The Rise of Womens Flag Football
“This is a man’s world – but it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a child.” echoes like a reverberating time machine. While many sports have accepted and embraced the participation of women, American Football remains a game reserved for only the overly-testosterone induced, jock; however like fleeting moments brushed away by the ticking hands of time – times are changing. In the game of adult competitive flag football, two organizations have pioneered the incorporation of women’s and coed flag football. The USFTL and Hike it and Spike it are two organizations that host two of the largest participation of Women’s flag football in the country.
In 2014, the USFTL fielded twenty coed teams and thirty-six Women’s flag football teams at their National Tournament. The Gridiron Gazette’s, Hike it and Spike it Tournament, reeled in the second largest population at its annual tournament with eight hundred eighteen female participants. While the East Coast and the Central States have caught onto the importance of Women’s participation in adult competitive flag football the West Coast is still lagging behind – until now. Trisha Wall, co-owner of Man Up – Woman Up Sports apparel is a Joan of Arc when it comes to Women’s Flag Football on the West Coast. A Pathfinder, Sooner and Trail Blazer are all adjectives fitting of a Woman, whose passion has ignited a following that is quickly growing in mass. An athlete in her own right Wall began developing the presence of Women’s Flag Football on the West Coast two years ago, and it has grown at a rate that deserves recognition and applause. Every year Man Up is responsible for holding one of the largest Tri-State tournaments in the Northwest; The Medford Snow Bowl, which host teams from Washington, Oregon, and California. In its fifth year, the tournament will host an all women’s category due to the efforts of Trisha Wall;
however it’s more than just the 22.5% growth rate in local women’s competitive flag football that makes Wall stand out.
In the past year, Women’s Flag Football teams from Oregon have traveled to Central California to compete in several Central Valley Flag Football League “Road To Vegas” Tournaments and in late February six Central Valley Women’s teams will travel to the Northwest to compete in the Medford Snow Bowl. It goes without saying that men and women are the balancing scales of the universe. It does not matter the approach or the argument; the universal truth is that from one comes the other making them intrinsically connected. The idea of not allowing women to play flag football or to diminish the value or quality of a women’s competitive match is absurd. The idea the a woman is physically incapable of competing with a man is dated. In the twenty-first century, this just might be a Woman’s world.
Source: JustScore Magazine | Featured Image courtesy of EVOLUTION FLAG FOOTBALL
