The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference has sanctioned girls flag football as a varsity sport, with member schools set to begin their official inaugural season in spring 2027. The move brings one of the region's largest private school athletic leagues into a sport that has exploded in popularity across the Washington, D.C. area over the past several years.
WCAC Commissioner Dwayne Foster said the conference is thrilled to bring girls flag football under its umbrella, framing it as part of a broader push to give young women more structured athletic opportunities, according to WUSA9. Foster said the conference aims to establish excellence and Christian sportsmanship in its flag football tradition, and he pointed to the sport's rapid national growth as evidence of female athletes' passion and talent. WCAC member schools are reportedly eager to begin play when the inaugural season kicks off in spring 2027, and the conference says it plans to continue growing the sport going forward.
A League Joining a Region Already Playing Catch-Up With Demand
WCAC's sanctioning lands amid a wave of official recognition sweeping the D.C. region. Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, the D.C. State Athletic Association will sponsor girls flag football as a sanctioned state championship sport, meaning teams will operate under the association and compete for official titles, according to WTOP. That sanctioning made DCSAA the 20th state athletic body in the country to recognize flag football as a state championship sport, per the D.C. State Athletic Association.
A record 26 D.C. high schools fielded girls flag football teams this past spring, the association notes, and the top programs competed in the third annual DCSAA Flag Football Invitational at Eastern High School on May 26. The sanctioning decision also means teams will now receive more state support, funding, space and school resources, and will get the chance to compete for an official, association-run playoff state championship, per the Washington Commanders.
Commanders Pour Seven Figures Into Girls' Programs Across the Region
The Washington Commanders have invested seven figures in girls flag football regionally, donating resources and running clinics and training sessions, the team says. That support has already reached DCSAA programs directly: the Commanders provided uniforms and equipment to all 26 D.C. high school teams that competed this past spring season, according to the DCSAA. Dan Levy, the Commanders' director of youth football, said the team is excited to welcome WCAC into the region's growing girls flag football community.
Under the new arrangement, WCAC member schools will receive financial resources and access to the Commanders' girls flag programming, which includes introductory player and coach clinics, season kickoffs and championship celebrations. The Commanders say they back more than 175 girls flag football teams across the region, a figure that has climbed alongside other regional counts; the team's own announcement last year cited support for 127 teams across D.C., Virginia and Maryland's Prince George's and Montgomery counties, while a later regional account put the number of supported teams at 178 after the Commanders extended resources to 51 additional Virginia programs, according to Loudoun Now. Participating athletes will also receive custom protective headbands from GameBreak Aura, per the original reporting.
Maryland Sanctions Its Own Version of the Sport
Maryland has moved in parallel. The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association officially sanctioned girls flag football as its 26th state championship sport on April 24, 2026, according to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association. The Commanders joined that effort by providing fiscal and administrative support to Montgomery and Prince George's county public school systems during the 2025-26 academic year, while the Baltimore Ravens have contributed more than $1 million in total funding to participating Maryland school systems since the initiative's 10-team pilot season in 2023.Maryland's program has since grown to 132 schools, or 66 percent of MPSSAA-member schools, by 2026.
The growth isn't confined to the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia corridor. Girls flag football is the fastest-growing high school sport nationally, with more than 102,000 girls playing in the 2025-26 school year — a 551 percent increase over four years — and 23 states plus D.C. now sanctioning it as an official varsity sport, according to Axios. Nearly 4,000 schools reported participants in 2025-26, Axios reports, and the sport is slated to make its Olympic debut in 2028, with at least 40 NCAA schools already offering it as a varsity sport.
Closer to home, growth has also taken hold in Central Virginia, where 22 schools across Chesterfield, Richmond, Henrico and Petersburg now field teams, according to WTVR. For WCAC, the next step is logistics: the conference says it will release upcoming schedules, participating member schools and championship details in the coming months as it prepares to kick off its first conference-sanctioned season.
