Local interest sidelined as OHSAA set to crown first girls' flag football champion

CANTON −This Saturday, May 16, the turf at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium will play host to a historic milestone with the first Ohio High School Athletic Association sanctioned girls flag football state championships taking the field. It's a culmination of a meteoric rise for a sport that has gone from a club-level curiosity to an Olympic-bound sport in just a few years. But while the rest of the state sprints toward the end zone, the flag has yet to be planted in our neck of the woods.

A survey of a few athletic directors across the Daily Jeffersonian coverage area reveals that while the sport is the talk of the state in some areas, it hasn't yet reached that level within area high schools to date. The hesitation to jump on the bandwagon boils down to three primary hurdles: Student interest: A quiet place For any sport to move from a discussion to a reality on a varsity field, there has to be a demand from the students themselves. In Belmont County, Barnesville athletic director Brad Hannahs notes that while the sport is making headlines, the phone hasn't started ringing at his desk just yet.

"The topic of girls flag football has been mentioned, but it hasn't come from students or the community at this point," Hannahs said. "As of now, we have not seriously explored adding it as a varsity program at Barnesville. " For school districts like Barnesville Exempted Village School District, the process is as much about math as it is about athletics.

A program that starts with the excitement but lacks a full roster to support it can quickly became a liability. "The first step would be determining if there is enough student interest to support a program," Hannahs added. "From there, you would have to evaluate whether it can realistically fit within the school district's budget.