In its second fully-fledged season, the Minnesota Vikings-sponsored girls flag football league will more than double in size, with 104 high schools participating in the fast-growing sport.
Though flag football is not yet sanctioned as a Minnesota State High School League sport, the expanding local league is part of a nationwide surge in girls high school and college flag football opportunities ahead of the sports’ inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
After debuting a four-team pilot league in spring 2024, the Vikings put $600,000 behind a 51-team league last spring, which ran from late April until a one-day state tournament in June.
This season will span a similar time frame through late spring, with a series of Sunday doubleheaders from April 26 through June 8 — only with double the participants vying for the state trophy that Mahtomedi claimed last season.
“I think our recruitment [of teams] this year was a little bit more hands off, just because there was so much success with the first real year,” said Emily Weinberg, the Vikings youth and high school football coordinator. “It was schools recruiting other schools in their area saying, ‘Hey, this was a really great opportunity for our students. We think you should join as well.’ ”
All 51 teams that participated in last year’s league will return for another season, said Joe Rush, the Vikings director of youth and high school football.
“That, to me, tells a tremendously powerful story about the value this has added to schools and communities and student-athletes,” Rush said.
Last season, eight of the league’s 51 teams were located beyond the nine-county Twin Cities metro. Proctor was the lone team in the Duluth area, while league runner-up LaCrescent-Hokah anchored a cluster of programs in the southeast corner of the state. Fairmont and Melrose made up the southwest and northwest corners of the league’s reach, respectively.