Girls flag football season kicks off at Bucs Preseason Classic as NCAA path widens

TAMPA, Fla. - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicked off their eighth annual Girls Flag Football Preseason Classic at the AdventHealth Training Center on Monday.

"It's our biggest year yet. We have hosted this now for eight years. It's the largest tournament in the country," Tampa Bay Buccaneers Chief Impact Officer Kourtney Sanchez said. "This year, we're expecting over 3,000 athletes and 126 teams to participate."

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Local perspective:

Tampa Bay area squads, including Alonso, Brandon, Manatee, Robinson and Plant, will compete in the classic, which takes place February 9-15. 

"Every year there's a huge jump in the competition. You see just every team getting a little bit better or even some teams getting a lot better every year, which is really fun," Robinson High School junior Sarah Williams, who plays linebacker, slot receiver and center, said. "The amount of teams that are at that higher level competitively, it's amazing to see."

When asked to describe the growth of this spot, players and coaches told FOX 13 that flag football has been a priority in Tampa Bay for a while now — and it shows. 

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"I think the biggest growth that I've seen is how young the girls are now. It was a fourth, fifth, sixth grade type of start for many of them. And now, the first-graders and second-graders are all playing organized flag football," Plant High School assistant coach Trey Korhn said. "And to see them come to high school already developed and with many of the skills that they didn't have when these girls started is great to see."

Dig deeper:

In January 2026, the NCAA officially added flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program. This designation is the gateway for a sport to potentially become an NCAA Championship sport with a title game, providing universities with the framework to offer varsity roster spots and opening doors to athletic scholarships.

"I would almost guarantee that there will be a player that plays this weekend that will win a national championship in the sport of flag football," Robinson head coach Joshua Saunders said. 

Additionally, flag football will make its debut in the 2028 LA Olympics — and that’s on some of the players’ radar.

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"She’s even talked about going to Oregon if they took her for flag football because she loves playing the sport. And she's like, I'll go anywhere that takes me. She just wants to keep playing," mom Sara Jones, whose daughter plays for Brandon High School, told FOX 13. "And then, you know, her and her teammates are like, we're doing the Olympics. We're going do it."

What's next:

For the third year in a row, the Bucs will host the FHSAA girls flag football state championships in May. 

"Girls drop out of sports at double the rate of boys," Sanchez told FOX 13. "And so, programs like our Preseason Classic, the FHSAA state championship games, they're all born out of this desire to keep girls in the game, keep them in sports so that they will become the future generation of Tampa leaders."