Eagles players applaud the PIAA’s addition of girls’ flag football

Since the inception of the Eagles girls’ flag football league in 2022, Jordan Mailata has attended each of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey state championships. The latest event at the NovaCare Complex in June left the Eagles’ starting left tackle stunned.

The 2024 championship, in which Archbishop Wood and Kingsway Regional took home the Pennsylvania and New Jersey trophies, respectively, proved to Mailata just how much the sport has grown over the last three years. The 27-year-old Australia native noticed an improvement in the quality of competition on the field and the increased turnout in the stands compared to the inaugural event.

“Some of the passes, they’re throwing deep balls,” Mailata said. “And I’m just like, two years ago, they weren’t doing that. The more eyes, the more participation that flag football gets, the more that it is seen, the level of play increases.”

The momentum around girls’ flag football isn’t slowing down any time soon. The PIAA announced Wednesday that high school girls’ flag football is an officially sanctioned sport in the state. The decision to designate girls’ flag football as a sport opens the door for the PIAA to sponsor interdistrict championships. The Public and Catholic Leagues had already made girls’ flag football an official sport within their leagues this past season.

Girls’ flag football needed 100 school participants to be considered as an official sport by the board of directors. The PIAA plans to hold its first season during the 2025-26 school year. The prospect of continued opportunities for girls in the state to play the sport at a higher level is exciting to Mailata.

“I think any time that you can provide somebody with an option of a future has tremendous effect,” Mailata said. “You have no option but to be excited. I think women’s sport needs to be more encouraged.”

The sport’s growth has been driven by the athletes, families, coaches, officials, and school administrators who have embraced it. The Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers provided schools with new programs in their areas with the means to play, equipping them with a $3,000 stipend, customized uniforms, flag belts, footballs, and USA Football flag kits that included more flags, cones, and footballs.

On a personal level, Eagles players also have lent their support to the team’s initiatives around flag football and girls’ sports in general. In August 2023, the Eagles partnered with Operation Warm and the Women’s Sports Foundation to host a sports bra distribution event for their FLY:FWD initiative at Northeast High School. Before the athletes collected their bras, Jalen Hurts spoke on a panel with Laila Ali, Carli Lloyd, and Qiana “Star” Wright to offer words of wisdom and inspiration in their endeavors on and off the field.

Hurts, who awarded both state championship trophies following the finals in June, called the news of girls’ flag football becoming an official sport at the PIAA level “awesome.” He has been intentional in his support of women and girls in sports, working with an all-woman management team, including his agent, Nicole Lynn.

“The more opportunity these young girls have to do what they love and just play the game, I think the better,” Hurts said. “I think it’s just a great opportunity to kind of level out that playing field for them and how they express themselves in sports.”

Nakobe Dean and Sydney Brown also were present at the FLY:FWD distribution, taking photos with the attendees after the panel. Having interacted with some of the students who will benefit from the continued growth of girls’ flag football, Dean was enthusiastic about the sanctioning of the sport in the state.

“I feel like it’s good to have something that those girls work so hard for and are also passionate about, ’cause I know how passionate I am about football, to have it be recognized as an official sport, definitely, in the whole state,” Dean said. “I feel like that’s great.”

Since Mailata moved to the United States seven years ago, he has noticed the explosion in popularity of flag football. That growth was highlighted by the decision last October to include the sport in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles for men and women.

Between the PIAA approval and flag’s addition to the Olympics, the stages continue to get bigger and brighter for girls and women in sports.

“Now that it’s become an Olympic sport, that’s a goal to work toward,” Mailata said. “Now, it’s very fresh, but these are stepping stones of any sport. That’s what I’m excited about. The level of competition’s only going to rise. The more people that are involved, the more eyes they have on the sport, the bigger the talent, the bigger the range.”