PIAA approves girls flag football as emerging sport: What to know about the rules, season, teams
The PIAA voted to sanction girls flag football as a high school sport during a meeting on Wednesday.
The organization’s board of directors met in Mechanicsburg and approved the emerging sport on the third and final reading. The PIAA will sponsor the sport beginning during the 2025-26 school year.
Aside from lesser contact and pulling flags off of hips for a tackle, there are some distinct differences in the sports. Seneca Valley coach Chris Eden helped parse out the variances.
Yes. North Catholic and Seneca Valley became the first county schools to field teams. According to the PIAA, the WPIAL had 12 teams during the 2024 spring season. Districts 9 and 10 did not have teams.
The season starts in early April and finishes in mid-May. With the PIAA sanctioning the sport, the organization could tweak the schedule.
Things are pretty straightforward. There are a quarterback and six receivers on offense. The same number of players defend on the other side of the football.
“What’s really cool about our girls league is we have a snapper, and the snapper is eligible,” Eden said. “We actually incorporate our center into our offensive concepts.”
Games include two 18-minute halves. The playing space is 30 yards wide and 53 yards long.
Series start at the offensive team’s 5-yard line, unless following an interception. The offense has three plays to gain a first down at midfield. On fourth down before the halfway mark, a team can “punt” or go for it.
After crossing midfield, the offense gets four plays to score a touchdown, which is worth the customary six points. Offenses can go for an extra point from the 3-yard line or two from the 10-yard line.
If an offensive player has their flag pulled in their own end zone, the defensive team earns two points on a safety and takes over possession.
Eden is also an assistant coach with Seneca Valley’s boys football team. He sees a lot of similarities in the way offense operates.
“We run the same exact plays that we do with the guys,” Eden said. “We line up in doubles, we line up in trips, we go empty at times. We basically run an RPO (run-pass option) offense.”
The concepts that come from moving the ball from hash mark to hash mark provides is taken away, however. The football is always snapped in the middle of the field.
“The football stays in the center of the field, so you can’t bounce it from left hash, right hash,” Eden said. “The ball has to stay in the middle, which it does change your game play.”
The flag game does have its quirks.
Defenses are permitted to rush the passer, but there are guidelines.
“You can blitz every play,” Eden said. “You have to be a certain distance away (7 yards past the defensive side of the line). ... Anybody that wants to blitz has to declare themselves as the blitzer, so they have to put their hand up.”
When not throwing the ball to a snapper or the other five eligible pass-catchers, there has to be a distinguishable point of exchange on run plays. There aren’t any tosses.
There are two “no-run zones,” one 5 yards from midfield and another 5 yards from the goal line.
“Basically, you can’t run an option or power or anything like that because — obviously — you wouldn’t be able to stop it,” Eden said. “You could run an I-formation and you’d score every time.”
Fumbles are ruled dead balls, but interceptions can be returned. Each team has one timeout per half.
Eden said infractions are “very similar to what you’d see with the regular game of football. Obviously, offensive pass interference, defensive pass interference.”
After a pass is completed or a ball carrier passes the line of scrimmage, the receivers have to stop or they’re penalized for blocking.
“The offensive player can’t take their hand and basically guard their flag because obviously it makes it very difficult for the defender to grab the flag,” Eden said.
