With girls flag football growing, a new league has launched in the State College area
Girls are hitting the gridiron in State College.
For the first time, the Nittany Valley Sports Centre is offering a girls flag football league with two age divisions: grades 3-5 and 6-8.
The season began March 19 with a combine and practices are every Wednesday with games on Saturdays. The regular season is four weeks followed by two weeks of playoffs.
In the program’s inaugural year, the Nittany Valley Sports Centre is expecting to have about four teams with roughly six to seven girls on each. The league was launched as girls flag football experiences rapid growth across the country, and months after the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association sanctioned girls flag football.
“It’ll start small, but big things tend to have small beginnings,” program coordinator Steve Greecher said.
The Nittany Valley Sports Centre opened in 2019 with its indoor turf field, a half basketball court, batting cages and a loft of additional exercise space. Funding it received in 2020 expanded the building in 2021, providing five full basketball courts that allow the NVSC to host a variety of events.
Flag football programs have run since the winter of 2019 and Greecher joined in 2021. The NFL franchises youth flag programs across the country and provides them with equipment and flags.
“Folks that sign up get their own NFL Jersey and it’s a real NFL Jersey, so the Bucks look like the Bucks, the Saints look like the Saints, etc ...” Greecher said. “It really just helps us to have the infrastructure to run the program itself.”
The NFL is committed to growing girls flag football nationally in high schools. During Super Bowl LIX, it ran the “Girls 50” commercial to highlight the movement.
In September, PIAA made flag football an official sport for girls starting in the 2025-26 school year. The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers have sponsored teams throughout the state, but none have started in Centre County yet.
However, teams in local schools could be coming soon.
“Our North Star every day is working to provide opportunities for students and student-athletes and if [flag football] represents a new path they might not have thought of prior to this, we will always support that,” State College Athletic Director Loren Crispell said.
State College has generated interest and Crispell said girls flag football will be offered in some capacity next spring, though it may be only at the intramural level because “there doesn’t seem to be a surge locally.”
Student-athletes would have the option to participate in flag football as well as other spring sports such as softball.
“One of our primary goals would be to make sure we’re not taking student-athletes from other existing teams, or at a minimum giving them the option to do both,” Crispell said.
Before the high school level, Nittany Valley Sports Centre offers girls an introduction to flag football, one that Greecher said can benefit both local schools and the athletes.
“We want to have a natural feeder set up [for the high schools], for people to have a pathway to play football and do it in our building,” he said.
Once the PIAA made it official, Greecher and the Nittany Valley Sports Centre didn’t waste much time before taking the opportunity to start their own program. Greecher said he knew there would be a strong interest, especially with how football-driven the State College and Centre County area is with Penn State football at its doorstep.
The most important thing for Greecher, like Crispell, is generating new opportunities — especially for younger girls.
“The more sports that kids play just makes you a better overall athlete,” Greecher said. “The point of playing sports is to challenge yourself, to try something different, to do things that ultimately you can accomplish and then come out on the other side and have a more confident and stronger person as a result.”
For more info on NVSC’s program visit: thecentrepa.com/nittany-valley-sports-centre/youth-flag-football-leagues.
