Another high school sport for girls has been approved by the San Diego Section of CIF. Flag football has been added to the list of sports girls may play during their high school days.
But there will be many differences between the game the girls play and the violent contact game played by boys. Games played in the fall season will only last one hour or less. Two 20-minute halves will be played with the clock running non-stop except for the final two minutes of each half. A youth-size football will be used.
The fields, for instance, will be 80 yards long and 40 yards wide. First down markers are placed on the field 20 yards apart and a team gets four downs to pass the next marker. The quarterback may run the ball only once for each series of downs. A limit of 25 seconds between plays is allowed.
Teams will have only seven players on the field at one time. Everyone will be an eligible receiver. When the center snaps the ball to begin plays, she is not required to snap the ball between her legs.
No blocking, tackling, stiff-arming or violent contact will be allowed. Defenses may not make contact with receivers during a pass attempt and fumbles are dead when they hit the ground.
Players may not wear metal or screw-in cleats but must wear mouthpieces. Team jerseys must have numbers on the front and back and players can wear shorts or pants.
Scoring will award six points for a touchdown but no kicking of PATs, punts, or kickoffs will take place. Instead, PATs will be regular plays worth one point five yards from the goal and two points from 10 yards.
Schools will be allowed 20 maximum games during the period from Aug. 18 to Oct. 20. Those games could be prior to boys games, but there has been interest in doubleheaders and weekend tournaments as well. Teams may play more than one game per week.
The local CIF office has compiled a 13-page packet of rules for the sport.
It is unknown if there will be interest at Point Loma High School but an annual Powder Puff flag football game in spring pitting senior girls against junior girls draws a large group of participants in a game with fewer rules than the proposed new sport.
Also, the National Football League has advocated flag football be an addition to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles according to published reports.
