Club leagues join Colorado high schools in offering girls flag football
Colorado's next football star might be a girl.
Earlier this year, Colorado became the 11th state to make girls' flag football a sanctioned high school sport. Now, many youth leagues are offering the sport for the first time.
Ruby Schembri loves playing football.
"I like playing wide receiver or defensive end," said the 11-year-old.
She's usually one of the fastest on the field. She's also usually the only girl on her team.
"It's kind of fun being the only girl on some of these sports and showing the girls that you can do some other things that males have been doing for a while," Schembri said.
But this fall, that will change when Schembri joins the first-ever Raptors girls' flag football team.
"I'm excited to get to play with a bunch of girls and switch kind of from that environment over," Schembri said.
Castle Rock's Raptors are just one club under Arapahoe Youth League sports.
"We're, as far as I know, the largest youth sports organization in Colorado. We support the high schools by starting those athletes lower," said Mark Steinke, president of Raptors Athletics.
AYL is adding girls' flag football to all their leagues.
"The biggest motivating factor was that that's now a high school sport," Steinke said.
It means girls in grades 1-8 across the metro area will have the opportunity to play club football.
AYL will kick off the inaugural season with a girls' flag football clinic on Sept. 17, 22, and 29.
"It's free, it's non-contact, we're gonna provide all the materials, all the coaches, all the skills and drills," Steinke said.
It's a critical step in the sport's growth.
"A lot more colleges are bringing it on, so it's a scholarship program with colleges," Steinke said. "It's growing, it's probably one of the biggest growing sports that's out there right now."
Flag football will also be coming to the Summer Olympics in 2028.
"I just would like to be a big role model to those little girls out there who would be wanting to play," Schembri said.
And for girls like Schembri, it's just the beginning.
"I would like to play in high school and middle school and maybe one day get a college scholarship and do something with the sport," Schembri said.
Girls can register to take part in the league by the end of the first week of September.
