Mar 18, 2025
Girls flag football continues to expand its presence across the Big Central Conference.The league held its first media day for the sport on Monday at Franklin High School, where coaches and selected players spoke about the upcoming season and took part in other media opportunities, just as the boys would do at their preseason media days before the fall football season began.The first installment of the event, which was sponsored by Alliance Orthopedics, will be part of the new ventures the conference is looking to do with girls flag football because of the growing popularity of the sport.The addition of 11 new programs gives the conference 26 schools participating in girls flag football this spring.“I want to make sure that whatever we do for our boys programs is what we’re going to do for the girls,” Big Central Conference President Scott Miller said. “We’re excited to have the numbers that we have.”Miller said the conference is looking to “magnify” what the girls are doing on the field with showcase events and championship games at big venues in the future.One of the Big Central Conference’s new girls flag football programs this season is Linden.Albert Chiola, who has been the head coach of Linden’s head football coach since 2015, will be at the helm of the Tigers' new girls flag football squad.Starting up a girls flag football program at Linden has been an operation that Chiola said he has been trying to start up for the past years.“We finally got a program going and had almost 60 girls come out for the team,” Chiola said. “We’re hoping for the program to grow and next year have a freshman and a JV team too. It’s been really awesome.”Chiola is “really excited” about coaching the girls this spring, adding that there is a real sense of “excitement” from the girls since the preseason began.“The girls are excited about every phase in practice,” Chiola said. “They’re clapping and cheering each other on. It’s been an awesome experience so far.”Each team in the Big Central is set to play eight to nine games in the regular season. The league will hold its second Big Central Conference Tournament at the end of the season.Franklin took home the league’s inaugural championship last spring.“We had a lot of success in our first season, so we’re looking to get (the championship) back this season,” Franklin junior Mariana Medina said. “We have a lot of new pieces this year and we’re going to be incorporating them onto the field.”Elizabeth and Hunterdon Central highlighted the other top teams from last season in the conference.The Minutemen went 8-1-1 last spring under the lead of Mike Giles.Despite losing stars Dynasty Chandler and Aniyah Mars to graduation, Giles has a “loaded” group of talented players this spring, led by sophomore Sanaii Mayers and newcomer Sache Lashley.Giles is very excited not just for this spring, but for the future of the sport.Elizabeth had 111 girls try out for the girls flag football team this spring, which has Giles very “interested” in how much the program will grow over these next few years.“It [girls flag football] has exploded in our area, but I don’t think it has hit its peak yet,” Giles said. “There is still a lot of room for growth and improvement to make it more common as the years go on for every high school to have a team.”Hunterdon Central also saw a big jump in numbers this spring with 53 players slated to participate after its successful 2024 campaign, head coach Conall Joyce said.The Red Devils went 6-3 last spring and knocked off Elizabeth in the semifinals of the conference tournament.“I’m happy with what we have this year and the growth from last year,” Joyce said. “We doubled our registrations from last year. We had a good number last year, but to see even more girls come out this year was really great.”Girls flag football had more registrations outside of spring and winter track than any other female sport at Hunterdon Central this year, according to Joyce.“That’s impressive in itself to show the NJSIAA that there is plenty of interest in (girls flag football) to get it fully sanctioned rather quickly,” Joyce said.Giles, Joyce, and Martin all think it’s just a matter of time before Friday nights are synonymous with both football and girls flag football in New Jersey.Former New Brunswick High alum and Super Bowl champion Jonathan Casillas thinks the same thing as well.At the Shore Conference girls flag football kickoff event that was partnered with the New York Giants on March 15 in Neptune, Casillas said that the sport should have “already” been an NJSIAA sanctioned sport.Hearing that someone of Casillas' stature is a big advocate of girls flag football means “everything”, said New Brunswick coach Dave Holder.“To have someone like (Jonathan Casillas) is really big for us in our hope to build the sport and get it sanctioned by the NJSIAA,” Holder said.The NJSIAA is set to vote on sanctioning girls flag football as a statewide high school sport later this year. The sport is currently under a two-year trial/pilot program, and athletes can compete in flag football and another spring sport because flag football is classified as non-strenuous.If the sport passes the Executive Committee vote later this year, it will move on to a full membership vote in early 2026. It can become an NJSIAA sanctioned sport going into the 2026-27 season if it passes both lines of voting.
