UIL approves girls flag football pilot program for 2028-2029 school year

We know that girls flag football officially on the path to being official. So we have Sakura in spring breaking down a vote and what the timeline means for athletes, Sakura. Yeah, well, girls flag football could be on the path of getting sanctioned here in Texas. The issue here is that path might be a little bit longer than athletes and advocates were hoping for. So to give you an idea of exactly what's going on, the UIL voted to approve on Monday that girls flag football be launched as a pilot program so this would be for 5a and 6a schools and at the earliest this would kick off in the 2028-2029 school year so what would happen between now and 2028 because yes we do indeed have a bit of time until then is the UIL would collect data from existing programs from school districts they would try to build out the rule book and safety guidelines and then from there they would launch a pilot program and what this would be is essentially it's a probationary test period to see if they're able to launch this and things can go smoothly before it becomes an officially sanctioned sport so think of what's happening right now as a potential stepping stone to it being sanctioned so with that hey if the pilot program goes well we could be on that path to girls flag football officially being a varsity sport here in the state of Texas. But with that, you know, it does have a bit of a lengthy timeline. So when we talk about Houston, I mean, there have been major pioneers for girls flag football here. Top of mind comes to be Hannah McNair. I mean, she has been a part of making sure that the sport grows. She's also co-chair of the NFL's flag football committee, and she launched the Texans girls flag football program back in 2023. Now upon hearing the news about the vote she released this statement which reads in part while an official pilot program is a step forward in our mission to sanction girls flag football I'm disappointed that official sanctioning will be delayed another three years. I appreciate the continued progress made and expanding opportunities for deserving female student athletes and the recognition of this sport's positive impact on and off the field. Now to give you an idea of why people might be disappointed with hearing 2028, that's because there are current high schoolers or high school school female flag football athletes who have helped to grow this sport and they might graduate before they ever get a chance to wear and earn those varsity letters and represent their schools as an official varsity sport for girls flag football. So there may be a bit of disappointment from some of those high school athletes. But again, as Hannah McNair said, this is a step towards progress, toward hopefully eventually getting this sanctioned as a sport. Rashi, back to you. And, Sakura, I know that you touched a little bit on this. So obviously three years or more because they're going to be doing, I guess, a lot of testing or looking at different things. I mean, what is going to happen during that time period for it to, you know, take so long to make it something that is sanctioned? And I think a little bit of the brewing frustration here is that flag football has existed here in Houston for years. I mean, right now I'm at a football field where they've been doing this for decades, so it's nothing new. So I think some of the frustration has to do with the fact that there are already games and leagues in place that could be a great template for UIL to use. But again, UIL has to do their research before they officially state sanction it because then it becomes a permanent varsity sport alongside the likes of basketball and tackle football. So before they do that, they're taking their time, they're building out that rule book so that when they roll it out, it's go big or go home. Yeah, you make a good point because, you know, flag football for women, for girls has been around for a long time. It's very big here in Houston and surrounding areas. So for those girls that are graduating, they'll have that opportunity that the others might in the future. Yeah, and I spoke with Cyfair ISD. This year is the first year they're launching their girls flag football program. So there are some districts and campuses where this is relatively new. Again, we said it's existed for a while, but Cyfair ISD, they took last year to really take a look at other districts. They went to games in Dallas to see how Dallas is running things so that they can get an idea of how they're going to run their program. So they're having tryouts in February and they have taken a look at all of the districts around them to get ideas on how to roll that out and how to play games, what strategies to use and things like that. So again people are on different timelines here in Texas which may have to do with why the UIL is taking so long to eventually sanction this as a sport. And Sakura I'm kind of smiling you can't see it though because I'm actually a graduate of Cyfair ISD a long time ago and I remember back then there were so many girls that were interested in playing flag football so it's really nice to hear that now that's being implemented at the district but that's just one of obviously many districts like you said in Texas. And Rashi you know I was speaking with the athletic director about it and I asked him how many schools are launching this flag football program he said all of their campuses are launching this so then my follow-up to that was do you have enough girls that would be interested that you'd be able to fill these rosters and he said yeah I think the opposite issue is actually in play here where they have a roster of 25 people they've got to make cuts so these tryouts are gonna be pretty tooth and nail if you think about it yeah I believe it all right Zachara thank you so much for that live report there