Girls flag football on the rise among Des Moines high schoolers

This story is part one of a series on the growth of girls flag football in Iowa. Each week during the season, we will feature a story that helps explain the importance of flag football – one of the fastest growing youth sports in the country – to girls in the Des Moines area and beyond. For five weeks this spring, hundreds of girls will converge upon Forest Avenue in Des Moines.

Decked out in matching jerseys and mouthguards and bright yellow belts – with two flags clipped to the sides – those athletes will take over Mediacom Stadium on Drake’s campus for a day filled with flag football. It’s the second season of the Des Moines Public Schools girls flag football league – kicking off on April 12 – and it’s already gearing up to be even bigger than last year. At the center of it all, at least on the administrative side, is Ryan Westerkamp, a one-man management show focused on one end goal: growing the sport in Des Moines, and beyond.

Westerkamp never expected to be the manager of a girls flag football league, at least not when he took a job with the Des Moines Public Schools. He’d spent close to 15 years working for various YMCAs, and he ran several youth sports leagues during his time in those positions. But he focused generally on community education with the DMPS, taking him – at times – away from the world of sports.

Then – in June 2024 – the Minnesota Vikings hosted a free football camp in Des Moines, and the second portion of the day focused solely on flag football for girls. And it was clear from that camp that the interest was there. Less than a year later, thanks in part to a $25,000 grant from the Vikings, five high school teams participated in the inaugural season of the DMPS girls flag football league.