GREEN BAY — Participation in tackle football has been down over the last 10-years in Wisconsin, but participation in flag football has gone up.
In this week’s Youth Sports: Beyond the Score we’re finding out why and one thing is for sure – this sport is for just about everybody.
“It's always smiles,” said Steven Childers, the founder of Fox River Classic youth football. “It's always a bunch of happy kids running around."
There are many reasons why kids love flag football:
“Flag football means when you score touchdowns and you do celebrations,” Jack Phillips said.
“Just getting the ball in my hands and running and getting flags,” Katlin Heneghn.
“It definitely expanded my outreach of friends and just meeting new people was very fun,” said Kacey Gutekunst.
According to the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), flag football is expected to overtake tackle football worldwide in terms of organized participation opportunities in the next few years.
“There's a lot of kids, they want to try it at an early age to just see if football is something that they want to do,” Childers said. “That’s why I think flag (football) is so popular”
A big reason is safety. Bob Kraft coaches his 9-year-old son Luke. Like a lot of parents, Kraft is debating whether to let his kid play tackle football because of concussions.
“Back when I was playing, there wasn’t much on it,” he said. “You got hit, you went back and played, you don’t really know what happened. Now I guess they know a lot more about it."
At Fox River Classic Youth Flag Football, leaders focus on techniques and teach kids the ins and outs of the sport.
“My 8 and under team, (on defense) they can sit there and disguise coverage and show that they’re in man coverage drop to a cover 2, cover 3 zones, Tampa 2,” Childers said. “it’s incredible that these 7 and 8-year-old kids can do that now.”
Ryan Angst, a parent and coach who has an 11-year-old son, says thanks to what he's learned in flag, he feels more comfortable with his son playing tackle.
“Because he's learning the right techniques now on how to pull flags,” Angst said. “It's almost the same as making the tackle, you want to get low, have both arms right there right at the hips and you wrap up. we’re just not wrapping up we’re just pulling the flag down."
Many parents tell NBC 26 they believe flag football is also more inclusive for female participants. Another reason for the sport's recent spike.
“To see these girls out here and understand how much they pour into it’s a lot of fun to watch them and just the desire that they have to come out and be successful with it,” Childers said.
In the past year, participation from girls has doubled at FRC. they’ve gone from 6 teams up to 12. Nationwide, studies show participation increased from 1 million girls to 1.6 million in 2023.
“I think girls football is a very, very underrated sport and should become a country-wide sport,” said Emma Beyer, a 9th grader at West De Pere. “just spread the word. maybe make it a WIAA sport someday."
