The Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services is organizing its first girls’ flag football league this spring with a middle school and high school division.<\/p>\n
Young girls in Loudoun County, Virginia, interested in playing flag football will have a chance to do so in their own backyard.<\/p>\n
The Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services is organizing its first girls\u2019 flag football league this spring. It will have a middle school and high school division.<\/p>\n
Sharon Moseley, the department\u2019s youth sports program coordinator, told WTOP that girls of all ages are interested in the sport, and the league will make it more accessible to players in the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a matter of seeing the need and trying to meet it,\u201d Moseley said.<\/p>\n
The department will partner with Michael Rivera, who founded the Virginia Hurricanes girls\u2019 flag football program <\/a>and is currently the head coach of Marymount University\u2019s women\u2019s flag football team<\/a>. Moseley said he brings the knowledge and passion for the sport, which makes it a great partnership.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to give them the opportunity to play at a competitive level, to be able to just continue playing a game that they love and are learning, but also to improve at that game so they can have successful high school careers,\u201d Rivera said.<\/p>\n Season runs for 6 weeks<\/p>\n Preseason practices would begin in March, with the season starting on April 12. The spring season will run over six Sundays, culminating with the final slate of games on June 7. All the games will take place on the turf field at Loudoun County High School in Leesburg, allowing multiple games to be played at the same time, Rivera said.<\/p>\n Families can register their child on the PRCS Connect page<\/a> dedicated to flag football through March 1.<\/p>\n Players are required to register individually but will be asked questions during the process about which team they want to play for. The league will also be open to out-of-county residents.<\/p>\n While officials have been encouraging high school teams to register to play, Rivera said players of all skill levels are welcome to join and will be placed on a team to match their skill level.<\/p>\n A combination of volunteers and experienced coaches will assist during the first season. Moseley hopes that high school players entering the league will motivate their coaches to also participate in the future.<\/p>\n The addition of the flag football league comes as the sport continues to grow. Last September, 12 of the 13 high schools in Prince William County fielded girls flag football team<\/a>s, four of which opened the inaugural season at the Washington Commanders training facility. Girls\u2019 flag football also became a varsity sport in neighboring Maryland.<\/p>\n Flag football to premiere at Olympics<\/p>\n According to the National Federation of State High School Associations<\/a>, the number of girls playing the game in high schools has more than doubled, with 42,955 girls participating in the 2023-24 season. Its increased popularity comes as a new collegiate flag football conference<\/a>\u00a0is set to begin in the spring, and the sport will debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n Rivera, who\u2019s been involved in the sport for over a decade, said that once girls try it, they are instantly hooked.<\/p>\n \u201cI have so many players who have just come out and just by trying it, realize how much they love it, and it clicks very, very quickly,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re trying to make it accessible to as many girls as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n It costs $175 per player to join the league, with players receiving an NFL Flag Football jersey and a flag football belt. Players will be required to bring their own mouth guard and wear shorts or pants with no pockets as part of their uniform, Moseley said.<\/p>\n Officials say the inclusion of middle school players will be a starting point in getting younger girls involved in the sport. Moseley added that eventually, the league will include elementary school children as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThe younger we can start them and get them interested and get the skills and confidence, then they\u2019re just going to thrive even more as they get older,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Moseley said once the sport becomes an official varsity high school sport in Virginia, Loudoun County\u2019s rec league will become a place for players to get \u201csupplemental training.\u201d<\/p>\n While all skill levels are welcome, Rivera said players should expect a competitive environment on the gridiron in the spring.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure we make meaningful athletic opportunities for these girls and just make sure that we are keeping pace with everybody else,\u201d Moseley said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want them falling behind because the opportunity isn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Loudoun County Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Services is organizing its first girls’ flag football league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,6791,25026,94694,94695,94696,94697,94698],"class_list":{"0":"post-651469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-girls-flag-football","10":"tag-girls-sports","11":"tag-loudoun-county","12":"tag-loudoun-county-department-of-parks","13":"tag-michael-rivera","14":"tag-recreation-and-community-services","15":"tag-sharon-moseley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115832916872519335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}