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When Pope High School senior Kate Davenport stepped onto the turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the high school flag football state championship, she found herself playing under stadium lights and the halo board typically reserved for NFL matchups.

She and her team secured their third consecutive state title, 2023-2025, in a professional environment.

“We all just wanted to play in the Benz one last time,” Davenport said. “Knowing you can go back and watch the game and it is professionally filmed like a real NFL game or college game is so cool.”

Women’s flag football is experiencing a national rise through increased high school participation rates, inclusion in the 2028 Olympics and a newly announced professional league supported by investors such as Tom Brady. The sport is also expanding at the collegiate level as colleges have begun launching teams. Despite this momentum, the University of Georgia has not announced any plans to add flag football as a varsity sport.

This leaves the Georgia women’s club flag football team in a unique position. Thanks to the surge of talented players coming out of high schools over the past three years, the club boasts a highly competitive roster and has secured high-profile opportunities to play, such as at the inaugural Fiesta Bowl Flag Football Classic this weekend.

But as a club sport navigating a rapidly changing landscape, the UGA team faces steep financial hurdles and logistical challenges as it tries to maintain its status as a top program while operating a long way from the budgets of true intercollegiate programs.

Flag football at Georgia started as an intramural sport. The UGA co-rec team captured four consecutive National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) national titles from 2022 to 2026. Building on that momentum, students including Nealie Cook and Katie Northenor began working to elevate flag football to an official club sport in fall 2023.

To get certified, they faced administrative hurdles.

Northenor, who is the incoming club president, spent her freshman year building out the program’s framework to pitch to the university’s club sports board. They were officially established as a club team in fall 2024.

The team is now navigating the financial side of club athletics. Operating on a base university stipend, the women heavily self-fund their travel and equipment.

We get about $500 from the school, which is enough to fund nothing,” Cook said. “Our jerseys are mismatched. Everyone has different shorts.”

Meanwhile, Georgia high schools are producing elite talent, but without SEC varsity programs, players face tough choices. Davenport is heading to Georgia Southern next year and hopes to play club there, but she recognizes the missed opportunity for her recruiting class.

“I think it’s awesome” that colleges are adding varsity teams, Davenport said, “and I wish that it had happened sooner, because I would have 100 percent tried to go and play somewhere.”

Because the NCAA infrastructure isn’t fully developed yet, the UGA club players are stepping up to mentor high schoolers themselves. The team recently hosted a high school clinic at Maynard T. Jackson High School in Atlanta to teach fundamentals and showcase college-level competitiveness.

“Women are looking for these opportunities to learn how to be better at the sport,” Northenor said.

The ultimate validation for their hard work arrives this weekend at the Fiesta Bowl Flag Football Classic in Arizona. The invite-only tournament treats the club athletes like Division I stars.

“Obviously, we have a huge responsibility coming into it to give credibility to the sport,” Northenor said. “A lot of people are going, that’s going to be their first impression of how competitive the sport is at this level, and people want to be entertained. We’ve got to bring the momentum.”

While the Fiesta Bowl organization provides funding for many major expenses, it doesn’t cover the entire journey. To help bridge the gap for remaining travel costs, the team was awarded a $5,000 grant from the university’s President’s Venture Fund. With the finances handled, the players locked in on the competition.

We spent a whole weekend, literally eight hours a day, watching film and practicing these plays and defenses,” junior executive board member Sydney Watton said.

While varsity status at Georgia might not happen before Watton, Cook and Northenor graduate, they are actively cementing a legacy for the women who will follow them.

“Look out for the sport and its growth,” Northernor said, “because it’s going to be huge.”

Landon Shell is a student in the undergraduate certificate program at the John Huland Carmical Sports Media Institute at UGA.