NYSPHSAA approves high school girls flag football as a state championship sport on National Girls and Women in Sports Day
“We are thrilled with today’s announcement that our female high school flag football athletes in New York State will experience the thrill of the playoffs and a championship game starting in 2024,” said said Ethan Medley, director of community relations and youth football for the Giants.
“Our collaborative effort with the Bills, Jets, Nike and NYPHSAA to encourage and support athletes, coaches and school districts who wanted to participate in the sport has been a very rewarding experience. Having over 140 participating schools across the ‘State in just the second year is truly beyond even our own expectations and shows interest and enthusiasm for the sport.’
The Giants have prioritized building long-term relationships with schools and chapters that have embraced the sport, including creating numerous touchpoints with athletes and coaches each season. To kick off the inaugural season in 2022, the Giants joined Section 1 and Section 4 for the respective league jamborees. Participants, coaches and community members came together to celebrate the student-athletes as they kicked off the next historic season.
Somers High School in Somers, NY hosted the Section 1 jamboree, where Giants quarterback Daniel Jones and former Giants linebacker Blake Martinez were on hand to honor the arrival of the flag. women’s soccer in high school and lead the teams in soccer drills.
Section 4 followed suit with a jamboree at Chenango Valley High School in Binghamton, NY Giants legend and Super Bowl champion Rich Seubert joined many student-athletes to introduce the game of flag football and lead drills .
At the end of the 2022 inaugural season, the Giants invited the winners of Sections 1 and 4 – Binghamton High School and Brewster High School, respectively – to celebrate their achievement by playing at halftime of the Giants Play Football game at the MetLife Stadium on August 21. when the Giants hosted the Cincinnati Bengals for a preseason game. The Giants also honored Binghamton High School coach Vaughn Labor and Brewster High School coach Matt Cunningham as Lou Rettino High School Coaches of the Week for Weeks 1 and 2 of the 2022 season.
Sections 1 and 4 will double in size due to their success and will receive a $10,000 grant to help introduce additional schools.
Next spring, the Giants will support the Section 7’s inaugural season with a $30,000 contribution to support eight schools that intend to launch a women’s flag football program.
The Shore Conference Girls Flag Football League in New Jersey is entering its third season of play and has expanded to 15 participating schools. In 2022, the 10-team league began its season with a kick-off event in April at MetLife Stadium led by Giants Legend and two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning and current Giants running back Sandro Platzgummer. Both helped train student-athletes in the fundamentals of football and shared their football experiences.
In June, the Shore Regional Blue Devils won their second consecutive Shore High School Conference Women’s Flag Football Championship. The Blue Devils were also celebrated at the Giants Play Football pre-season game in August, where they were asked to ring the Giants Pride Bell just before kickoff. The Giants will donate $10,000 to support new schools joining the Shore Conference women’s flag football league in 2023.
As the Giants look to support the game’s growth in the tri-state area, the organization will donate $10,000 to encourage high school girls’ participation in flag football in Connecticut. They will join forces with Connecticut Flag Football, a major operator of the girls’ flag football league, to help host an inaugural jamboree in Windsor, Connecticut this spring.
“The New York Giants look forward to continuing to support the expansion of women’s flag football in the tri-state area and to celebrating the athletes and coaches who play this great game,” Medley said.