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is move adds California to a growing list of states that have included varsity girls' flag football in high school athletic programs, such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Nevada. New York supports flag football, too. Soon aer the CIF decision, New York State's public high school athletic association approved plans to stage its first state high school championship for girls' flag football in the spring of 2024. e official decision to add girls' flag to the roster of high school varsity sports was approved by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHAA) on the 37th anniversary of the National Girls and Women in Sports Day. "With the support of the NFL, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association has provided thousands of student-athletes with the ability to play girls' flag football. In less than one year, the number of schools playing girls' flag has nearly tripled in our state. Providing participation opportunities for students continues to be one of our top prior- ities," reports Dr. Robert Zayas, NYSPHSAA executive director. Meanwhile. back in December the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) also approved girls' high school football an official sport, which means that the sport will move from the spring to the fall in 2023. "is is an opportunity to showcase the skills of our girls in our high schools," explains David Hines, AIA executive director. "is is not the old powder-puff football. ese kids can play. ey can run. ey can catch. ey can throw. ey are very competitive. And it's exciting to watch them play." The Tale of the Tape for NAIA Flag Back in June 2020, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) made women's flag football its newest sport by granting it the all-important first step as an "emerging" sport. With strong support from the NFL, this places it on track to continue to grow toward becoming a full "championship" sport over the course of the next several years. According to NAIA president and CEO Jim Carr, many NAIA member schools took advantage of the opportunity to add women's flag football for 2020-21 academic year, thanks in large part to financial support from the NFL. "e financial assistance provided by the NFL has had a significant impact on partici- pation and the NAIA is grateful for the league's support in this joint venture," he says. Believe it or not, another huge proponent of women's collegiate flag football is tennis legend Billie Jean King. "I want women to be able to have the dream," says King. e NAIA has two status levels prior to a sport becoming a championship sport, which allows for a timely approach for a sport to find success and interest amongst the NAIA membership. • "Emerging" status is the first step, which requires at least 15 schools to begin a program and officially declare intent to participate in the following year. • e next step is reaching "invitational" status, which requires 25 schools to declare such intent. Each of the 15 schools that initially declared intent to participate in 2020 were granted teaminsightmag.com May/June 2023 ~ Team Insight • 23 FACTS & FIGURES According to the latest research from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), participation in flag football in the U.S. in 2022 was 7.1 million participants. Of those, 4.6 million were classified as "casual" participants (those playing less than 12 days a year) and 2.5 million were categorized as "core" participants who played 13-plus days a year. And, of those 2.5 million core participants, 1.5 million are 6-to-17 years of age. Overall participation in flag football in the U.S. has held steady in recent years, with 6.8 million players in 2019, seven million in 2020 and 6.9 million in 2021.

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