Over the years, OH athletics has grown its variety of sports and gender opportunities. This past school year, IHSA approved girls’ flag football as an official club. OH, athletics immediately took action to introduce this new opportunity for the students.
According to soccer coach and counselor Abigail Jambor, “Fighting to make flag football a sport [for] IHSA and a part of that is promoting that you have a male sport in that genre that does make passive income, but why shouldn’t that be easily accessible to the females?”
Jambor is working to give high school girls more access to certain sports, like football, by making them a general sport and not gendering it so that both genders can play.
OH junior Mariah Rosales states, ”I do feel as though girls do not want to participate in football because of their size compared to other players on the team. I do feel that Girls Flag Football is a perfect opportunity for girls who hold back because of this reason.”
Giving girls this opportunity is another way to get rid of the idea of gender stereotypes and helps to build an environment that is enjoyable and open to all, giving those who have been holding back the chance to be able to finally participate.
“This process has been going on for years, IHSA has recently added girls flag football as a sport. However, at our school, for an activity to become a sport it must be a club first,” said Assistant Athletics Director Mark Johnson. “[N]ext school year it is technically considered a club, however, that following year, 2025-2026, it will hopefully be able to be carried on into a sport.”
Despite being a club for the 2024-25 school year, girls will have the opportunity to play against others as a team.
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