GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Female athletes from high schools across the state converged in Green Bay to show off their flag football prowess.
On Friday, the Green Bay Packers hosted the third annual Girls Flag Open inside the team’s indoor practice facility, the Don Hutson Center.
Flag football teams from 10 Wisconsin high schools participated in the competition:
Appleton NorthAppleton WestFranklinGreen Bay EastGreenfieldKickapooMuskegoOneida NationOshkosh WestVerona Area
The event began with a team skills challenge, which tested the girls in areas such as speed and farthest throw. Then, it progressed to a few sessions of round-robin games. After brackets for the championship and consolation tournaments were finalized, single-elimination games commenced. The day’s activities concluded with an awards ceremony.
Ryan Fencl, football outreach manager for the Green Bay Packers, said the popularity of girls flag football continues to grow nationwide, but it still isn’t a sanctioned high school sport in Wisconsin.
“Right now, I believe there’s around 14 or 15 states in the country that have it. We want Wisconsin to join those others and have [girls flag football] be a sanctioned high school sport, so this is one event that’s helping to kind of get that ball rolling, get teams interested.”
Fencl says some of the athletes who competed at Friday’s event are seasoned pros, while others are new to the game.
“We have a couple teams who are out here today where this is their first crack at girls flag football, so they’re kind of getting their feet wet with it. Our hope is then that they go back and they continue to play at their school, play against other schools who are competing in girls flag football, and it continues to grow and gets to that sanctioning level,” Fencl said.
During the lunch break, teams listened to a speech from Global Flag Ambassador Victoria Burgarella, also known as Coach Vic, who is breaking barriers as a flag football coach and mentor to young athletes, both on the field and off.