TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – State athletic officials have approved a couple of major changes to high school sports in Kansas.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association held its Spring Meeting on Thursday. On the docket was a vote to sanction Girls Flag Football as a high school sport.
The effort was approved “to include Flag Football as a KSHSAA activity beginning with the 2026-27 school year.” This had a large push behind it, including support from the Kansas City Chiefs. The decision passed on a nearly unanimous vote.
Only one person out of the 62 voters voted against it. It was followed by a lot of celebration and cheering.
Dozens of young women, coaches and flag football players shared their testimonies. Osawatomie Sophomore Isabel Broce was one of the students who shared her why.
“Doing this today means that we can get these girls to play in such a big level,” Broce said.
For Broce, being at the meeting goes beyond wanting to play flag football herself.
“Noticing that there’s so many girls who also want to talk about this, it’s amazing,” Broce said. “The little girls who also want to play flag can. It’s not let us play, it’s they can play.”
Another reason for the push: the 2028 L.A. Olympics will have women’s flag football, and professional teams are popping up all over the country.
“I’m a dad of a daughter who has been around football her entire life,” Weston Moody, Wamego High School football coach, said. “She’s always asked, you know, ‘why, why are girls not playing football,’ and now I get to say, ‘hey, there’s a chance for you, you get a chance to run out on the field and play football.”
The Kansas City Chiefs have been big supporters, believing that football isn’t just for men.
“The biggest conversation we’ve been having is allowing for all fans to participate in the game of football,” Lara Kroug, Chief Marketing Officer for the KC Chiefs, said. “And by having a sanctioned sport for young women, it really unlocks opportunity. It unlocks scholarship opportunity, it gives a pathway.”
Incoming Ottawa University women’s flag football head coach Abby Brown said she’s been working towards this for five years, but the work doesn’t end here.
“Just continue supporting these girls and providing opportunities for them,” Brown said.
Kansas is the 18th state to sanction girls flag football at the high school level.
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