Original Publish Date/Outlet: August 7, 2026| Minnesota Star Tribune
Article Link: https://varsity.startribune.com/minnesota-girls-flag-football-players-urge-mshsl-to-sanction-sport/601874722
On Tuesday, Rosemount flag football players roamed the Vikings’ museum and practice facility. Players spent the morning helping lead and coach a youth girls flag football clinic hosted by the Vikings before viewing the new Rosemount High School girls flag football championship display in the museum.
As that was happening, more than 100 miles away in Deerwood, Minnesota State High School League board members and high school athletic administrators continued their discussion over sanctioning the sport.
Among the issues raised by board members and athletic directors that day was the current format in Minnesota. In a statewide league sponsored by the Vikings, teams play 5-on-5. The rulebook created by the national governing body of high school athletics states the sport must be played 7-on-7. There are also logistical questions. For spring sports, the football stadiums are being used for lacrosse and track and field. Girls flag football would add to that list.
In June, the MSHSL’s board of directors tabled a proposal to give girls flag “emerging status,” the last stop in the progression toward full sanctioning and typically takes 2-5 years. By sanctioning the sport, the MSHSL would adopt standardized rules, regulate student eligibility and operate a state tournament.
While administrators debate, Rosemount’s players have a clear opinion regarding the legitimacy of girls flag football in Minnesota: It’s time for the sport to be officially sanctioned by the MSHSL.
Talia Vescio, Strib Varsity’s 2026 Girls Flag Football Player of the Year, believes sanctioning the sport would give it legitimacy and commonality with other high school sports.
“I think getting the sport sanctioned really helps with its notoriety,” said Vescio, Rosemount’s quarterback who this past June helped the Irish win the statewide girls flag football league sponsored by the Minnesota Vikings. “It just brings a sort of like closeness to all of the other Minnesota state-sanctioned sports, too. I play a bunch of sports and knowing that I have football that’s there and it’s sanctioned … everyone respects it, everyone knows about it. I think that’s something that’s really just important.”
MSHSL executive director Erich Martens said a vote for girls flag “emerging status” could come in October or December.
Liv Owusu, who scored four touchdowns in Rosemount’s championship game, graduated this spring and will play basketball at Milwaukee Area Technical College this fall. Owusu said making flag football a sanctioned sport will increase its popularity and provide new opportunities for younger girls.
“I think more people would know about it,“ Owusu said. ”And you get more people to find sports that they like and they get new experiences.”
Looking ahead
Since 2024, a girls flag football league in the state has been organized and produced by the Vikings and the Girls Football Advisory Committee.
In 2024, the Vikings created a pilot program comprised of four teams: Rosemount, La Crescent-Hokah, Houston and Pine Island High.
In the spring of 2025, the Vikings signed up 51 teams for an inaugural league. Mahtomedi won the first title over La Crescent-Hokah 36-20.
For the 2026 season, the number of teams in the Vikings-sponsored league more than doubled in size, with 104 high schools participating. Rosemount took home the second state championship, dominating Rogers 45-12.
Exposure of the sport at the collegiate and Olympic level excites both Vescio and Owusu. The NCAA and the Olympics are providing post-high school opportunities for girls to play flag football.
The International Olympic Committee approved the inclusion of men’s and women’s flag football at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The sport will be played in a 5-on-5 format.
“I’m excited to watch,” Owusu said.
An opportunity to play in the Olympics is a high goal, but also an incredible opportunity, Vescio said.
“It’s really gaining national knowledge too, not even just Minnesota but in the country,” she said. “And I’m just going to be really excited to watch it. The women’s team is going to be in it. I mean, they can take it all.”
The NCAA added women’s flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program in January, creating a pathway to having an official college championship for the sport. Forty schools planned to sponsor flag football for the 2025-26 season, and 60 teams plan to do so in 2026, meeting the NCAA’s 40-program requirement for contest requirements. If all three divisions approve the NCAA-recommended National Collegiate Flag Football Championship, the first championship could happen as early as 2028.
Vescio, who has played flag football for the past three years, is inspired by the sport’s progress, including learning that California high schooler Makena Cook received a scholarship offer from the University of Nebraska to play women’s flag football.
“My first goal is to go find a college that I love,” Vescio said. “But if there’s football there, that’s just an incredible added bonus. Being able to play a sport that I love and to get that opportunity is something that I will be just happy with forever.”
Over the next several years, Vescio hopes sanctioning the sport leads to more athletes and communities emotionally invested in its growth.
“I want to see the sport that I know it can be,” she said.
Star Tribune reporter Joe Christensen contributed to this report.