This fall, a new BOHS sports team will play under the lights of Wildcat Stadium: girls’ flag football.

In August, flag football will debut with junior varsity and varsity teams led, currently, by Morgan Paul, varsity softball coach. 

BOHS will join other north Orange County high schools — like El Dorado, Canyon, Yorba Linda, Villa Park, El Modena, Foothill, and Esperanza — that launched their programs in the fall of 2023. 

“We have so many talented athletes here at [BOHS] who are going to help bring the flag football program up to speed with everyone else,” Paul said. 

Last year, about 21,000 girls participated in high school flag football, an 86% increase from the previous four years, making it one of the fastest growing youth sports in the U.S.

Due to the rapid growth of the sport (fueled, in part, by viral videos of the sport on social media), the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) officially added flag football as a varsity sport in February 2023. 

“Because of the sudden interest in the sport, we decided to include flag football to our sports program,” Mike Knaus, boys’ athletic director, said. 

“I think BOHS made a good decision of adding flag football because it’s only fair to have for the girls what we have for the boys,” Lulu Schultz, freshman, said. Schultz plans on joining the team when off-season workouts begin in March.

Also contributing to the growth of flag football in U.S. high schools is the National Football League (NFL) and Nike’s support for the sport. To date, the businesses have donated $5 million to scholastic flag football programs across the country.

Locally, the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Chargers played a key role in the rapid growth of the sport in California. The Chargers, for example, provided BOHS with equipment, “including cones, stopwatches, training hurdles, pylons, footballs, practice flags, practice pennies, whistles, and play wristbands,” according to Paul. 

“The Rams and Chargers made having flag football at BOHS possible. Without their support, we might not have had the funds to create a team,” Knaus said.

Not included in the Chargers’ donation, however, are jerseys. “We are currently in the process of securing donations from the community,” Paul said. “Our community is remarkable, and I’m hopeful that they will be interested in investing in our program, especially since we don’t have a booster club or any established funding mechanism yet.”

Flag football and tackle football have key differences. Flag football is a non-contact sport where the defense pulls a flag off the opponent’s waist instead of tackling. The game is seven versus seven, instead of the 11 versus 11 of tackle. And flag football fields are only 70 yards long, whereas tackle football fields are 100 yards long.

“I know a lot of the girls are going to be learning the game together because it’s different from regular football rules,” Brielle Denbo, junior, said. Denbo will join the inaugural varsity squad in March.

Flag football, which shares a season with tennis, volleyball, and cross country, will begin practice on Mondays and Tuesdays in March. The official season begins fall 2024. To avoid conflicts with the Friday night boys’ varsity games, flag football will compete under the lights in Wildcat Stadium on Thursdays, after boys’ JV games. 

Knaus and Paul led an informational meeting in room 102 on Dec. 12, 2023, to inform prospective flag football athletes about the addition of the sport. 

“I was really surprised at the number of girls with a fall sport who showed up [to the meeting]. Flag football is a fun new opportunity that many girls are eager to try,” Denbo said.

In previous years, girls have participated on the Wildcat football teams. Cadence Rutledge (‘22) was a kicker for a Wildcats team that won a league title and made CIF playoffs in 2022. Now, girls football players have a sport of their own.

“We have the chance to break the stereotype of only boys playing football, and that’s really special,” Schultz said.

Corrections: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that a junior varsity coach had already been hired. In fact, Morgan Paul is currently the only coach in the program. It was also incorrectly noted that the Chargers donated jerseys to the program. We regret the errors.