Athletic directors across NSAA District 2, which covers Omaha and the surrounding area, voted 40-30 against making girls flag football an official high school sport Thursday. The rejection stalls a proposal that supporters say could have let an eighth grader named Eva Lee suit up for her school as soon as next year.
A Close Vote With a Second Round Already Planned
The 40-30 tally and supporters’ plan to bring the proposal back in January were reported by 1011now.com. The Nebraska School Activities Association requires a passing majority vote of athletic directors statewide to sanction an emerging sport. Steve Throne, the activities director at Millard South High School, put forward the proposal, according to ksnblocal4.com.
Throne's proposal described girls flag football as one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States and pointed to the 2020 establishment of girls wrestling as an emerging sport as a precedent for how a new offering could take hold, per the same account from ksnblocal4.com. If adopted, the plan would establish a three-year evaluation period, and it also acknowledges that schools opting to adopt the sport would have startup costs and could encounter scheduling conflicts with other school sports, according to 1011now.com.
Nationally, the Sport Is Growing Fast
The numbers behind the push are striking. Girls flag football participation nationally rose from 15,716 in the 2021-22 school year to 102,360 in 2025-26, a 48.7 percent jump over the prior year alone, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. The number of schools reporting participation also climbed from 2,736 to 3,990 in the past year, the organization's report notes.
Measures of program availability vary. NFHS has said 20 states have sanctioned flag football programs, while Iowa and 17 other states, including the District of Columbia, run independent or pilot programs, per 1011now.com's account of the federation's data. NFL Flag, meanwhile, has reported that 42 states including the District of Columbia offer girls high school flag football, with 25 holding state-sanctioned championships. NFHS has classified Nebraska and six other states as having shown interest in the sport as of November 1, and the federation projects that 37 states will be sanctioning the sport or running independent or pilot programs by next year.
Coaches Point to Confusion Over How the Season Would Work
Troy Hassebroek, a Millard United coach, said he stepped outside to take a moment after Thursday's vote. He described the opportunity as a passion and a movement for him and the girls who hoped to play, including his own daughter, and said voters expressed confusion about season timing and how the proposal would actually work, per ksnblocal4.com's reporting. Other coaches echoed that sense that unresolved questions, rather than opposition to the sport itself, shaped the outcome.
Mandy Brendt, a coach for 14U Girls United, said some people worry that flag football would draw participants away from other sports, and that supporters need to better explain how the sport would operate. Joe Lee, a coach and parent, said high school film matters for college exposure, one reason advocates view a sanctioned season as a potential pipeline.
A Teenager Who Has Been Playing for Years
Eva Lee, an eighth grader who watched the vote, has played flag football for about five years. The proposal would have allowed her to represent her school as soon as the following school year had it passed. She recalled that boys had not let her play at recess because she was a girl, but said she kept trying. She also said girls are not giving up and want more opportunities to play, according to the same report.
National Growth and Local Options
The National Federation of State High School Associations reported that girls’ flag football participation rose from 20,875 in 2022-23 to 42,955 in 2023-24, a 105 percent increase. Those national figures do not establish how many girls play in Nebraska or whether the sport is available at a particular school. Outside an NSAA high school season, Millard United Sports describes its Girls NFL Flag program as a fall, in-house, non-travel league using NFL Flag rules. It is distinct from an NSAA-sanctioned high school season, according to Millard United Sports.
Ryleigh Ramm, a Burke High School sophomore who attended the vote, said the outcome made her sad and that it crushed many girls' dreams, according to ksnblocal4.com. Two other NSAA districts had meetings scheduled for the same Thursday, while two districts representing areas in central Nebraska had already met earlier in November, the outlet reported.
College and Olympic Momentum Builds Around the Sport
The push in Omaha-area gyms is unfolding against a broader national shift. The NCAA has approved flag football as an emerging sport for women at the intercollegiate level, according to The Athletic, and roughly 16 Division I programs have announced plans to join the women's flag football ranks, per Nebraska Public Media. Reports differ on exactly when the University of Nebraska's own women's flag football team will take the field: 1011now.com reported the Huskers would field their first team this spring, The Athletic reported the inaugural season was set for spring 2028 with a schedule running January through May, and Nebraska Public Media reported the university moved its start date up by one year from that 2028 target.
The sport's Olympic profile is rising too, with flag football qualifiers that began in the summer of 2026 and will send men's and women's teams from the United States to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. For now, the NSAA district's next meeting is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, January 13, in the Boys Town auditorium, where supporters hope a better-explained proposal fares differently the second time around.
