MENTOR, Ohio — Football isn’t just for the boys.
"Something that's such a male-dominated sport, it's cool to be part of that as a girl," said Perry junior Calli Thompson.
Girls flag football is growing rapidly across Northeast Ohio.
"People were like, 'Girls don't play football. Even when girls were on the boys football team, they just doubt them. I feel like flag football is definitely gonna be something," said Maple Heights junior D’Chante Greene.
A big investment has been made in the sport by the Cleveland Browns.
"It's been a really great opportunity for our girls to play another sport other than our traditional sports in Ohio," said Maple Heights Girls Flag Football Head Coach Kanisha Coward.
The Browns partnered with NEO Flag to launch Ohio’s first-ever all-girls high school division last year. The league, which consisted of 9 teams in 2022, now has 30 teams participating.
"It's something new to me, so it's something I had to adjust to, but I feel really good playing it," said Maple Heights junior Janyah Weems.
"I knew nothing about football - absolutely nothing - before. Now, I'm walking away with so much more knowledge, I feel like, which is really cool," said Thompson.
The Northeast Ohio Girls High School Flag Football Championship was held on Monday night at Mentor High School. Willoughby South won the tournament, which included more than 200 student-athletes.
"I'm actually super impressed with the throws, the catches. I'm really watching the DB play," said Browns cornerback Greg Newsome.
The opportunity to win a trophy was rivaled by the chance to meet pros like Newsome, LB Anthony Walker, CB Thomas Graham Jr. and CB Mike Ford.
"They're just joking around with us as if they're not NFL players. It's so crazy," said Thompson.
"It was really exciting. You don't get to meet people like that often," said Greene.
"If guys like us are coming out here trying to support, just trying to put it on the map a little bit, that's the least we can do for this," said Newsome.
The long-term goal is to make flag football a fully sanctioned OHSAA varsity sport.
Carly Mascitti is a sports anchor at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Twitter @carlymascitti.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
