Girls flag football is now sanctioned in Kansas. How Wichita helped make history
A year ago, girls flag football in Kansas was still a growing club-level experiment.
It had athletes. It had teams. It had support from the Kansas City Chiefs, rising national momentum and girls who were eager to play a version of football that had never been offered to them before.
Now it has something else: KSHSAA’s stamp of approval.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association Board of Directors voted 61-1 on Thursday to sanction girls flag football as an official high school sport, clearing the way for Kansas girls to compete for a state championship beginning in the 2026-27 school year.
Kansas becomes the 18th state to sanction the sport, which will be played in the fall.
“It’s a huge day for women in sports,” said East principal Sara Richardson, who help submit the proposal. “This is just going to create opportunities for girls in Kansas that they’ve never been given before. It gives girls a stage to showcase their abilities, showcase their talents on a playing field they’ve never been on before.”
The decision also carried a strong Wichita imprint.
The Greater Wichita Athletic League submitted the proposal that ultimately passed Thursday in Topeka with Richardson and fellow KSHSAA Board of Directors member Chris Asmussen helping bring it forward. Richardson, one of two women on the KSHSAA Executive Board, said it was meaningful to see Wichita-area representation in the room for the vote. When the measure passed, the room broke into cheers and applause.
“The overwhelming positive vote today in that board room was huge,” Richardson said. “Showing up for girls in sports is tremendous and I can only imagine that other surrounding leagues are going to also be creating opportunities for their girls. I think it’s going to be an avalanche effect.”
How Kansas high school girls flag football will work
Girls flag football has been offered at the club level in Kansas since 2021, but KSHSAA sanctioning changes the structure around the sport.
Instead of operating as school clubs, teams will now have a path to become official school-sponsored programs. The sport will use the National Federation of State High School Associations flag football rulebook, giving schools standardized rules, governance and a KSHSAA postseason.
High school teams may play between six and 10 regular-season games, which feature 7-on-7 play, while the exact details of what the postseason format might look like have not yet been finalized.
“We haven’t put that together yet,” KSHSAA assistant executive director Jeremy Holaday said. “That’s something we’ll have to do in the coming months, rather quickly.”
Holaday said it is realistic to expect one classification in the inaugural season, but KSHSAA will make that decision likely in August after seeing how many schools commit to playing. If participation grows to around 50 schools, there could be a path to two classifications, similar to swim and dive with a Class 6A tournament and a Class 5-1A tournament if each side has at least 24 teams.
“It’s something Kansas can be proud of,” Holaday said. “It proves once again we’re doing what’s best for Kansas kids to offer opportunities.”
Why Wichita matters to Kansas girls flag football
Wichita was one of the first parts of the state where girls flag football gained traction.
According to the Chiefs’ database, 28 Kansas schools had pilot programs this past fall with an average roster size of 24 athletes. The Wichita-area schools included the seven public Wichita high schools — East, Heights, North, Northwest, South, Southeast and West — along with Maize and Maize South from the Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League.
Now that the sport is sanctioned, the hope is that more Wichita-area schools will consider adding teams.
For Maize coach Shelby Hillman, Thursday’s vote was less a surprise than a confirmation of what she had already seen up close.
“Honestly, I wasn’t surprised and that’s a good thing,” Hillman said. “Flag football is the fastest-growing girls sports. The girls love it here and now they’re starting to get college scholarships and there’s some hype that is beginning to build.”
Maize played 12 games last season, often using a scheduling model similar to volleyball triangulars: three teams at one site, three games in a night with each team playing twice. Hillman said she doubts anything about practices or games will change, as the biggest difference now is that teams will be playing for a state championship sponsored by KSHSAA.
That postseason structure matters. Last year, Maize played in a club state tournament and ended up playing four straight games without a break. KSHSAA sanctioning should bring more structure to how the championship event is built.
What season should Kansas girls flag football be in?
Girls flag football will begin as a fall sport, but that may not be the final answer forever.
Holaday said there was discussion among board members Thursday about whether the sport should be played in the fall or spring. The board decided the best first move was to sanction the sport and begin in the fall, which was viewed as a “good starting point.” But he acknowledged some board members believe the season placement “needs to be analyzed” in the future.
The calendar question matters because of participation.
Kansas girls fall sports already include volleyball, cross country, tennis and golf. The spring includes softball, soccer, track and field and swim and dive. Coaches who have been involved with flag football said the fall placement has helped draw athletes who were not already playing volleyball, including basketball, soccer and softball players looking for a fall sport.
Hillman saw that at Maize, where basketball, softball and soccer players joined the flag football team. She said Maize girls soccer coach Jay Holmes encouraged his players to try flag football because he believed the sport could help them develop skills that would translate to soccer in the spring.
There were concerns raised that flag football could pull athletes away from other fall sports, especially at smaller schools where rosters are thinner. That may make early adoption less likely in some Class 4A-and-below communities, while larger Wichita-area schools may be better positioned to add teams quickly.
“Everybody’s biggest fear was that it was going to take away from other fall sports,” Hillman said. “But if a kid was playing volleyball and then comes to play flag football, then that’s going to give another girl the opportunity to play volleyball. So it’s just creating more opportunities for all kinds of kids to play a sport.”
That has been one of the sport’s strongest selling points. Coaches and administrators say girls flag football has not simply pulled from athletes already embedded in high school sports. It has also opened a door for girls who had never worn a school uniform before.
Sheila Sickau, senior marketing manager for the Chiefs, said national statistics show 50% of girls joining high school flag football teams have never been on another sports team for their school.
That is the kind of growth supporters believe could make sanctioning girls flag football especially meaningful in Kansas: not just giving current athletes another option, but giving more girls a first chance.
“This is just going to create opportunities for girls in Kansas that they’ve never been given before,” Richardson said.
Why Kansas girls wanted a chance at flag football
For some athletes, flag football offered a new way to compete during a season when they otherwise might not have represented their school.
Heights junior Destiny Maze, a basketball standout, had been a year-round basketball player who did not play a fall sport. When Heights offered flag football, she tried it and quickly fell in love with the experience.
“I had a very good time,” Maze said. “I loved it. I loved my teammates, I loved my coach, I loved the other teams. I just loved everything about it. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been wanting to try this, so I’m going to show out.’”
Maize senior Lexee Shipp, a basketball and soccer player, felt the same pull.
“I enjoyed it because it was a whole new experience for me,” Shipp said. “I never really knew how to play football at all, so jumping into something new was really exciting and interesting. And it was a lot of fun to be able to play with my friends and a great group of girls.”
That is part of the appeal for schools. The sport is accessible, requires less equipment than many other sports and can give a new group of girls a reason to stay connected to school through athletics.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ role in growing girls flag football
The Kansas City Chiefs have been one of the driving forces behind the growth of girls flag football in Kansas.
The organization helped launch and support the pilot program that grew from 11 schools in 2024 to 28 in 2025. Through the pilot program, teams received uniforms, flags and equipment needed to play games, removing startup costs that could have kept schools from trying the sport.
“I honestly don’t think flag football would be where it is right now without what the Chiefs have done,” Hillman said.
The Chiefs also led a “Let Her Play” campaign before Thursday’s vote, generating more than 11,000 petition signatures in support of sanctioning girls flag football in Kansas. Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, president Mark Donovan, general manager Brett Veach and coach Andy Reid also recorded a video message from the team’s draft room that was shared with decision-makers before the vote.
“The biggest conversation we’ve been having is allowing for all fans to participate in the game of football,” Lara Kroug, chief marketing officer for the Chiefs, said in a statement. “And by having a sanctioned sport for young women, it really unlocks opportunity. It unlocks scholarship opportunity, it gives a pathway.”
That pathway is becoming more visible.
Women’s flag football will be part of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Professional opportunities are beginning to emerge around the country. In Kansas, the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference already has 11 schools offering women’s flag football with some programs beginning to provide scholarships.
Now, girls flag football has legitimacy in Kansas high school sports. It has rules. It has a championship to chase. It has momentum in Wichita, Kansas City and across the country.
And most of all, it has girls who have been waiting for the chance to play.
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