Girl’s Football Coming to High Schools in New York

Another sports option is coming to Western New York for High School girls and it's sure to be exciting.

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The New York State Public High School Atheltic Association (NYSPHSAA) announced a new partnership with New York's 3 NFL teams to bring flag football to New York High Schools as a varsity-level sport. This new partnership will start out with 48 New York High Schools in a pilot program and is being funded in part by the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, and New York Giants.

The season is slated to begin in April 2022 with teams playing between 6 and 8 games during their season. Games will feature a 7 versus 7 and they will play on a regulation-sized football field. The exact rules that the teams will play under are still being formulated by the NFL and NYSPHSAA.

There are 12 teams in Western New York who are a part of this pilot program and will field a team this spring. Those teams are:

I had a chance to communicate with Jovohn Owens, who is BuffSci's Athletic Director, and during our talk, I asked about how the school is preparing to be one of the first schools in the state to field a football team. We also discussed if the young women of BuffSci were excited about the opportunity to play football for their school

Our girls are ecstatic. I began by letting them know that they will be true pioneers in all aspects when participating in this girls flag football league and that already piqued interest. Once I let them know that the Buffalo Bills were involved in sponsoring that was a beautiful cherry on top.
-Jovohn Owens, Director of Athletics for Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School

In addition to the contribution from the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Giants, Nike is also contributing $100,000 to cover the cost of uniforms and other equipment.