Eagles’ fifth annual girls’ flag football championship highlights local growth
Pennsylvania and New Jersey have sanctioned girls’ flag football as a high school sport. Some Philly-area schools experienced their first PIAA season, while South Jersey will begin in 2026-27.
When Juli Short was a freshman at Gwynedd Mercy Academy four years ago, there were fewer than 15 players on the girls’ flag football team. By her junior year, that number doubled.
This year, Short and 44 other girls repeated as Pennsylvania flag football champions during the fifth annual Eagles girls’ flag football championships on Monday.
“It has just shown how much the program is growing and how much people are enjoying playing flag,” Short said. “Seeing all the other teams and how they’ve grown as well … it’s just been huge to watch that.”
The Monarchs beat Academy at Palumbo, 33-13, for the title, while Williamstown beat Pleasantville, 20-0, in the New Jersey championship. Both games took place at the Eagles’ Jefferson Health Training Complex.
But the biggest winner on Monday was the sport itself.
Gwynedd Mercy isn’t the only school that has experienced significant program growth in recent seasons, and Monarchs coach Tim Quinn expects to see a lot more.
In 2024, the PIAA sanctioned girls’ flag starting with the 2025-26 season. Quinn said there’s been a lot of growth in places where the sport wasn’t previously popular.
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“The growth we’re going to see is in the middle of the state,” Quinn said. “I know there are a number of advocates working very hard to get girls the opportunity in the middle of the state, because Pittsburgh is strong and Philadelphia is strong, and we think that growth is going to be tremendous.”
Earlier this month, New Jersey became the latest state to make flag football a sanctioned sport beginning in the 2026-27 school year.
Williamstown coach Jaime Land said this move will “give a lot of girls more respect” for their athletic abilities.
“I don’t think a lot of people know what women are capable of, and it just gives us another platform to share what we can do,” Land said.
Flag has presented lasting impacts for those involved in the game, including Palumbo’s Tascianna Xavier, who became the first player from the school to receive a college scholarship. She’ll play at Chestnut Hill College next year.
“The growth is unbelievable, and I think it’s really a tribute to the sport that it has caught on so fast,” Palumbo coach Chris Donnelly said. “So many girls have just gotten in there and grabbed a hold of it and just been enthralled by it, by the entire experience.”
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Xavier, whose first love was basketball, said she knew she was too short to have any real future in the sport. However, she grew up watching football and wanted to play.
Flag football has made that possible.
“We are very grateful to know that [the Eagles are] on our side and they support us with this sport being for mainly women,” Xavier said.
Donnelly said her team thinks “they’re like junior Eagles” because of the opportunities the organization has afforded them, from meeting the players to competing on their practice field for Monday’s championship.
But it’s deeper than those experiences.
While not everyone will play in college, Donnelly said the experience of participating in a high school sport is one that she and her all-woman coaching staff have benefited from.
“It’s so much about finding yourself, finding your voice, and getting your confidence,” Donnelly said. “And I think that’s what this has done for so many girls.”