The players were in awe as they stepped onto the field at Quest Diagnostics Training Center, greeted by New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston. There was an understanding of how meaningful it was for them to be there and, even more so, an appreciation of everything that brought about that moment.
“It was phenomenal, and they were so excited,” Scarsdale flag football coach Thomas Newkirk said of his team’s reaction to visiting the Giants headquarters and being invited onto the practice field. “It made the girls feel special, and experiences like that let them know that what they’re doing is respected.”
The Giants last June hosted a bevy of title-winning high school teams from throughout the tri-state area as part of its celebration of girls flag football. Tappan Zee and Hendrick Hudson joined Scarsdale there as newly minted Section 1 champions.
The event included a trophy presentation, games and relay races on the field, and a meeting with players and team officials, including Giants owner John Mara.
As flag football has grown exponentially, both in participation and popularity, the Giants are among a slew of NFL organizations that have gotten involved with the sport at the burgeoning scholastic level. In New York, the Giants have helped sponsor teams in Section 1 and Section 4, the Binghamton area.
Flag football became a sanctioned varsity sport in this state in 2023, following a trial season in spring 2022. The Giants were among the organizations that contributed at the ground level, offering stipends and partnering with Nike and USA Football to help provide uniforms and equipment for what at the time were startup teams.
The Giants have also had current and former players visit Somers High School in Lincolndale each March to offer instructions and help coach at the annual Section 1 Flag Football Jamboree.
The New York Jets and Buffalo Bills are similarly connected to schools in other sections.
“There’s a visibility and an awareness that has spread like a wildfire,” said Tara Belinsky, the Giants community relations and youth football manager. “What we want is to further incentivize that growth and eventually make flag football one of the pillars of American sports.”
It might be on its way. Flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world and an estimated 2.4 million kids are competing in organized leagues in the United States. Also, the NCAA decided this year to make it a varsity collegiate sport, and it’ll debut in the 2028 Olympics.
Locally, the number of Section 1 teams has quadrupled since the New York State Public High School Athletic Association sanctioned flag football as a varsity sport in 2023.
It was former Somers head coach Katie DiChiaro who helped forge the relationship between the Giants and Section 1. She established the first all-girls flag football youth league in the state in 2018, and its success was among the sparks that helped ignite what became the aforementioned wildfire.
DiChiaro is friends with Chris Mara, a Giants executive, and her conversation with him about the youth league and a push for flag football to become a scholastic sport in New York put the wheels in motion.
“We met with her for lunch and came away impressed,” Belinsky said. “The passion and enthusiasm Katie has for the sport is infectious.”
Newkirk, a former collegiate tackle football player, has been involved in organized flag football as a player, coach and administrator since 2000. He led Scarsdale to an undefeated season and state championship last year.
But, he said, “Katie is the one who has made this sport as big as it is in our area.”
“The Giants have done everything they can to support us and advocate for the sport,” said DiChiaro, whom the Giants awarded Coach of the Year last summer. “Sometimes with girls sports, we feel like there isn’t as much recognition. Having the NFL behind us legitimizes the sport and lets people know this is real.”
The National Football League has been involved with flag football since 1996 with its NFL FLAG program, which helped develop youth leagues. Their goal in that, and in this initiative at the high school level, isn’t necessarily to foster a new generation of fans, Belinsky insisted, but to “help create opportunities for kids to play.”
“The tackle game has so many processes in place to cultivate talent, from the Pee wee on up, and it’s lasting,” said Belinsky, who works alongside Ethan Medley and Allison Stangeby as members of the Giants community relations staff directly involved in youth football. “There’s a framework there that flag football is looking at… The girls we’re helping introduce to the sport now, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are representing (the United States) on the international stage someday.”
Stephen Haynes covers sports for The Journal News/lohud.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: The New York Giants are invested in the growth of local flag football