Girls flag football is finally catching on. Florida high schools were 20 years early

TAMPA Fla AP For Alicia and Taylor Jones whether they would play football in high school was never really a question When the identical twins stepped foot onto the football field as freshmen in they became the fourth and fifth daughters in their family to carry on the family tradition of playing flag football It s all happened at the girls flag football dynasty built by Robinson High School in Tampa Florida a effort that s racked up state championships Our sisters tried so hard they put in all the work revealed Taylor So it lets us do the same thing They re hardly alone Girls flag football is rapidly spreading through high schools in the U S with states sanctioning it as an official high school sport in the last three years The advance has been helped along by millions of dollars from benefactors like Nike and the NFL and has unfolded as interest in women s sports explodes But for Florida and its group full of families like the Joneses it s nothing new Girls have been playing flag football there for over years and current participation numbers in the state have over girls across four divisions and more than schools The entire world of Florida girls flag It all started back in Florida became the first state to sanction high school girls flag football and since then it s been adopted on a county-by-county basis and has taken quite a foothold Certain schools have evolved into dynasties Robinson is one and just minutes across Tampa Alonso High School is another Alonso has four state titles of their own and the teams starred in a Nike commercial together four years ago When I got introduced to it I didn t realize there was an entire world behind it mentioned Natalie Fischer a sophomore at Alonso who discovered the sport after moving from Malaysia to Florida It really changed my life One of the main backbones of that world is the generations of women who played flag before it was a part of the national consciousness and they re helping usher their beloved sport into its new era Preponderance Thursdays you can find one of them Deliah Autry-Jones on the sidelines of Robinson practice watching the group run drives up and down the field as the sun sets I decided what better way to give back than to the activity that just absolutely changed everything for me she explained That moment that changed everything was when Autry-Jones discovered flag football at Robinson back in She s now spent five years on the U S Women s Flag national band and has a real shot at the Olympics where flag football will make its debut Returning to Robinson as an assistant coach was an key check on her list Autry-Jones is just one example of an early adoption perk programs have been around long enough for star alumni to come back as coaches She is joined by fellow alumnus Kylee Gorngpratum on the coaching staff at Robinson and alum Letrice Hall is on staff at Alonso It s really just nice to have somebody in your shoes It s such a prestigious undertaking not everybody understands reported Paige Halverson Robinson s quarterback To have somebody that you can go to and that understands what you re going through it s really vital National interest in these prestigious programs is only increasing and for Alonso coach Matt Hernandez and Robinson coach Joshua Saunders that means a lot of messages If you google girls flag football coaching our names pop up Saunders noted So about once every month I ll get a coach that just says Hey I ve just started a activity in Kenosha Wisconsin Do you have any advice He tells them to focus on patience really And give yourself several grace It s still convincing a year-old girl that this is going to be major to her What s up next If appealed to look forward a number of Florida high school players have dreams of playing flag football in college I love it so much I wouldn t be able to stop playing commented Robinson junior Sarah Williams and the collegiate opportunities are slowly emerging In the present at least NCAA schools sponsor girls flag football at the club or varsity level with the majority being at the club level It was of late approved to join the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women effort the first step to possibly becoming an official sport for Division Division and Division athletics Players are still hoping and pushing Seeing the freshmen last year was a really big thing for me because half of them longed to play in college Half of them are like Hey it s accomplishable revealed Alonso senior Gabriella Werr Flag is going to keep growing very fast and I think that s going to be a shock to several people declared Werr but not to others AP sports https apnews com sports Source