Oregon School Activities Association

The OSAA delegate assembly on Monday voted to designate girls flag football as an emerging activity.

The sport met the threshold of 25 schools to be eligible for the vote. It will be considered an emerging activity for the next two years, and if it reaches 50 schools by the end of that period, it would be eligible to become an officially sanctioned OSAA sport.

Flag football, a 7-on-7 game played on an 80-yard field, debuted in the spring of 2023 with eight teams. This past spring, it expanded to 32 schools and 575 players. South Salem, St. Mary's Academy and South Eugene had enough players to field two teams.

The teams played a six-week schedule, during which some of them played as many as 10 games. The teams were divided into eight geographic pods, with the No. 1 teams advancing to the eight-team state tournament May 11 at the Nike campus in Beaverton. South Salem won the championship.

Eleven state associations have sanctioned flag football and 17 others are in various stages of pilot programs. California voted to sanction it last year and Colorado approved it this year. Washington voted it down in May.