District Perspectives, House District 65B

The final whistle has blown on another season of Minnesota girls flag football.

At TCO Stadium, girls from across our state ran routes, pulled flags, called plays, trusted teammates, recovered from mistakes and left everything they had on the field. Some walked away with medals. Some walked away with disappointment. All of them walked away having proven something important.

They proved that girls flag football in Minnesota is not an experiment. It is not a novelty. It is not a passing trend waiting to be measured from a distance.

It is here. It is growing. And it deserves to be recognized.

As a young girl growing up on the West Side of St. Paul, I was always playing flag football with the boys in elementary school, oftentimes being the only girl on the field. I was the only girl who played flag football during recess, and I was always the first or second pick for the team. I had hands and speed back then. These are core memories that have stayed with me into womanhood. When I stepped on that field, I felt empowered, and it taught me teamwork, leadership, and perseverance. This is what I want all young girls to feel and take from this sport.

Now that the season has ended, the question moves from the field to the Minnesota State High School League: How do we meet this momentum with the structure and support it deserves?

The Minnesota State High School League recently tabled a proposal that would have moved girls flag football toward emerging status, an important step on the path to becoming a fully sanctioned varsity sport. I respect the League’s role in evaluating new athletic opportunities, and I understand that member schools need information, clarity and time to consider implementation. Responsible decisions require thoughtful process.

But thoughtful process should also keep opportunity moving forward.

In just two seasons, the number of Minnesota high school girls flag football teams has more than doubled, growing from 51 teams to 104. That kind of growth tells us something important. It tells us that girls want to play. It tells us that families are showing up. It tells us that coaches, schools and communities are investing their time, energy and belief. It tells us that this sport has already captured the imagination of young people across Minnesota.

The girls have made their case on the field.

Now our institutions must decide whether they will meet that momentum with the recognition and infrastructure it deserves.

Sanctioning matters because it turns opportunity into a pathway. It creates consistency, stability and legitimacy. It helps schools plan. It helps families understand what comes next. It helps coaches build programs that can last. Most importantly, it tells the girls who are already competing that their work is worthy of being taken seriously.

That message matters.

Sports shape young people in ways that reach far beyond a scoreboard. They teach discipline, teamwork, leadership and resilience. They teach students how to make a mistake and keep going. They teach them how to recover from failure, trust their teammates, compete under pressure and believe that effort can change what is possible.

Girls deserve full access to those lessons.

Girls flag football is especially meaningful because football holds such a powerful place in American life. It fills stadiums, defines weekends and brings communities together. It is woven into the culture of our schools, our families and our state. Yet for too long, girls have often been invited to stand near football, cheer for football and love football without being given equal opportunity to own space within it as athletes.

Girls flag football changes that.

It gives girls a place in the huddle. It gives them a chance to read the field, make decisions, lead their teammates and compete with purpose. It gives younger girls watching from the sidelines a message that is simple and powerful: there is room for you here too.

That is not merely symbolic. It is real opportunity.

At a time when we are all working to support the health, confidence and well-being of young people, we should take seriously any opportunity that gives students a structured, positive and meaningful place to belong. Girls flag football does that. It gives girls another way to discover their strength. It gives them another reason to stay connected to school, community and one another. It gives them another place to practice leadership before the world asks them to lead.

Minnesota also has an opportunity to act at an important national moment. More than 20 states already recognize girls flag football as a varsity sport. Flag football will be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and the sport is on track to crown an NCAA champion that same year. The pathway is growing at the high school, college and international levels.

Minnesota should not wait until the movement has passed us by.

Of course, implementation questions deserve serious attention. Scheduling matters. School capacity matters. Alignment with current MSHSL rules matters. Member schools deserve clarity and support as they consider what sanctioning would require.

But practical questions should be the work of progress, not the reason progress stops.

The growth of girls flag football shows that students are ready. The commitment of coaches, families, schools, the Minnesota Vikings and the Girls Football Advisory Committee shows that community support is strong. The next step is to bring that energy into a structure that can serve students across the state with fairness, consistency and care.

As a woman serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and as the mother of a daughter, I think about the messages we send girls about where they belong. I believe girls deserve more than encouragement. They deserve access. They deserve investment. They deserve institutions willing to recognize their talent, ambition and leadership.

When girls see other girls competing on the field, they see possibility. When they see that competition recognized by the adults and institutions around them, they see that their effort matters.

That message is bigger than one sport.

It is a statement about who we are as a state and what we believe our students deserve. It is a statement that Minnesota values opportunity not only when it is traditional, but when it is emerging. Not only when it has always existed, but when young people are helping build it in real time.

The girls who played this season are not asking us to imagine what might happen someday. They have already shown us. They have built teams. They have competed. They have led. They have recovered from mistakes. They have discovered confidence on the field and carried it with them beyond the game.

Now Minnesota should recognize them.

The Minnesota State High School League should move girls flag football forward toward emerging status and full sanctioning as a varsity sport.

The girls have taken the field. It is time for Minnesota to meet them there.