Arizona girls high school flag football shows further growth with all-star game in Chandler

Even though Husky Stadium at Hamilton High School is known for their Friday night football games, the venue was hosting something different on Thursday night.

The Arizona Cardinals Nike Kickoff Classic featured an all-star game filled with Chandler Unified School District's top girls flag football players. Each team in the game were made up of students from Perry, Arizona College Prep, Basha, Hamilton, Chandler and Casteel high schools.

The purpose of the event was to spread awareness of the growing sport of girls high school flag football.

An increasing number of high schools in neighboring districts and elsewhere in the Pheonix area have fielded teams that now are participating along with the Chandler schools.

The sport is not yet sanctioned by the Arizona Interscholastic Association, but participants hope that changes some day.

"This event brings additional opportunities to our female athletes in the state of Arizona," said Hamilton athletic director Brett Palmer. "It gives an avenue to play a sport that a lot of them love. Its an emerging sport."

The Cardinals were important in putting this event on. Cardinals Vice President Nicole Bidwill presented a check to CUSD for $10,000 that would go towards funding new equipment for all the flag football teams in the district.

"Were so happy that lady's flag football is going to be a fully sanctioned high school sport. It's so exciting for our team and were happy to be here to support it and raise awareness and credibility for it," said Bidwill.

Hosting an event like this is one of many ways that the Cardinals are helping to grow the game in the community, especially to girls. For years the team has been putting on clinics that not only introduce football to girls but also teaches them how to play the game.

This kickoff event is a part of a nationwide movement put on by the NFL and Nike to grow the game of girls flag football. Events like these have been put on in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida as well as Arizona.

Just in the Phoenix area, the sport has grown exponentially in a short time. At this time last year, there were only six schools that had flag football programs for girls. This year the number has grown to more than 30.

Hamilton's head coach, Matt Stone, expects there to be nearly 100 schools participating by next year.

The demand for more flag football teams is there.

At Xavier Prep, 132 girls showed up to the schools' first organizational meeting to play. Xavier isn't the only school who is committed to play. At Stone's former school, Mesa Desert Ridge, hundreds of girls were showing up every year with an interest in playing.

Basha quarterback Sophia Perk, who participated in Thursday's all-star game, said she didn't know what she was getting herself into when she joined the team. Now that she's been playing for a couple years and  couldn't be any happier.

"I didn't want to play at first. My dad told me 'Hey, you should totally play. It would be fun.' So I showed up to a practice and absolutely fell in love with the game," said Perk.

Everyone in the girls flag football community has been fighting for one thing for the past 10 years and that is to get sanctioned by the Arizona Interscholastic Association as an official sport.

Earlier this year, AIA officials said there would be several more steps over the next year before flag football can be considered as an emerging sport for the state.

But it's clear there is momentum.

Should the sport becoms sanctioned, it could open the door to more schools fielding teams.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: The Arizona Cardinals and Nike bring attention to girls flag football