Here's what to know about Minnesota's new girls flag football league

Last spring, four schools participated in a pilot girls flag football program sponsored by the Vikings.

This year, they brought friends.

In late April, 51 high schools will begin competing in Minnesota's widespread rollout of girls flag football. Games will be played on Sunday, allowing athletes to double-dip and play flag football alongside spring sports such as softball, lacrosse, golf or track.

Organized and sponsored by the Vikings, the spring league is not sanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League but is a step toward formalizing the sport at the high school level.

"[Our goal] is just growing the sport to a level where we can begin talking about what that sanctioning process looks like," said Joe Rush, the Vikings' youth and high school football manager. "We're in the business of removing barriers and creating equitable access to this opportunity for young girls in our region."

As flag football gains traction ahead of its debut in the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, the local high school league is part of what the Vikings hope might be a "pipeline" for local talent, with the Upper Midwest's six-team college league announced in early March.

Who will play

After last year's four-team pilot season ended, the Vikings spent the summer and fall reaching out to football coaches and activities directors, "canvassing the state" to recruit new schools, Rush said.

Of the 51 teams participating, 10 are based outside the seven-county Twin Cities metro area. All teams are at public schools with the exception of Benilde-St. Margaret's and DeLaSalle. All seven traditional Minneapolis Public Schools will host programs.

Participating schools include Hopkins, Lakeville North and Lakeville South, Rochester Mayo, Roseville, Simley, St. Cloud Tech, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown and Woodbury.

Roseville's team of roughly 20 girls is comprised largely of student-athletes looking to try something new, Roseville activities director Andrea Schmidt said.

"We've had girls in the past who wanted to play [tackle] football," Schmidt said. "We thought this might be a great option for some of those girls."

The Vikings' $600,000 commitment for the league will go toward coaching, officiating, transportation and equipment costs. Though the schools can chose to administer the sport as they see fit, for many, that meant reduced or eliminated participation fees. This is the first sport at Roseville that Schmidt has seen offered to all eligible students free of charge.

Schools that opted not to field a team most often cited "unconfirmed amount of interest," Rush said. The Vikings hope an expanded season might fuel enough interest to field 80-100 teams in the next few years.

How it works

With the exception of a seven-team Minneapolis City conference, teams will be grouped into pods of four. In the monthlong regular season, team will compete in four Sunday doubleheaders of 5-on-5 flag football before entering into division playoffs.

The top team in each group will be invited to compete in a 12-team state championship tournament at TCO Stadium, the Vikings practice facility in Eagan on Monday, June 9.

Two years of at least 20 schools competing interscholastically is required for the MSHSL to consider granting a sport "emerging status," the first step in league sanctioning.

Certain logistics of the league — such as time of year, competition format and which day of the week games will be played — could change in the future, especially with potential sanctioning, Rush said. The current league structure provides "flexibility in the short term," he added.

Athletic associations in 14 states have sanctioned flag football so far, while others field pilot programs.