Girls' Flag Football To Hopefully Destroy Any Notions Of 'Powderpuff'
LatestFriday Night Lights may be dead and gone (never forget!), but Jess Merriweather would be glad to hear that the people at the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) are considering girls’ flag-football for the New York school system.
Founded in 1903, PSAL’s goal is to get as many students involved in athletics as possible, and they have a long-history of promoting nontraditional sports, like cricket, fencing, and double-dutch. So if I had grown up in New York I could’ve done double-dutch after school instead of the Hell-on-Earth that is cross-country?
According to school officials, PSAL might just be on to something, because girls really want to play football. “We put a sign-up sheet out and it was filled so we had to put another one out,” says Goldstein High School athletic director Henrietta Staub. She says her school would definitely participate in a flag football league. According to Donald Douglas, PSAL’s executive director, they would need 15 to 20 schools to get the project off the ground.
So far things are looking good, meaning we might be nearing a time when we no longer have to refer to girls playing “boy” sports as “powderpuff.” There was a strong turnout at a recent clinic for potential athletes and coaches, with several established boys coaches showing interest in coaching the girls. Even the NFL has weighed in in support. No word yet as to what Coach Taylor thinks, but my guess is he’d “clear eyes full hearts” the shit out of the pre-game inspirational speech for a bunch of lady footballers.