IHSAA Approves Girls Flag Football as Emerging Sport

The sport will join Girls Lacross as an emerging sport starting with the 2025-26 school year.

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INDIANAPOLIS - Girls Flag Football has been added by the IHSAA as an Emerging Sport after the board voted 17-1 in favor of the proposal. 

The Emerging Sport Process, known as Rule 1-4, helps pave a way for those sports and participation to continue to grow with an eye toward eventually becoming a recognized sport and sponsorship of an official state tournament. 

Most recently, Girls Wrestling and Boys Volleyball went through the process and became fully recognized with state tournaments sponsored this year. 

For a sport to become officially recognized and an IHSAA state tournament be sponsored, 50 percent of the membership must be participating in the sport. The IHSAA currently has 409 member schools around the state. 

Girls Flag Football, a fall sport, has strong support and financial backing of the Indianapolis Colts. The sport will join Girls Lacross as an emerging sport starting with the 2025-26 school year. 

In other news, the IHSAA board voted against a proposal which would have allowed member schools to form cooperative agreements for team sports. 

Elections next year’s leadership of the Board and Executive Committee were also held. Tom Black of East Central High School was voted president of the 2025-26 Board of Directors.