After a successful pilot year of girls’ flag football in Frederick County, Montgomery County Public Schools will expand the sport along with Washington and Baltimore counties for the fall season of the 2024-2025 school year. 

Flag football has gained immense popularity in the past few years; in the piloted eight-week season in Frederick County in 2023, 280 girls are participating in the league. The sport has also broadened outside of Maryland, with 28 states having some form of a girls’ flag football program. Professionally, the Summer 2028 Olympic Games has added flag football as part of its future games.

Through the sponsorship of the Baltimore Ravens and Under Armour, flag football will bring active competition to girls’ sports around Maryland. Under Armour’s partnership will bring financial grants allocated to equipment, custom uniforms, transportation, coaching stipends, and awards to fund the program. In a CBS report, Under Armour Director Trey Evans stated his goals for what the sport will bring to female student-athletes.

“We’re thrilled to expand our partnership and help female student-athletes find the confidence needed to compete at the highest level,” Evans said. “Sports play a crucial role in helping young women develop into future leaders.”

The new varsity sport looks to encourage more variety and student participation in girls’ athletics. Flag football is also creating opportunities for female student-athlete involvement as it joins MCPS athletics.

Baltimore Ravens Marketing Manager Adam Rudel spoke about these new opportunities in a WBAL-TV interview. 

“It’s something that the Ravens have felt passionately about, getting girls on the field through flag football,” Rudel said. “We felt like this is a great avenue to expose girls to high school football, just as the boys get the same chance.”

The game will consist of two teams of seven players each. Much like regular football, each series will contain four downs; when the flag is taken from the runner in possession of the ball, the down ends. However, there are some differences to regular football: tackling is considered a personal foul, and the game will have two halves rather than four quarters. 

Whitman Athletic Director William Toth is helping to organize this program as the fall season arrives. 

“We’re just trying to increase participation for all sports, and there are many girls who are willing to get involved in flag football at Whitman,” Toth said. “This just gives them another choice, and hopefully they’ll come out to enjoy it and have fun.”