Rise of flag football in Missouri creates new opportunities for female athletes
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) - Football is one of America's most popular sports, but flag football is rapidly progressing in popularity as well in the USA and across the country.
The NFL now has an official flag football team for both men and women, along with a program that offers money to high schools to feature the sport. Flag football will also be introduced as an Olympic sport in 2028.
The sport is increasing to the point that even familiar faces are taking part in it. St. Joseph Goats player Boo Smith competes on the U.S. Men's National Team.
Across the state, the Missouri State High School Activities Association has designated girls' flag football as an emerging sport, and it's on track to become a fully sanctioned varsity sport with a state championship as soon as the 2027/28 school year.
"It's been growing. It's just been something that I've been talking about. People kind of wondered what the season would be and how, what the interest would be, but I think most schools are finding out they're getting pretty good interest right off the bat," Former St. Joseph School District Director of Student Services Shannon Nolte said. "Central was involved in those discussions, obviously around the Suburban Conference, and then Lafayette last year had. So Lafayette and Central had what we call a club team, basically."
Now the St. Joseph School District is looking for two head coaches to coach the Central and Benton girls' flag football teams.
Sheldon Ferrell served as coach of the Central Girls last season. Brandon Perkins led Lafayette; he's now at Benton High School. Both appear to be interested in the positions, and the St. Joseph School District will consider them, along with looking at other candidates who look to be ready to teach a sport to many girls who have not played it before.
"Well, I think it's the willingness to grow a program. You're going to have to work a little bit to encourage and promote growth," said Nolte. "You're going to be teaching a game to some students that have never really played it or have been interested. So you need to be able to grow a program."
Some colleges even have women's flag football teams, like at North Central Missouri. The Lady Pirates just hired a new head coach for the school's second season, Jeremy Corr.
Corr comes to Trenton, Missouri, from Oklahoma, where he helped establish the OKC Queens, Oklahoma's first all-girls flag football program.
The organization now has more than 50 participants across six teams.
When Corr wanted to advance to the college level to teach the sport, he found NCMC and jumped at the opportunity to help girls achieve their goals at the collegiate level and help build up Missouri's high school and middle school programs as well.
"When we started here in Oklahoma. I thought if I could get girls that didn't have a chance to go play college sports anywhere, if even they didn't have a chance to go to college, if I could get one or two of those girls to go to college that didn't have a chance, then I did something to help my community," said Corr. "Now I'm just carrying that onto a bigger stage. But now I'm contacting girls from Florida, from Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas. Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. I knew it was a big sport, but it's crazy the amount of girls out there that truly do like the sport."
Corr said with the rapid progression of girls' flag football, he sees boys' interest in the sport on the youth side increasing in the coming years as well, especially with a lower risk of injury.
"Can I see the growth of it? Growing bigger than boys tackle football? Yes. Just because they (parents) don't want their kids getting hurt anymore. They don't want the head injuries," said Corr. "They don't want just the things that could ultimately long term, do damage for their kids. This is something that their kids now can get scholarships for. If the NFL keeps on going where they're going, they could play professional flag football."
Above everything else, the flag football supporters implore people on the fence about doing it to embrace the sport because it creates new opportunities for athletes far and wide.
"I think it's a great opportunity. It's just one more way we can offer things for our kids. With the 15-20 students we had out last year for each school, I think we would anticipate those kind of numbers again," said Nolte. "Who knows? We talk about it being a little more exposed once that starts happening, or people will be more interested in it, and you'll have younger kids that will say, yeah, I want to do that."
"If the people will do it and just get behind it, then Missouri has the ability and the talent out there to be one of the most competitive states at flag football," said Corr. "You've got Kansas right now that has some of the top club teams in the girls' divisions. You've got other countries are doing it. If they're doing it, let's not get behind; let's stay at the forefront of it."
