High school athletics’ newest sport might be enjoying a grace period. And in this case, the grace might be the freedom that its practitioners have to just play, without the pressure of scholarships or club commitments or the like.
Girls flag football has exploded in popularity in just the couple of seasons since it became an official CIF sport, with 19,921 participants last fall according to the CIF state office’s figures. And in our annual August conversation with the CIF Southern Section commissioner, Mike West noted what seemed to have been a little known asset of the girls game, given the number of multi-sport athletes who have come on board.
“There’s so many athletes that were high-level club sport participants in volleyball and basketball and softball,” he said. “All of a sudden this new toy comes and it’s available to them where the pressures are off (and they can say) ‘I just want to go play and have fun.’
“And you really saw that the first two years. It was just a matter of just no pressures whatsoever as far as club participation and scholarships and all that. It’s just been fun. And so I think that really is a big piece of why so many of these high-quality athletes in other sports just took off on it, just because it was a release for them, if you will.”
Its day is coming, in all likelihood. Flag football is going to be an Olympic sport in 2028 – and that could lead to the institution of boys flag football as well – and in any event there will likely be college scholarships to play for, which would lead to club teams and personal coaches and all of the other stuff that adds those layers of pressure.
“We’re going to lose that naïvete, if you will, of back when it started,” West said. “But hopefully that rolls in slowly compared to other sports.”
Until then, consider it the antidote to the trend of sports specialization among high school athletes. And it’s interesting that at the very top levels of the sports pyramid, a good number of those who oversee the professional ranks occasionally wonder if those young athletes, who specialize precisely because they believe it will get them to the next level, might actually be setting themselves back. (See: Overuse of pitchers in youth baseball and the arm, shoulder and elbow injuries that have become epidemic at the top levels. There are other factors, for sure, but there’s evidence to suggest it starts young.)
“Specialization is probably here to stay,” West said, noting that unlike flag football, there is that pressure to play club or travel ball in every other sport to even have a chance at the next level.
But the logical conclusion here: There should be more sports like this iteration of flag football: Play for play’s sake.
“Think of it as a mental health break for our athletes,” West said. “When you can just, hey, go ahead and have fun and we don’t care if you do well or not from the family’s perspective, what a release that is.”
Among the other topics that the commissioner and I discussed:
Transfers: The numbers were up a bit in the Southern Section as of Aug. 1 – 336 requests processed compared to 296 for the 2024-25 school year, 43 valid change of residence transfers (compared to 42), 199 approved with a sit-out period (159 last year) and 16 approved with limited eligibility (compared to none in ’24-25). West said they were “down a tick” statewide, actually “the first time in a number of years where statewide transfers didn’t have an increased number.” And, he added, participation numbers overall (821,586) were up statewide last year, a 1.8% increase overall – and 3.1% for girls, thanks to flag football.
By now, limiting transfers is akin to putting the toothpaste back in the tube. Won’t happen.
“Is it going to continue? It’s likely to continue,” West said. “I think the families feel empowered. If they don’t get what they want, they get to go in and go other places. Grass is greener, if you will. And in many instances … a family has a right to make a choice for where they want their kid to be.
“It’s when they start doing it three or four or five or six times within a high school career. That’s when it really starts to be detrimental on an individual’s (athletic) and their academic experiences. … (The number who do that) is a small percentage, but it’s an irritating small percentage.”
NIL: Compensation for name, image and likeness is legal in California high school sports, to a point, for a reason most of us not have thought of.
“We’ve had athletes that have been child actors that have been able to make money off their name, image and likeness,” West said. “And so we’ve had rules that said those things are allowed as long as they’re completely separated from the school. … It’s only when you get into the point where somebody from a given high school is wearing their uniform and they’re selling a product, that’s where the problem exists and that can’t happen.”
Officials’ retention/fan behavior: Those issues tend to go hand in hand. Refs don’t always walk away because of what they hear from spectators, but it happens often enough to be a concern.
I asked West if he thought there might be more recognition among fans about setting a good example and not acting out.
“Anecdotally, I think I got fewer reports of problems with fan behavior” last season, he said. “But I don’t think that means that we’re going to take the foot off the gas when it comes to trying to (corral it). And the best example I can give is when it comes to our officials.”
Overall, both locally and nationally, retention – keeping officials beyond the three to five year window – is an issue, he said, “and a lot of those officials are leaving because of fan behavior comments and those types of things. It’s still a high priority … I can just say anecdotally, I didn’t get – we didn’t get the same types of things last year that we had the previous year.”
Transgender athletes: The state track meet in May became a national cause celebre when Jurupa Valley’s AB Hernandez participated in the high jump, triple jump and long jump, with the CIF amending its rules to allow Hernandez to share the high jump and triple jump gold medals with cisgender athletes who finished second. There was, as you might imagine, a storm of protest and invective from one side of the political divide – all the way up to the White House – directed at a teenager who just wanted to compete.
How would the Southern Section handle such situations going forward?
“The state did some things in acquiescing to the transgender athletes that were in track and field,” West said. “There’s not a full blown plan right now. So right now, the bottom line is this: The federal government and the Supreme Court will be listening and fielding that particular topic. I believe, in October is when they’re going to be fielding that. We’ll anticipate what transpires out of that.
“But right now, I can tell you that we are following state law in our own bylaws when it comes to how we’re working with our transgender athletes in our competition.”
Competitive equity playoff system: The change in the way playoff brackets are made, using the current season’s results to assign teams to divisions, made its debut last year in the remaining sports that hadn’t already used it, and by and large West considered it a successful rollout. Whether coaches thought so, of course, might depend on how well they adjusted to calling in their scores right away.
But the ultimate tests: “The data really showed that our games were closer pretty much across the board in all sports in our postseason play compared to not,” West said. “And again, we’ve had some great stories of schools that have been given opportunities to be successful in playoffs with our new system as compared to the old system, which is nothing but great news.”
New sports? Girls flag football might have broken the mold in the way it has taken off statewide. Are there other sports that could possibly be added to the Southern Section’s current roster of 20 for girls and 19 for boys?
“There’s nothing in the pipeline as far as something that is, ‘All right. There’s the heir apparent,’” West said, adding that they’ve gotten inquiries about adding pickleball or rugby “but there hasn’t been enough traction on either of those to really say, okay, we’ve got a hot button, we’re going to go.”
Traction, in essence, is a critical mass of schools interested in fielding teams and forming a league or leagues. That doesn’t exist yet.
“At the moment, I don’t see us adding any sports within the next couple of years,” he said. “But you never know.”
jalexander@scng.com