The boy looked at me like I was crazy.
There I was, standing on a Manhattan Beach field full of girls playing flag football, while he — a 12-year-old practicing alongside them with a cohort of about a dozen middle-school boys — held court on a small stretch nearby.
I had asked him: “Is football a girl sport or a boy sport?”
And he, with the deadpan indifference of a tween boy, just shrugged.
“It’s both.”
Of course.
Sorry, kid — but when I was your age, it wasn’t like that.
But now’s as good a time as any to change things. Because football (flag football, anyway) is the newest “it” sport for girls.
And the South Bay is in the middle of the surge.
“We were sort of the early movers — we wanted to give these girls that opportunity,” said Steve Rivera, a board member with Beach City Sports (BCS), a nonprofit youth flag football league in the South Bay that offers coed and all-girls (GBCS) divisions for kids ages 5–14. “Little did we know how fast it would take off.”
From ‘technically co-ed’ to girls-led growth
When it was founded in 2008 by a group of local dads, BCS was technically a co-ed program. Girls could join — but participation was overwhelmingly male.
“My daughter grew up throwing the football with me since she could hold it,” Rivera said of his daughter, Sienna, who currently plays for the league “But she didn’t want to play when it was all boys and maybe two other girls out there.”
BCS Gold club coach Steve Rivera points to Giada Krulac during flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
BCS Gold club coach Steve Rivera greets his high school players during practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
BCS Gold club coach Steve Rivera defends against Giada Krulac during flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Zara Singh carries the ball as Ava Shay defends during BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Naomi Paul, 10, defends against ball carrier Zoe Yoswa in BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Naomi Paul, 10, takes part in BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
South Bay flag football coach Steve Rivera cheers on a group of boys during BCS Gold club practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
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BCS Gold club coach Steve Rivera points to Giada Krulac during flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
When BCS launched its dedicated all-girls league in 2023, the response was immediate.
“We opened our first season with 150 girls,” Rivera said. “And now we’ve more than doubled that. We’re over 300 kids, probably closer to 400.”
The appeal isn’t hard to pinpoint: Flag football is fast, social, and competitive. Teams are small — five players on the field at a time, with rosters of just eight to 10 kids.
“You could just see the confidence building,” said Rivera, describing players who once didn’t know basic positions now speaking the language of football fluently. “It becomes part of their vernacular.”
Why flag football?
For years, parents looking for a safer alternative to tackle football have gravitated toward flag football. After all, it keeps much of the structure of traditional football — without the whole ramming-into-each-other thing.
A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study comparing youth tackle and flag football found that tackle players ages six to 14 sustained 15 times more head impacts and 23 times more high-magnitude head impacts than their flag-playing peers.
That safety gap helped flag football grow among boys long before most communities seriously considered it for girls.
Things changed quickly. In 2023, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) voted to add girls’ flag football as a statewide-sanctioned sport. Participation exploded — from 689 players to over 10,000 in the first season alone.
Today, it’s the 11th most popular girls’ sport in California, just behind water polo.
Nationally, growth has been just as dramatic. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), 68,847 girls played high school flag football nationally in the 2024-25 school year — up from 42,955 in the previous year and 20,875 the year before that.
Seventeen states have now sanctioned the sport at the high school level, with more on the way.
High schoolers warm up for BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
BCS Gold club flag football coach Steve Rivera greets Marley Brewer during practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Coach Kevin Garcia runs the play with his 13U BCS Gold girls flag football team during practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
BCS Gold club coach Jake Jimenez leads a drill for high schoolers during girls flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Kayla Armstrong makes the catch as Simone van de Ven defends during BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Naomi Paul, 10, defends against ball carrier Zoe Yoswa in BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
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High schoolers warm up for BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
In the South Bay, the rise of high school programs — Mira Costa, Redondo, and El Segundo high schools all have girls’ flag football teams — has created a powerful influence: Younger girls can see older girls playing, competing, and getting recognized.
That visibility matters, Rivera said.
“I try to create a pipeline where we take our young girls to some of the older girls’ games, to expose them to that,” he said. “We also get kids who were playing at Mira Costa and Redondo to come in and be coaches, helpers. The kids get a lot of reward from that.”
Beyond recreational leagues, there’s also BCS Gold, an offshoot co-founded in 2024 by Rivera and BCS president Alexi Waul to offer tournament-level competition for players looking to compete at higher levels.
“There was nobody giving kids year-round flag football development,” Rivera said. .
The results are already showing. Earlier this month, BCS Gold’s 12U team won the Golden State Games tournament, competing against teams from across California. Last season, the 8U boys and 12U girls captured the LA Rams Turkey Bowl in Thousand Oaks, while the 10U girls and high school girls won the BCS Flag Day Tournament at Redondo Union High School against visiting club teams.
Why girls are sticking with the game
For 15-year-old Blair Nolen, a flag football quarterback at Redondo Union High School, flag football clicked almost immediately.
A longtime soccer player, Nolen started playing football with BCS when she was 13 and now trains year-round with the BCS Gold league.
“It was my soccer coach who was like, ‘you should be a quarterback; I feel like you’d be good at it,’” said Nolen, who earned Bay League MVP honors and was listed as the Daily Breeze’s Player of the Year in December. “It was a little more competitive for me. I just felt more of a passion for it.”
Blair Nolan, a Redondo Union athlete, takes part in BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Naomi Paul, 10, defends against ball carrier Zoe Yoswa in BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Naomi Paul, 10, defends against ball carrier Zoe Yoswa in BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
High schoolers warm up for BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Zetta Gomez, left, Nina Coppola and Halle Ellsworth participate doing drills during BCS Gold flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Kali Connoy carries the ball during BCS Gold club girls flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Boys take on the girls during BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
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Blair Nolan, a Redondo Union athlete, takes part in BCS Gold club flag football practice at Manhattan Village Field in Manhattan Beach on Thursday January 15, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
“I would never have pictured this five years ago,” she added. “If I hadn’t gotten this opportunity, I’d still be playing soccer — and probably not having as much fun.”
For younger players, the idea that football “belongs” to boys already feels outdated.
“Sometimes girls are better than boys, and sometimes boys are better than girls,” said 10-year-old Naomi Paul of Redondo Beach, when asked if football is a boy sport or a girl sport. “Yes, tackle football is mainly played by boys, but flag football can be our game.”
Players say it’s the combination of fun, safety, and small-team chemistry that keeps them coming back.
“It’s just really fun to play,” said Paul, who started playing with flag football when she was 8. “I really just love it. It’s like, all I ever do. My schedule is just football, football, football.”
A pathway beyond high school
Parents of girls: If you thought sports like fencing, archery, and e-sports were the only under-the-radar pathways to college scholarships, you might want to hand your daughter a football.
Earlier this month, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) approved women’s flag football as an Emerging Sport for Women — a major step toward championship status. At the NAIA level, the sport already offers scholarships.
“We have scouts coming to our high school games and our club practices,” Rivera said. “I’ve got colleges calling me asking about particular kids.”
Among the success stories is Mira Costa High School alum Sophie Guitron, a nationally recognized winner of the NFL Latino Youth Honors and a gold medalist with USA Football’s 17U U.S. Girls’ Flag National Team. Now a freshman at Keiser University in Florida, she’s part of a growing cohort of athletes turning flag football into opportunity.
“It’s really special because in the beginning there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for me as far as flag football in the South Bay,” Guitron told The Daily Breeze last year after winning Mira Costa’s Player of the Year award. “Once the opportunities presented themselves, I was able to really show my true potential as an athlete and individual.”
And then there’s the Olympics. In October 2023, the International Olympic Committee announced that flag football will debut at the LA28 Games — for both men and women.
“You’re going to see it televised at the professional level very soon,” Rivera said. “It’s really on a rocket ship.”