Big Spring is making school history by adding the fastest-growing female sport: flag football. The new club begins in the coming spring with the hope of becoming a PIAA official sport. High schoolers strived to start a girls’ flag football club, and turned to Nate Gutshall to be their advisor. Gutshall said, “The girls talked to me about it a couple times, and I wanted to help them out as much as I could…” Adding, “I’m supportive of the women here at Big Spring.” Sam Barnouski, the former advisor of a flag football club, said, “I think Mr. Gutshall will do a great job as a coach.”
The idea of gaining a flag football team has been brewing at Big Spring for a while, but the previous club did not last for more than a year. Now, with a more solid purpose, hopes of participation and practice after school hours, the new club looks more promising. There have already been around twenty girls interested in joining. Among the twenty girls are juniors Hanna Black and Jemma Boothe. Black said, “ I have always wanted to start a flag football team ever since it became a sport.” Similarly, Boothe said, “It…it will give me something to do this spring while getting to learn a new sport with many of my friends, ” followed by, “It is a great opportunity. I am excited for the team to form and create another option for girls to get involved in sports.”
To turn a club into an official sport, Scott Penner, athletic director, said, “To create a new sport, you have to create a club and show that it can be sustained over the years. After that, a petition has to be given to the school board to create a sanctioned PIAA sport.” If the club continues on the course it is headed now, in the next couple of years, there will be an official flag football team, and the issue of competition arises. Penner said, “R…right now, York City, Lancaster Catholic, and Delone Catholic are the only schools that have a sanctioned PIAA team…if we were sanctioned tomorrow, we would go to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh for games.”
Thankfully, hope emerges with the Olympics. Flag football is a new sport included in the 2028 Summer Olympics that will take place in Los Angeles, “After the Olympics there’s usually a rise in interest in certain sports.” Penner said. The influence of flag football has always been at Big Spring with the annual Powder Puff game. Powder Puff consists of girls playing flag football and boys cheerleading. However, the regular flag football game rules are changed for the Powder Puff game. Penner said, “Hopefully, the numbers improve for Powder Puff, because the numbers have been down. I would like our Powder Puff game to truly be played like a flag football game.”
On the other hand, Matthew Kump, who has been a coach for Power Puff for around five years, said, “I don’t know if going 9 women is the way to go, but I think it would be more competitive. And maybe it would be something like freshmen and juniors vs sophomores and seniors or something like that.” However, only time will tell how flag football will affect Powder Puff and women’s sports at Big Spring.
