Fastest Growing Sport? Flag Football.

According to Sports Illustrated, flag football is the fastest growing girls' high school sport in Florida. That’s incredible. I didn’t even know that flag football was a sanctioned high school sport in any state. Florida is one of only two states, along with Alaska, in which it is played at that level.

Sports Illustrated reported that in 1998, the first year Florida began tracking flag football participation, 17 schools fielded girls' teams. Five years later the Florida High School Athletic Association recognized flag football as an interscholastic sport and began holding a state championship; now more than 4,000 girls at 146 schools participate.

Flag football is, indeed, growing rapidly. So much so that it may be thinning the field of athletes for traditional spring sports such as softball and track. Now if I could relive my high school years, I would never choose to play flag football over softball. Ever. But I can understand how the girls’ track team would be susceptible to losing the most athletes to flag football. I would much rather run a fly pattern and catch a football than run open 400s all day.