Outside the Tribe: If the WVSSAC Was to Add an Officially Sanctioned Sport, What Would it Be?
By Chris Johnson on July 21, 2025 from Outside the Tribe
A few weeks ago I was at a media relations meeting at the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission headquarters in Parkersburg and the topic of what sport could be added under the SSAC umbrella was brought up.
A popular guess is always lacrosse (my guess as well), which has a big following in pockets of the state, but hasn’t really shown growth in rural areas.
Archery was close to being added as an official SSAC sport within the past couple of years. However, according to WVSSA Executive Director Wayne Ryan, those pushing for archery didn’t want to be restricted to the SSAC’s off-season practice regulations or have a required grade point average.
So if not lacrosse, not archery, what then?
The answer surprised me at first but when you start looking at some of the details, it makes sense.
According to Ryan, the sport out there that is in the best position to be added is flag football for girls.
Now, don’t start organizing fundraisers for uniforms or fantasy booking schedules. Nothing is in the immediate works.
Ryan said they have received a couple of well-crafted passionate letters from girls who want to play flag football. There is also a major push for the sport throughout the country from the NFL, which could bring with it a wealth of cooperate sponsorship.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons are two teams Ryan has had discussions with about girls flag football.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much of a push from the schools themselves for adding flag football but that is something that could escalate quickly.
A total of 17 states already have flag football as an officially sanctioned high school varsity program. Among those are West Virginia border states Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In 17 completely different states, flag football will have pilot test seasons in select schools to evaluate full adoption as a sanctioned sport.
If West Virginia were to get flag football as a sanctioned sport, it would almost certainly be a spring sport; for a variety of reasons.
Field time would be tough to come by in the fall with football and soccer already struggling at some facilities to share time.
Adding flag football to the fall could also potentially hurt turnouts for volleyball, soccer and cheerleading. Cheerleading is actually a key component to all of this. According to SSAC Assistant Executive Director Dr. Jaclyn Swayne, in states that already have flag football and play it in the spring, they have a large number of cheerleaders participate.
Cheerleaders are more athletic than they are often given credit for and many of them are excited to give another sport a try, especially one they spend the fall cheering for.
Even in the spring, flag football would still be battling for numbers with track and field as well as softball. Tennis likely wouldn’t be a huge factor as that is a sport where most tennis players focus on tennis and only tennis.
There is usually only one track meet, sometimes two, per week so a flag football schedule could easily work around the track schedule.
Track and field is also a sport that often shares athletes with other sports so I can envision someone wanting to play flag football and be on the track team with little issue.
Softball would be a little more difficult to juggle with flag football primarily from a scheduling aspect as a softball team generally plays a minimum of four games per week.
Again, nothing regarding flat football is imminent but considering how fast it is growing throughout the country, it could be a reality sooner that later. And I for one, am all for it.
Editor's Note: Photo courtesy of the NFL Flag Football Facebook page.
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