OHSAA won't sanction girls flag football yet, but NEO flag will remain – News-Herald

Doug Ute, executive director of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, and deputy commissioner Tim Stried discussed the status of high school girls flag football in Ohio at OHSAA headquarters in Columbus on May 9 (John Kampf – The News-Herald )

COLUMBUS — High school girls flag football will not become a sanctioned sport by the Ohio High School Athletic Association next year, but area officials hope it will sooner rather than later.

OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute, members of the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals and others from around the state joined a Zoom meeting on May 9 to discuss the basics of how girls' flag football could be approved by the prep's governing body Sports in Ohio.

“Girls (flag football) won’t be a sport next year,” Ute said before the Zoom meeting at a conference at the OHSAA offices attended by media from across Ohio, “but that doesn’t mean we won’t sponsor it ( in the future).”

The NEO Flag Association held its annual playoff tournament at Cleveland Browns Stadium on May 6, with 26 high school varsity teams competing in a tournament where Kirtland defeated Berkshire in the championship game. But speaking to members of the media, Ute said girls flag football is “kind of a Cleveland scene” and that it hasn't yet caught on in other areas of the state.

To be sanctioned, a “certain number” of teams across the state must be involved, Ute said. Girls Flag Football also needs to adapt to the high school football coaches association bylaws, which Gennine Berwald said has already happened.

Berwald, the wife of NEO Flag vice president and co-founder Bob Berwald, who is also heavily involved with the organization, joined Ute and others in the Zoom meeting.

“It’s already governed by the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association,” Berwald said. “They adopted us under their roof, so Doug was happy to hear that.”

A big topic is participation. While 26 teams participated in the NEO Flag Tournament earlier this week, the only other representation across the state, Berwald said, is the six-team tournament that will be held in Cincinnati next weekend. That's a total of 32 teams across the state participating in tournaments sponsored by the Browns and Bengals.

“I looked up girls field hockey and their state tournament,” Berwald said of one of the OHSAA-sanctioned sports, “and there were 38 schools.”

She said Ute mentioned to her a desired “S-curve” of participation, which would mean participation in Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown, Columbus and Cincinnati. So far this has not been implemented.

“We will work with it and see,” Ute told media representatives. “We have an emerging sports category. You have to have a certain number of teams. That's what we did (before we sanctioned lacrosse). We will see. It’s really being promoted by the NFL across the country.”

A point noted by Deputy Commissioner Tim Stried: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sport or activity promoted so heavily. I don’t know how much money the NFL puts into their marketing campaign, but girls wrestling wasn’t like that at all.”

Girls wrestling has been an OHSAA sanctioned sport for two years. Previously it was run by the State Ring Trainers Association.

Bob Berwald said when girls wrestling and boys volleyball were recently sanctioned, it was with a formula and format that already applied to boys wrestling and girls volleyball. That's not the case with girls flag football, which is starting from scratch in Ohio.

There are currently 11 states that sanction flag football for high school girls, with Washington expected to soon be No. 12.

“I was hoping to get a little more feedback (from the OHSAA) on what our next steps should be,” Gennine Berwald said. “Who else can we turn to? What else can we do? Can you give us names of athletic directors we can contact?”

The OHSAA has made it clear what steps must be taken to be sanctioned – growth in sports and in an association. Bob Berwald said he believes the process is backwards.

“They want the work done and then they will put their stamp on it,” he said. “I think if they approve it, we will work on it together and it will take off.”

Gennine Berwald said the process is not yet complete. She said she and the NEO Flag organization are committed to getting high school girls flag football sanctioned sooner rather than later.

“We're going to get there. We're not going to stop,” she said. “We're going to get this sanctioned and get the girls playing the sport they grew up playing. I hope we give them the opportunity in the next few years can play.”