{"id":247896,"date":"2026-05-29T16:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247896\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T16:56:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T16:56:45","slug":"girls-flag-football-grows-in-the-diocese-of-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/247896\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls’ Flag Football Grows in the Diocese of Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"\"\"The Msgr. McClancy Crusaders (top) and St. Francis Prep Terriers (lower right) are the newest varsity girls\u2019 flag
football teams in the Diocese of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Flag football \u2014 especially among women and girls \u2014 has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the country.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s gotten so big, in fact, that the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games will feature the sport for the first time ever.<\/p>\n

On the local level, Xaverian H.S., Bay Ridge<\/a>, was the first Brooklyn Diocesan Catholic high school to join the CHSAA\u2019s flag football league and now plays in the \u2018AAA\u2019 division.<\/p>\n

This spring, two Queens schools joined the varsity \u2018AA\u2019 division ranks: St. Francis Prep, Fresh Meadows, and Msgr.\u00a0 McClancy H.S., East Elmhurst.<\/p>\n

The diocesan CHSAA is all about inclusivity and giving as many student-athletes as possible a chance to play the sports they love. Flag football has created another spring sport opportunity for girls, many of whom have never played before but have been captivated by the sport\u2019s growing popularity.<\/p>\n

Last school year at the Prep, Joe Bernardini, the defensive coordinator and special teams coach for the Terriers\u2019 freshman boys\u2019 football team, was the moderator of a girls\u2019 flag football club, given the interest level the students showed.<\/p>\n

That club became a fully sanctioned CHSAA sport this spring. Of the 20 girls on the roster, only four of them had ever played flag football before entering high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball is a great game, but for years, it\u2019s been a boys-only sport,\u201d said Bernardini, the team\u2019s head coach and also a math teacher at St. Francis. \u201cNow, girls have a chance to show that they can play too. There are some girls out here that could find a spot on the boys\u2019 team. That\u2019s how good these girls are.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: St. Francis de Sales Displays Girl Power on the Gridiron<\/a><\/p>\n

In the beginning, it was all about learning the basics of the sport, including formations and terminology. As the season progressed, the Terriers became more comfortable on the field and began to mesh as one cohesive unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the team bonding and how we can all go out in practice together as one,\u201d said Olivia Povalitis, a sophomore wide receiver and team co-captain from Bellerose. \u201cLearning how everyone plays the sport is great, and especially seeing how everyone communicates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it\u2019s new, I feel like flag football offers a lot more opportunities to girls who are athletic,\u201d said Alexa Pineda, also a sophomore wide receiver and team co-captain who hails from Immaculate Conception parish in Jamaica. \u201cFlag football is a team sport that helps build coordination, and it helps you with other sports. You need to know the basics of the sport to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over at Msgr. McClancy, girls\u2019 flag football is the fifth new CHSAA sport added in the last two school years. The athletic administration has listened carefully to its students\u2019 requests to bring new sports into the school; it\u2019s the old adage at play: \u201cIf you build it, they will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

This past fall, McClancy held an interest meeting for girls\u2019 flag football, and nearly 100 students attended. The varsity squad this season featured 24 girls of varying skill sets to create a well-rounded team.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball is our country\u2019s most popular sport, so this is a great way for our girls to experience high school football,\u201d said Crusaders head varsity girls\u2019 flag football coach Jonathan Hili.<\/p>\n

At the collegiate level, there are over 50 schools sponsoring women\u2019s flag football. It\u2019s being fast-tracked.<\/p>\n

Many of the skills in flag football are similar to regular football: blocking, catching, running, and throwing. The main difference of course is that tackling is replaced by pulling flags, offering a much safer option for female student-athletes who love the strategy and fast-paced nature of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in football and really love watching football with my dad, so when I heard my school was starting up a team, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to start,\u201d said McClancy senior Ruth Madariaga.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited to hear that we were going to have the opportunity to play flag football at McClancy,\u201d said sophomore Alicia Campos. \u201cIt\u2019s like a second family to me. It\u2019s great to motivate young female athletes to play new sports, especially since women\u2019s sports are on the rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

These schools made history this spring, and these student-athletes will always remember being part of a pioneering group of young women carving a new path within the diocesan sports scene.<\/p>\n

Instead of just watching football, they have now joined the gridiron action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Msgr. McClancy Crusaders (top) and St. Francis Prep Terriers (lower right) are the newest varsity girls\u2019 flagfootball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-247896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}