The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Affiliation has change into the newest governing physique within the nation to approve ladies’ flag soccer as a sanctioned highschool sport, in response to PIAA.
The game was authorized after its proposal met particular necessities set forth by the PIAA. Its board of administrators decided the necessities had been met and voted Wednesday so as to add the game subsequent 12 months for ladies.
One of many qualifiers was to have no less than 100 collaborating groups throughout the state.
The PIAA acknowledged in its launch that 65 colleges from the jap facet and 36 from the western was sufficient to maneuver ahead. The brink was reached earlier this 12 months in April.
“We’re thrilled that we will provide one other alternative for ladies to take part interscholastic athletics,” PIAA President Frank Majikes stated in a press release. “That is the second ladies’ sport in two years to be authorized. In recognizing the Nationwide Federation of Excessive Faculty Associations (NFHS), we can be initiating growth of a ladies’ flag soccer guidelines e book in January 2025. It will enable us to develop our course of to host a championship. The structural modifications to the game received’t start till the 2025-26 faculty 12 months.”
The Eagles and Steelers have been working behind-the-scenes for the previous three flag seasons creating preliminary leagues to get this system off the bottom. Among the many choices they’ve provided embody schooling, engagement, distribution of apparatus, and assets, the PIAA famous.
“This isn’t simply an essential day for the Eagles and Steelers, however for the game of soccer and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Chairman & CEO of the Philadelphia Eagles Jeffrey Lurie stated. “Once we launched our ladies’ flag soccer league in 2022, we set an formidable five-year purpose to get the game sanctioned in our state. Now, right here we’re three seasons later and two years forward of schedule. The game’s natural development is a credit score to the contributors, directors, coaches, officers, and oldsters who helped elevate the profile of ladies’ flag soccer.”
Pittsburg Steelers President Artwork Rooney, II referred to as it a “groundbreaking second.
“It has been nice working with the Eagles to perform a profitable ruling that can now give younger ladies the prospect to compete at a state degree,” he stated. “We sit up for seeing how ladies’ flag soccer continues to develop in Pennsylvania and worldwide.”
“Launched within the Spring of 2022, the Eagles Ladies’ Flag League started with 16 colleges from the Philadelphia Public and Catholic Leagues. This system then expanded to 38 groups in 2023 after which to 65 in 2024. Of these collaborating groups, the Philadelphia Public and Catholic Leagues have made ladies’ flag an official sport inside their leagues – designating their very own league chairs and internet hosting their very own championships. The Eagles Ladies’ Flag League has greater than 1,600 ladies taking part in all through the jap facet of Pennsylvania.
The Eagles’ help for ladies’ flag soccer has additionally included the facilitation of learn-to-play, teaching, and officiating clinics, a ladies’ flag sports activities efficiency mix, ladies’ flag jamborees, and the women’ flag championships, which have been hosted on the NovaCare Advanced and Lincoln Monetary Discipline.
As a part of their ongoing dedication to extend entry to ladies’ youth sports activities, the Eagles partnered with Operation Heat to launch an revolutionary new sports activities bra line – FLY:FWD – designed particularly for younger women and girls competing in sport.
The initiative kicked off with the distribution of 30,000 FLY:FWD sports activities bras to ladies in want throughout the Better Philadelphia space.
The Steelers Ladies’ Flag Soccer League started in 2022 with six colleges. The primary championship sport was held at Acrisure Stadium. That 12 months, the crew hosted their first Steelers Flag Jamboree – a free camp for ladies in grades 7- 12 who’re concerned with studying extra about taking part in flag soccer.
In 2023, this system grew to 17 colleges with 22 groups. The group carried out “Steelers Showcase Recreation of the Week,” the place present Steelers gamers attend ladies’ flag soccer video games to indicate their help for the groups and spotlight sport changers inside the league. Forward of the 2023 season, the crew hosted a particular uniform unveiling at Acrisure Stadium. The uniforms had been hung within the Steelers locker room with particular lighting to make it a one-of-a-kind expertise for the contributors. This 12 months’s championship sport was held at Carnegie Mellon College.
This 12 months, this system grew to 36 excessive colleges, with the Steelers internet hosting a ladies’ flag teaching clinic and school showcase. The “Steelers Showcase Recreation of the Week” and Steelers Flag Jamborees are nonetheless largely profitable occasions that proceed to spotlight ladies’ flag soccer, giving ladies the chance to be taught extra in regards to the sport.”
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Photograph: PIAA, Eagles and Pittsburgh leagues
