usatoday
Flag football's next frontier? Class of 2026 athletes highlight the answer and challenges When this years graduating seniors entered high school, the flag football landscape looked completely different.
It was only an officially sanctioned high school sport in four states; it hadnt been added to the 2028 Olympics, it wasnt on the NCAAs radar.
The freshman who came in (my year), they never expected to play college flag, said Gabby Werr, a graduating senior and quarterback at Alonso, one of the top high school flag football teams in the country.
Then it all just happened so fast.
The NCAA voted in May to recommend that all three divisions add a national flag football championship as soon as the spring of 2028.
The University of Nebraska announced the first Power 4 flag program.
The NAIA, a league composed of smaller colleges, grew its womens flag football teams from 15 to over 60 in five years.
Theres been a lot of change and a lot of scholarships.
Now, as they finish up their final high school season, a class of girls find themselves on the front end of flag footballs college foray, presented with new opportunities and a college landscape that's still figuring itself out.
For some, its completely altering their life paths I wasnt even planning to go to college.
I was going to go to cosmetology school, but the option came to me, and I took it, said Dominique Thomas, a Jackson State Community College flag football commit and for others, its shaking up what they thought their college experience would look like.
Lexi Albano and Isabella Castro, a pair of standouts from Tottenville High School in New York City, are two of the 2026 grads who have committed to play flag football at the next level, for Penn State Schuylkill and Manhattan University, respectively.
I didnt think I was going to play in college until maybe last year, said Albano.
Playing in college, watching it develop, its going to be like were a part of it, were building it.
(Younger players) are relying on us to pave the way, added Castro.
Not everybody else knew they had that opportunity and by us doing it, were showing they can do it too.
All of the classes behind the class of 2026 will graduate into a college flag landscape with a national championship, if all goes to plan with the NCAA, and presumably several active Power 4 programs.
Now, the younger the players are, the more focused they are on that next step.
If you ask the class thats going to graduate next year, half of them want to play in college or on scholarship, said Werr.
And then if you keep going, the girls who are younger, theyre fully expecting to play in college on scholarship.
Werr said she would be jumping for joy if she were a sophomore this year.
But for some graduating seniors this year, herself included, being on the front end of flags college growth has its downside: the type of options many athletes are looking for arent quite there yet.
The next frontier: Power 4 In many sports Werr, considered one of the top flag football athletes in her class, would be able to land herself at a school that fit her desire for a big college experience.
But in flag, where the only current Power 4 program, the University of Nebraska, wont play its first season until 2028, its more complicated.
The timing of the class of 2026s graduation means a large part of this cusp class is having to make tough decisions about school experience and sports.
Werr, who decided not to play on scholarship in college, is one of them.
It was a lot of weighing my options.
Im a very big school (person), I love football, I love going to bigger schools and having those big events, she said.
"The big schools that I was looking for didnt have flag at a scholarship level.
Its true.
But, as with everything else in flag football right now, a change to that could be coming soon and she, along with some Alonso teammates and presumably a number of athletes in her same position, has a contingency plan for if and when those big schools launch flag programs.
If flag becomes a big thing and it presents a bigger opportunity at these schools that I want to go (to), transferring or even being a part of that as an assistant or something always would be a path that I would want to go down, she said.
If the opportunity presented itself, I would 100% drop everything and go see if I can go do that.