you do in regular football,” said Clint Sanders.
Sanders is the head coach alongside special teams assistant Leah Daughtry and defensive coordinator Jennifer Peacock, the daughter of the late legendary Dodge County coach John Peacock.
Together the trio has the ladies in third place of the region with a 5-1-2 record hearing into the opening round of the playoffs in Columbus on Wednesday.
“We’ve got girls from all over the school to come out and play football now. They’re excited and loving it,” said Sanders.
“I basically watch a lot of famous football players and watch the moves they use in their game. I use them to score a lot of touchdowns,” said Showers.
“I’ve always love to go to the football games on Friday nights and would be there every game, but I never thought it would be me,” said White.
The playoffs begin on Wednesday with Dodge County representing Area 2 and taking on Eagle’s Landing in Columbus.
Mary Persons is the number one seed in Area 4 and will host an opening round on Wednesday with visiting Jordan.
We wish both Dodge and Mary Persons the best of luck in their games!
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.
