A stifled breath can be heard as the football flies in a perfect arch. “TOUCHDOWN!” Cheers erupt from the audience as senior Jasmine Bernardino, San Mateo High School’s left wide receiver, completes an excellent pass from quarterback senior Lily Benard. Girls’ flag football is SMHS’s newest sport, yet its history is anything but recent.
Flag football originated in mid-1900s U.S. military bases as a way of entertaining and exercising soldiers and was brought back home with them after WWII ended. This eventually stemmed into recreational leagues and piqued the interest of college students in the 40s and 50s. However, the National Women’s Flag Football Association, the first-ever league for women, was only established in 1995.
After increasing popularity and a push to decrease the gap between male and female athletes, California passed a mandate earlier in 2023 to establish girls’ flag football in high schools. According to Statista, “the number of girls involved in high school sports in the United States declined to 3.24 million in 2021/2022,” while “almost 4.4 million boys also participated.” And with flag football being one of the fastest-growing sports, it is an invaluable addition to San Mateo’s extracurriculars. It has even been added to the 2028 Olympics!
Flag football is quite similar to tackle football and rugby but highlights non-contact gameplay as well as speed and agility, making it the perfect sport for anyone! San Mateo’s games have 14 players on the field, seven on offense and seven on defense. There are two 20-minute halves and a running clock counting down until the last two minutes before changing to a stop clock. Flag pulls are utilized instead of tackling and the sport lacks fumbles, field goals, and punts.
Ms. Dybdahl, one of the health teachers here at San Mateo High, along with Ms. Gorgani, an AVID and English teacher, are the spirited coaches of girl’s flag football. “I played flag football when I was younger and then just took up a new interest in it a couple years ago,” Ms. Dybdhal comments. “I learned that I really enjoy being with Bearcat students outside of the classroom” and that “athletics are a really important part of the school community…I don’t think I necessarily appreciated it [when I was in high school] as much as I do now.”
Although a widely participated and loved sport, flag football is still growing and has room for improvement. “I do wish that it was an official league sport and that we got to showcase our athleticism just a bit more, but other than that, it’s just even better than I ever imagined,” adds Ms. Dybdahl. SMHS’s flag football players practice four days a week on the baseball or football field and have a game every Wednesday. They have had a promising start to their season with more to come! “We got our first win guys…shoutout to [Jasmine for] getting all the touchdowns,” Ocean Strauli, a rusher on the team, remarks when asked about the best part of the season.
With flag football now a readily available fall sport at San Mateo, Ms. Dybdahl asserts, “We are a growing program so if you are interested in trying out next year I encourage you to come out, participate in any summer practices or clinics or skill work that we have, and go Bearcat sisters!!”