Flag football's rise in popularity at Long Island high schools is hurting participation in other girls sports

Hauppauge High School senior Taylor Mileti started playing lacrosse when she was 5 and made the junior varsity team in the eighth grade.

But as a freshman in 2023, she heard the school was starting a girls flag football team. A month later, Mileti quit lacrosse to join the flag football team.

“I’ve always loved flag football,” Mileti said. “We started playing when I was in the third grade with I-9 Sports. The high school started a flag program four years ago . . . It was an easy decision to switch, and I don’t miss lacrosse at all.”

Mileti is not alone.

Flag football has exploded in popularity across the country in recent years, which has led to a decline in participation of other girls' spring sports.

The trend is happening at all levels of play, from youth to college. In July, Molloy University announced the addition of women’s flag football. The sport will make its Olympic debut in 2028 in Los Angeles for both men and women.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association publishes sports participation numbers each year. NYSPHSAA has yet to publish the numbers for the 2025-26 school year, but Newsday obtained projected numbers for the 2026 spring season from the National Federation of State High School Associations, an organization that helps govern high school sports. 

A Newsday analysis of those numbers showed that girls flag football at the high school level on Long Island has grown rapidly while participation in other spring sports such as lacrosse, softball and track and field has declined.

Flag football started with 38 varsity teams and 1,010 players during its first season in 2023 and has expanded to 66 varsity teams and 1,716 total high school players this past spring — a 70% increase in player participation over four years.

During the same span, girls lacrosse participation declined 18.4% (from 4,030 players in 2023 to 3,288 in 2026) and softball participation fell 24.4% (from 2,894 players in 2023 to 2,189 in 2026). Track and field had a 16.5% decrease, going from 4,942 in 2023 to 4,127 athletes in 2026.

Newsday interviewed nearly 20 Long Island high school players, coaches and administrators about the growth of the sport, and many attributed it to three main factors: Football is the most popular sport in the country and now girls have an opportunity to play, the game of flag football is fast-paced and fun, and, lastly, it’s less expensive to play than other spring sports.

“The numbers in flag football continue to climb each year,” said Tom Combs, executive director of Suffolk's Section XI Athletics, which governs the county's interscholastic sports. “We saw a huge enrollment in the very first year. We thought it was just the novelty and the excitement of a new sport, but that wasn’t the case. It continued to trend up as more and more schools offered teams at the middle school and high school levels. And it’ll continue to grow as athletes see possibilities in college programs.”

The growth of girls flag football on Long Island mirrors a much larger national trend.

According to NFHS participation surveys, girls flag football participation nationwide increased nearly 230%, from 20,875 athletes in 2023 to 68,847 in 2025.

The NFHS has not published the 2026 participation numbers yet.

Participation in other spring sports remained relatively steady during that span. Softball decreased from 344,952 to 338,315 athletes, a 1.9% decrease, while girls lacrosse increased from 98,014 to 99,292 and girls track and field increased from 486,355 to 513,808.

‘An American game’

Football remains the nation’s most popular spectator sport. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence’s first-quarter 2025 Consumer Insights survey, 51% of U.S. adults said they watch football, compared with 31% who watch basketball and 31% who watch baseball. The NFL also averaged 18.7 million viewers per regular-season game during the 2025 season across television and digital platforms — the league’s second-highest average since audience tracking began in 1988, according to the NFL and Nielsen.

It’s part of the fabric of fall with fans tuning in on Saturdays to watch college football and Sundays to watch the NFL.

“Let’s be honest, football is an American game,” said Pat Pizzarelli, the executive director of Nassau’s Section VIII Athletics. “Boys football has great numbers, so why shouldn’t the girls have an opportunity? And now they are, and I think it’s great.”

Division High School flag football coach Victoria Piscitelli said she grew up watching football with her father and always loved it. Piscitelli said a lot of girls have grown up thinking they would never have a chance to play it.

“Football for them was never a thing,” Piscitelli said. “I think many more girls than we expect actually like the sport of football. It’s incredible to see how much it’s grown in such a short time.”

“Football is different than every other sport in that it galvanizes communities and brings people together,” said Taylor's father, Steve Mileti, who is the Hauppauge High School flag football coach and West Islip High School football coach. “These girls grow up watching their brothers play football. They see all the attention and excitement around the games. It’s natural to want to have that experience.”

The interest in flag football prompted the NYSPHSAA to host its first state championship in 2024. Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK defeated Scarsdale, 19-7, in Division I and Bishop Kearney defeated Sayville, 39-20, in Division II. Half Hollow Hills won the Class A state title this past season.

The game has also received significant support from the NFL. The Jets purchased state championship rings for Half Hollow Hills and presented them to the team in a suite at MetLife Stadium during a preseason game Aug. 14.

“It was absolutely amazing,” Half Hollow Hills coach Mike Lupa said. “To have the rings bought by the New York Jets and presented to us in a suite, and then we got to go down on the field . . . It was really, really special.”

Samantha Heyman, the 2026 Newsday flag football player of the year, received a special honor.

"[She] got to be an honorary captain." he added. "So they put her on the jumbo screen, and announced her name.”

Lupa said the Jets have played a major role in helping grow flag football, including hosting media days at MetLife Stadium for high school flag football teams.

“They’ve been very influential in trying to back this whole thing,” Lupa said.

Neither the Jets nor the NFL responded to a request for comment. 

'It's fun to play'

So why are so many players making the switch to flag football?

“It sounds so simple,” Taylor Mileti said. “But flag football is a fun sport. Fun to play. Fun to coach. Fun to watch. And there is so much passion in the game of football.”

Glen Cove sophomore quarterback Layla Palazzo switched to flag football after playing softball until the eighth grade.

“I used to love throwing [the football] with my dad and watching football with him,” Palazzo said. “I was a catcher, so I hated always putting on my gear and being in 90-degree heat, and in middle school softball is kind of slow. I just thought that [flag football] was a lot of fun.

Longwood flag football coach Aden Smith said the sport is rewarding to play because it requires a wider range of skills than some of the other sports.

“Girls can freely express their aggression, their relentlessness, their toughness, without being penalized as much for it,” Smith said.

“A lot of girls grew up playing soccer or softball, and that’s just the norm,” Piscitelli said. “Football was never really an option for them. It was like, ‘Oh, we’re allowed to play?’ I think more girls than we expect actually like the sport of football, whether it’s watching it or playing it.”

Even the top high school softball teams are feeling the impact. Wantagh won the Long Island Class A softball championship in 2026 but did not field a junior varsity team after adding a flag football program this spring.

“It did affect us. We didn’t have a JV because of it,” Wantagh softball coach Christine Moran said. “Fortunately, my older class of kids are all-in on softball, but we had a roster of 21 because we couldn’t field a JV, which hasn’t happened in quite a while.”

Cheaper to play 

Flag football is more affordable to play than girls lacrosse and softball. A player primarily needs flag belts, which can cost less than $5 each, and cleats, which generally range from about $50 to $150, a football and a field.

Girls lacrosse requires more equipment. Higher-end sticks can cost $300 or more, protective goggles generally run about $45 to $100 and cleats.

Softball can be even more expensive. Many high-end fastpitch bats cost between $300 and $500, while premium gloves can exceed $300. Batting helmets with face masks generally cost about $50 to $85.

“I think it was simple to get it going because the cost was so low,” Connetquot athletic director Pete Melore said. “If you want to start a fencing team, the equipment costs a lot of money. Starting a tackle football program is expensive because of the uniforms and shoulder pads. With flag football, the cost was low, so it was easy to launch the program.”

“Adding flag football was an easy transition,” Melore added. “It’s just about sharing space with all the other teams and getting your coaches in order. There are a lot of people who coached tackle football in the fall who are coaching flag, and they know all those X's and O's. Flag has been great. We added a JV team this year.” 

The sport has taken another step forward. Women’s flag football was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program in January, and in May received a formal recommendation to become an NCAA championship sport. If all three NCAA divisions approve the legislation in January 2027, the first national championship could be held in spring 2028.

Mileti, who was a two-time Newsday All-Long Island selection at quarterback and linebacker, will leave for the University of Buffalo this weekend. She accepted a scholarship to play soccer for the Bulls in the Division I Mid-American Conference.

“I’ll miss playing flag with all my friends, but I have tons of great memories,” said Mileti, a goalkeeper. “Flag is so popular and we proved that we could play football at a high level. We showed how strong we are as women. I will never forget the last four years and what we accomplished as women.”