A milestone for girls flag football
The second annual CIAC girls flag football tournament kicked off this week, bringing together 23 teams that will contest 23 games over four days across six sites in Connecticut.
The field has grown dramatically from the inaugural event a year ago, which featured just 10 squads, and the competition now crowns champions in two divisions — Class L and Class M — with 14 teams in the larger class and nine in the smaller.
Organizers say the brackets were shaped by a mix of enrollment size, historic pedigree, geographic proximity and traditional scheduling considerations, a formula that has helped concentrate the action in the state's central region.
Windsor will serve as the hub for Friday and Saturday pool play, and will also host the semifinals and finals on May 30‑31, cementing its role as the nexus of high school girls flag football in the state.
While the tournament showcases talent from across the state, the vast majority of participants — 18 of the 23 squads — come from the CCC/CRAL combined league, a coalition that has been operating for four years, and even Post University has entered the spotlight by fielding Connecticut's first collegiate varsity flag football team this spring.
Despite the growing interest, girls flag football remains a club sport in Connecticut; the CIAC organizes the state tournament but has yet to sanction the game as a varsity offering, a status that requires at least 20 percent of the CIAC's 184 member schools to field a varsity team.
Nationwide, more than 40 states now sponsor girls high school flag football in some capacity, but only 19 plus Washington D.C. have elevated it to varsity competition, and the sport is slated to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Games.