Will soccer be included in the spring high school sports schedule?
Maybe it's not the soccer you're thinking of.
While traditional football will forever be a fall staple (barring schedule changes due to the national pandemic), girls flag football is quickly gaining momentum to be added as a high school sport. It's a sanctioned sport in nine states, and will be sanctioned in other states starting next year, so it's not on the table here in Rhode Island, but it's being considered.
“We've presented it to schools a couple of times in the past year and just talked about the concept,” RIIL Executive Director Michael Ranney said. “There is a lot of pressure from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the NFL to get high schools around the country accredited.
more:'These girls can be pioneers': Why flag football is becoming so popular with kids
“Our position at this point, and the school's position, is that we are not going to impose any sanctions until we first have a high level of interest at the school level.”
If recent events at Johnston High School are any indication, it may be sooner than you think.
Johnston has been active in building the flag football program. Randy Phillips, an assistant on the Panthers football team, created a club team at his high school and enrolled more than 30 female players.
“When I heard that the girls who showed up to hold the flag were the ones who didn't participate in physical education class, that was when I was shocked the most,” Phillips said. “Once she got one girl, the turnout was really good. A few others joined because their friends joined, and before you know it, she has 35 players.”
Phillips, along with Johnston athletic director Justin Erickson and football coach Joe Acciardo, organized the Gridiron Girls Camp, a four-hour flag football skills camp that drew more than 80 participants from around the state.
Jennifer Welter, who served as a coaching intern for the Arizona Cardinals in 2015 and became the first female coaching intern in NFL history, helped organize the camp.
“I called Jen and she said it was time to go camping in Rhode Island,” Phillips said. “The main purpose and goal was to expose young women in the community to powerful women who have achieved success in the sports world.
“I wanted to motivate the girls to play soccer and perform at their best.”
Phillips said the club team has spring sports players who practice twice a week in conjunction with varsity games and practices. On May 11, Johnston will participate in the girls flag football tournament with high school club teams from Central Falls, Mount Hope, North Providence, St. Raphael and Times 2 Academy.
The goal was to join the ground floor of the women's flag football movement. He hopes schools across the state take a similar leap of faith, and Phillips knows his community will go above and beyond when it comes to supporting the sport.
“It's going to be lights out,” Phillips said. “Johnston football in the fall brings people together. The boys show up for them and the faculty is there for this. What we need is for it to be a sanctioned sport. That’s all.”
Stanley Dunbar is rooting for the same thing.
Dunbar, an all-state defensive back at St. Raphael's College who played at the University of Rhode Island and later became the head coach at Coventry and Westerly, is the founder of Breakthrough Elite. Breakthrough Elite is a training 7-on-7 flag football program. Passing leagues are becoming the norm nationally, attracting some of the state's best players.
While traveling around the country for tournaments, Dunbar saw more and more girls participating in soccer in both tackle and flag. Rhode Island didn't have a representative women's team, so last summer it created what is believed to be the state's first women's flag football team under the Breakthrough Elite umbrella.
“We've had a lot of girls ask why we don't have a girls team,” Dunbar said. “We asked girls in their 30s and above to try out, and we narrowed it down and formed a team.
“We get some really good athletes from around the state with different types of athletic backgrounds, like competitive cheer, basketball players, volleyball players. Girls who are athletes and play three sports, girls who can really play it. is.”
Last year, the Breakthrough team competed in three tournaments. The practices are no different than what Dunbar does with his men's team. Dunbar focused on the fundamentals, and as the girls grew, they learned the finer points of a football offense, such as learning route trees, understanding offensive concepts, and how to work in the space the defense gives them.
“If you look at the state of the soccer world, more and more girls are playing soccer or wanting to play soccer,” Dunbar said. “Now that I'm a father of a girl, I don't see why girls should be held back from playing when they can do everything boys can do.”
While it may seem easy to just add the sport to your RIIL rotation, there are a few things to consider.
The NFHS is finalizing rules for both the 7-on-7 and 5-on-5 versions of the sport (Dunbar's team played 5-on-5). Ranney said the RIIL has no intention of forcing schools to play the sport, but said there's a good chance enough people will support it and add flag football to the calendar.
The bigger question is when it will be played. Fall is almost certainly out of the question, especially considering the number of women's sports (cross country, field hockey, soccer, tennis, volleyball). Winter will be tough due to the expense of renting indoor facilities to host games and tournaments.
Spring seems like a likely candidate. Most of the nine states that sanction the sport do so in the spring. It seems like a no-brainer, but the ideal candidates to play flag football are athletes who participate in girls' spring sports such as lacrosse, softball, and track and field.
While flag football itself doesn't require a large number of players (Raney said 10 to 12 is sufficient), schools need to consider whether they can support new sports without effectively killing existing sports. right.
“With any new sport, it all comes down to the level of interest in the school and whether it's something we really want to pursue,” Ranney said. “But the important thing is, if we're offering something new, we want to make sure it's bringing new kids into the equation and not taking away a sport that's already there.”
Ranney could not provide a potential timeline for when flag football would become an RIIL-sanctioned sport because not enough schools have expressed interest at this time.
But its momentum is building, so don't be surprised if it happens sooner or later.
“Football is America's sport, regardless of demographics,” Dunbar said. “There are girls all over the country who are interested in soccer, and if it becomes a high school sport, girls will become obsessed with it too.
“If it became a college sport, would there be opportunities beyond high school? Yes, that would attract more girls to the game.”
“We're going to continue to have these conversations,” Ranney said. “We are not presenting this as something that will be forced on schools, but we want schools to be aware of what is happening across the country.
“It's something that's starting to gain momentum, not just here in New England, but across the country.”
“I want the state to see how this goes,” Phillips said. “I want girls to see what happens when you let them do it. Believe me, there are phenomenal athletes out there.”
