De La Salle won the title in Louisiana the first two years, but with an increase in competition, a three-peat will be challenging.
“There were a lot of first-year teams last year who did very well,” Sheridan said. “And that’s the thing about it: It’s not just public schools. There’s private, public, charter, Catholic and everybody in between.”
“It just shows how far girls flag football has come,” De La Salle coach George Neumiller said. “A lot of people didn’t think this day was going to happen, but with the NFL big-time behind it, the Olympics coming up — it’s becoming huge for the girls. An opportunity for another sport to get scholarships in. It’ll be a real high school sport. When they play flag football, they seem to fall in love with it.”
Neumiller said participants aren’t solely athletes from other sports.
“A lot of girls that we have playing right now, and we’ve got basketball players and softball players, track girls, but some of these girls — I’m not saying they’re not athletes — but cheerleaders, dance-team girls, they’re all coming out. And some of these girls have never played a sport in their life,” he said. “So it builds their confidence to come out and make the team and contribute to a team for the first time. It boosts their confidence in more than just football, but in life.”
Sheridan, who accepted the task of creating the schedule for Louisiana’s teams, has an older daughter who plays for Dominican, and a younger one who’s eagerly awaiting the chance to join her.
“I’m like, this is the work that we’ve done. To give my daughter an opportunity,” Sheridan said.