The Colts' "Road to 100" push to get 100 Hoosier high schools to commit to having a girls flag football team has already made major in-roads across Indiana. Nearly 60 programs are currently on board; once 100 schools in the state field a girls flag football team, the IHSAA will put girls flag football under consideration to be an officially-sanctioned sport.
The first 100 schools to join the "Road to 100" will receive a $10,000 support package from the Irsay family and Colts, which includes financial support, jerseys and a USA Football equipment kit. The total commitment from the Irsay family and Colts is $1 million toward growing girls flag football.
A dozen states – including Illinois, Indiana's neighbor to the west – already sanction girls flag football at the high school level. Indiana is one of 19 states with a pilot program.
The sport is exploding across the country, and T.J. Williams – the head women's flag football coach at the University of Saint Francis and also an assistant at Fort Wayne Northrop High School – doesn't want anyone to get left behind.
Especially in Indiana.
"I don't want anybody to miss the train on what women's flag is going to do," Williams said. "… I don't want anybody to miss out, and I don't want us to be the reason why we miss out. We can control it. So as long as we can control it, let's make sure that we do what need to do so we can give these women the opportunities. I want to make sure that there's so much there that you can't miss it. I want this to be the next big sport."
Williams has been coaching flag football for 10 years, but his most recent position at the University of Saint Francis – an NAIA school in Fort Wayne – has been part of a remarkable success story for the sport of women's flag football. Saint Francis offers scholarships for women's flag football student-athletes; he has five players on scholarship from Fort Wayne, as well as others from the Indianapolis area.
That girls flag football is a vehicle for women to attend college on a scholarship is not only a sign of the remarkable growth of the sport – it's a sign of the positive impact the sport can make.
"I think it's bigger than girls flag," Williams said. "I think it's just for women in general and having that platform. A big thing that I tell the girls that are getting recruiting by and are coming to the University of Saint Francis, I want to make sure they have the platform to grow as women around the country and to do what they need to be leaders of the next generation. It's important for them to get on this stage and then for them to have a vehicle that's going to pay for school, whether they're — for us — nursing or sports management or business or elementary education."
And Williams is encouraging anyone in charge of an athletic department – in this case, at the high school level in Indiana – to do their research about girls flag football. The sport will only continue to grow – especially in Indiana, where the state's biggest football brand is heavily promoting its development – and if a community doesn't offer girls flag at the high school level, it could risk losing top athletes to other communities or states.
"There's a lot of women that are coming to the forefront of the space that they might be next in the NFL in the grand scheme of things," Williams said. "Or they're getting on NFL staffs, you're seeing NFL officials, and other sports are growing it too. But specifically with football, it's so awesome to see. I think it's a blessing seeing these women get these opportunities and they're going to continue to pave the way in trailblazing."
Williams, too, has already played – and will continue to play – a big part in pushing the sport forward so girls can use it as a platform to elevate themselves not only within the sport of football, but with whatever they want to accomplish in life.
"We're in at a great time right now," Williams said. "I'm just putting it lightly — we're at such an optimal spot. I think with our university, specifically here at Saint Francis, they jumped on it at the right time and they're building it at the right time so that we can get in to ride the wave as it gets ready to go through its ebbs and flows."
The Colts have prioritized flag football development to introduce the game to new players and fans, especially girls, who traditionally have not had the same opportunities to learn and play the game as boys. The Colts Girls Flag program is fueled by Gatorade and sponsored in part by Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. For more info, visit Colts.com/GirlsFlag or email FootballDevelopment@colts.com.
