Could flag football become the next sanctioned high school sport in Louisiana? If the sport's growing popularity is any indication, it likely will be.
"They're writing rules for flag football," Louisiana High School Athletic Association executive director Eddie Bonine said.
According to Bonine, once the National Federation of High School Associations drafts those rules, it will be up to the LHSAA's member principals to decide whether the organization will sanction the sport.
"You have to have 80 schools in our membership of 404 in the next two years in this classification period to initiate a new sport, and to do so, we put it on the agenda, and that new sport would be approved at the annual convention to begin at the beginning of the next cycle," Bonine said.
Rachel Bachman, senior sports reporter at the Wall Street Journal, told This Morning with Gordon Deal on WWL that the growing popularity of football among girls--both flag and tackle--is helping to grow the sport.
"All-girls flag football teams in high schools: that trend is also really taking off."
In fact, she says flag football is serving as a gateway to girls playing tackle football.
"More girls than ever last season played on boys' tackle football teams in high school, well over 4,000 girls nationwide, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that number has doubled in recent years, so it's growing pretty quickly," Bachman said. "Coaches are finding out that if girls can come out and play and do the job, they'll put them in the starting lineup."
There's no timetable for when the National Federation of High School Association will complete writing its rules for flag football. Bonine says another organization is the driving force behind promoting flag football's expansion.
"The NFL is the driving force behind that," Bonine said.
Flag football will be showcased on an international stage when it is included on the program for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.