Northeast Wisconsin high schools taking interest in girls flag football

APPLETON (WLUK) — There was a time when if girls wanted to play football, they had to compete in tackle football.

That time has passed as many states across the U.S. are now offering football to girls at the high school level.

Girls flag football is not a Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) sanctioned sport, but there is hope it one day can be.

High schools for now are forming club teams, including several schools in Northeast Wisconsin .

Xavier High School is one of six schools part of a newly formed girls flag football league.

The idea for Xavier to form a team began during a conversation between head coach Glenn Higgins and his granddaughter Cecilia.

“We were chatting about it and decided, ‘Let’s talk to the Packers,’ because they had been advertising during games about flag football,” Higgins said.
“I called over to the Packers and sure enough, they had a guy in charge of this. A young man by the name of Ryan Fencl.”

Fencl serves as the Packers Football Outreach Manager, playing a key role in all Packers’ flag football sponsored events.

He assists with distributing grants to Wisconsin high schools interested in forming girls flag football teams.

“Last year was the first year we rolled out the grant program. Schools could basically apply for the grant. Once we approved their application we had USA Football send the school a girls flag starter kit with flag belts and footballs,” Fencl said.
“Then once their season was done, they just submitted their paperwork to us and we gave them a $5,000 grant to reimburse them for coaching stipends, league fees, equipment and that sort of thing.”

The Packers have awarded $100,000 in grants to 20 Wisconsin High Schools over the last year, helping girls flag football grow across the state.

“We’ve used pretty much everything they’ve given us with this grant. Without it, we would have to track down a lot of this on our own,” Xavier assistant coach Dan Higgins said. “It made getting started much, much simpler.
Just from a value standpoint of how quickly we were able to get going, they helped tremendously.”

Girls in Wisconsin now have the chance to compete in a sport viewed for so long as just for boys.

“I think it’s like, really empowering,” Xavier junior Cecilia Higgins said. “It goes to show that we can be who we want and kind of step into roles that we weren’t supposed to be in before.”

The hope is that girls flag football will continue to grow in popularity and eventually become a WIAA sport.

“Being a girl, it’s like outlandish sometimes that you actually watch football,” Senior Addison Herevy said. “But now having it be a sport, I think that can really help the culture around it.”

Wisconsin schools interested in forming a girls flag football team are encouraged to register on the Packers’ website. A link to register and view schools that have already formed teams can be found here.