Steve Young and Jerry Rice traded their Hall of Fame pedigree for whistle duty this past weekend, running girls ages 7 to 14 through football drills at a flag football camp held at Jesuit High School in Carmichael. The two former 49ers teammates coached campers through rotating drill stations and shared stories from their playing days, aiming to give young girls a shot at a sport long dominated by boys.
The Carmichael camp, reported by KCRA 3, was held in partnership with Sutter Health and Young's own Forever Young Foundation. Young said he and Rice have been friends for a long time and have used that bond to raise money for good causes, and he described the event as a way of helping level the playing field by giving girls a real chance to play football. Rice, for his part, said the camp let the girls experience togetherness and competition, and that their excitement after a good catch or play was obvious to see.
A Statewide Boom Behind the Carmichael Camp
The Jesuit High School event is part of a much bigger surge. Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Sutter Health, said the camp's nonprofit partners were there to give back to the community, and he said Sutter Health backs Young's role as a mentor because it wants to promote activity and healthier lives among young people. Sutter Health is holding similar events throughout Northern California, part of a pattern that includes a separate camp the health system hosted with Young and the Forever Young Foundation at Palo Alto High School, where more than 100 girls ages 7 to 14 filled the field, according to Sutter Health.
That Palo Alto clinic had been scheduled for a Jan. 31 morning session running from 10 a.m. to noon, per the same health system's earlier announcement of its partnership with Young and the Forever Young Foundation to expand youth health and wellness programs across the region. Both events reflect a statewide trend: California high school participation in girls flag football jumped more than 80% after the sport was officially sanctioned as a varsity option in 2023, according to the 49ers Foundation. That sanctioning came after the California Interscholastic Federation's governing council voted 146-0 in February 2023 to add the sport, as reported by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Growth Spreading Well Beyond the Bay Area
The numbers nationally are striking. More than 102,000 girls played high school flag football in the 2025-26 school year, a 551% increase over the previous four years, and 3,990 schools reported participants that same year, according to Axios. Just 12 states sanctioned girls flag football as recently as 2024; that number has since grown to 23 states plus Washington, D.C., per the same Axios report. The sport had already doubled to 11,000 high school participants over the decade leading up to 2018-19, the National Federation of State High School Associations notes, long before this latest spike.
Young called girls' flag football the fastest-growing sport in America, an assessment that lines up with the broader momentum behind the game. The 49ers Foundation has separately named Young its honorary captain of girls flag football and launched a Football Is Made for Girls initiative meant to grow the sport from youth leagues through high school, in partnership with the Forever Young Foundation. Through its existing 49ers Flag program, the foundation has hosted seven clinics drawing record participation of more than 1,000 high school girls, and it says it has invested more than $70 million in historically underserved Bay Area communities since 1991.
Doctors Point to Benefits of Staying in the Game
Dr. Shannon Goode, a primary care sports medicine physician with Sutter Health, brought a personal lens to the push. She said her own father refereed Big Ten college football and that she grew up playing football in the backyard with family. Goode said most girls leave organized sports around age 14, and that early participation in programs like flag football supports stronger bodies, better mental health and greater confidence.
That framing adds urgency to the expansion efforts now underway, especially with flag football set to debut at the Olympic level at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, according to the 49ers Foundation. At least 40 NCAA schools already field flag football as a varsity sport, Axios reports, giving girls who start young at camps like the one in Carmichael a clearer path from backyard drills to college scholarships and beyond. For Young and Rice, the Jesuit High School session was one more stop in a growing network of clinics betting that the sport's momentum is only building.
