It’s an exciting time for football — girls’ flag football that is

As we head into the final week of the men’s and women’s college basketball season, it’s time to turn our attention to spring and everything warmer weather brings. Hopefully.

Baseball, softball, track and field, golf, tennis, soccer and ... football.

Football? Of course football. Does the football season ever really stop?

Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa all started spring football practices last week. And the United Football League — you remember, the professional “minor” league that combined the XFL and USFL last March — started its season over the weekend. Lots of former Iowa, Iowa State at UNI players dot rosters in the UFL (and we have a story coming later this week on one of them).

But there’s also another trend in football powering ahead in April, something fairly new and, honestly, kind of exciting.

Girls’ flag football is coming to Eastern Iowa in a big way.

“The time has coming finally,” said Courtney Pennel, an official NFL Flag director who has started NFL Iowa-Females In Flag.

Female flag football already has taken the nation by storm or, at the very least, by squall. There are 14 states offering girls’ flag football as a sanctioned high school varsity sport, including Illinois, and “flag football is fully recognized as a varsity sport by the state high school athletic association,” according to NFL Flag.

Several other states, including Wisconsin and Minnesota, offer girls’ flag football as a “pilot program” where they are doing “test seasons in select schools to evaluate full adoption as a sanctioned sport.”

The NCAA is recommending flag football be considered an “Emerging Sports for Women” program.

"The growth of flag football will be exciting to watch in the NCAA as women's sports continue to generate more visibility and opportunities for female student-athletes to excel academically and athletically," Ragean Hill, chair of the Committee on Women's Athletics and executive associate athletics director at Charlotte, said in a release at ncaa.org.

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According to NFL Flag, “at least 65 NCAA schools are sponsoring women's flag football at either the club or varsity levels this year, with more slated to join in 2026.”

Flag football also has been added as a sport for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“It’s so exciting. It’s so fun,” said Pennel, who has an elite traveling team affiliated with the Minnesota Vikings and hopes to have six or seven teams under the NFL Iowa Females In Flag banner.

“The first ever NFL Iowa-Females In Flag League is breaking barriers and making plays! With lightning speed, razor-sharp reflexes, and a whole lot of sass, we are taking the community by storm. Get ready to cheer on the future of football, Cedar Rapids!” the groups’ Facebook page reads.

There are no less than four other girls’ flag football programs kicking off in April in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area.

That’s great news to Rick Mooberry of Cedar Rapids. He has daughter, Lyla, a third-grader at Viola Gibson, who has been playing on boys’ teams since first grade.

These opportunities prove the growing popularity of the sport.

“It’d be pretty cool if we could grow the popularity in Iowa,” he said, hoping one day his daughter will have the opportunity to play high school flag football.

His wish appears to be coming true.

The Metro Youth Football Association is offering the “MYFA Gridiron Elite Girls Football Club 2025,” starting practices the week of April 13. It’s open to girls in third through 12th grade and will wrap up June 1 with a “state tournament” at the MYFA complex.

Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation is offering “our first season of Girls Youth Flag Football,” a program associated with NFL Flag that is “focused on fundamentals.” This program runs from April 14 through May 15 at Ellis Park. You need to sign up by Tuesday. Contact Grant Weber at g.weber@cedar-rapids.org.

Another NFL Flag league will run on Sundays only from April 13 through June 8 at Tuma Sports Complex. Girls ages 4 through 17 are welcome. Contact Curt Bergsholm at curt@mwflagfootball.com.

There also is the “Redzone girls’ football club 2025,” open to girls in grades third through12th. Two-hour practices begin April 6 and end June 1 at Liberty High School in North Liberty.

Pennel noted these athletes are “not your typical athlete, not your typical girls’ athlete” and compared it to the opportunities girls’ wrestling has provided.

“It takes a certain type of girl,” she said.

It’s always football season, it seems. And it’s getting a little more crowded, a little more fun.

Comments: (319) 398-5861; jr.ogden@thegazette.com