For players Bella Heile and Lexi Brecht, last season began with uncertainty.
“Everyone kind of doubted us at the beginning of the year,” Heile said. “Then we came out and kind of proved everyone wrong. Everyone started being excited — it was this whole Cincinnati thing.”
That excitement wasn’t just local. Professional football organizations like the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns reached out to Ohio high schools, encouraging them to form girls flag football teams and offering resources to get started.
Badin head coach Mike Sebastian, a basketball coach by trade, had to learn the sport from scratch.
“First thing was Google,” Sebastian said. “We had to learn everything. The Bengals did a great job with trainings, and there was NFL material we had access to that really helped.”
That crash course paid off quickly. Badin surged all the way to the 2025 state championship — and won.
“All in one season,” Sebastian said. “It was incredible. We actually ran an illegal play on our very first play. So yeah, we had a lot to figure out.”
Flag football’s appeal goes beyond trophies. Players say it’s a sport where speed, agility and effort matter more than size.
“You don’t have to be the biggest or the strongest,” Brecht said. “It’s about speed, agility and wanting to play.”
That accessibility is driving explosive growth statewide. Ohio had fewer than 20 girls flag football teams in the early 2020s. By last season, that number climbed to around 80, and projections show more than 160 varsity teams could be competing in the near future.
“We were at about 20 teams last year,” Sebastian said. “And it looks like they’re doubling that this year.”
The momentum doesn’t stop at high school. Girls flag football has now been added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, officially placing it on the pathway toward becoming a full NCAA championship sport. That move opens the door to college teams, scholarships and national competition — opportunities that didn’t exist just a few years ago.
For Heile and Brecht, the message to others considering the sport is simple.
“Just get out and try,” Heile said. “There’s bound to be something you’re good at if you really want to.”
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