Girls' flag football is a high school sport in Alaska, and it's pretty rough

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During a 26-0 loss to South earlier this year, three Eagle River flag football players were knocked out of the game with concussions and a fourth was lost for the season with a broken collarbone.

That brutal evening in September turned a spotlight on the physical nature of a sport in which contact between players is supposed to be kept to a minimum, but – for a variety of reasons – often isn’t.

Since its 2005 introduction to Alaska as a girls-only high school sport in the Anchorage School District, flag football has been wildly popular. According to the district, 469 girls played flag football in 2013-14, making it the most popular girls’ sport by participation. For comparison, 406 girls played volleyball, 379 played soccer, 311 ran track and 247 played basketball.

It’s also become more competitive, drawing some of the best athletes in the city to a noncontact version of football in which tackles are recorded by pulling an offensive player’s flag from around her waist.

As the sport has evolved, so has the way the game is played. In the first couple of years, coaches say strategy was more basic and contact was limited.

But as players and coaches in the Cook Inlet Conference became more savvy, they naturally began trying to test the limits of the rules. Play become rougher.

“I think it’s evolved as it’s become a more competitive high school sport,” said Megan Hatswell, the ASD’s coordinating assistant principal in charge of flag football.

Bartlett coach Steve Stansbury said he saw the game starting to change when coaches began drawing up plays that called for more downfield blocking.

“Having pulling guards changed things a lot,” he said.

Hatswell said the game changed as coaching strategy became more sophisticated.

“As we’ve had more kids getting involved, I think the coaching staffs have tried to evolve with that,” she said.

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