Athletes from Central Pa. and beyond get a closer look at rising sport of girls flag football

• By Brian Markley/LNP | LancasterOnline

Harrisburg native and Tennessee Titans defensive assistant coach Lori Locust led a huddle June 27 under an overcast morning sky.

It was the first of two practice sessions being held on Millersville University’s Pucillo Turf Field that day.

“You all are now the faces of this sport going forward,” Locust said to a group of 65 girls from all over the country.

The athletes in this wide-ranging group, from eighth grade to rising high school seniors, are being brought in at the ground level of girls flag football.

The Rising Stars Football Academy held a first-of-its-kind girls flag football camp at Millersville University that ran from June 26-29. York native and former Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Ron Johnson is the brains behind the nonprofit academy that made the camp possible.

“It’s just been awesome to see girls coming together from as far away as Hawaii, Maine, Florida, all over the country, just for this opportunity,” he said. “It’s just awesome to put this together.”

Johnson, the Executive Director of Rising Stars Football Academy, has been running boys flag football camps and showcases for the last 17 years. It was only within the past few years that Johnson decided he wanted to have camps for girls as well.

“Over the past year I’ve met some awesome people,” Johnson said. “It brought me to the thought of ‘Why can’t we do this for the girls?’ — and there is no reason why not.”

The camp featured two practice sessions a day, one in the morning for offense and one in the afternoon for defense. In these practices, players were divided by position and participate in drills to hone their skills and learn new ones. Many of the coaches running the drills are college coaches.

The football side is only half of the equation.

Equally important to Johnson, Locust and the other coaches is the off-the-field education and life skills and resources that the camps provide.

“We focus on physical, mental and emotional health, financial literacy and just overall life skills and development,” Johnson said. “So really, just trying to help shape our kids and help them develop on and off the field.”

The camp’s schedule was intentionally tight, with the itinerary packed to the brim.

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READ: Here’s your first look at the 2025 L-L League football schedule

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From 6:30 a.m. to lights out at 10 p.m., there were no shortage of activities. The idea is to mimic a student-athlete’s busy schedule.

“It builds in accountability,” Locust said. “It shows what it’s truly like to be a student-athlete at the next level.”

Locust, who coaches football at the highest level, is thrilled for girls to have a camp they can call their own.

“This is just giving an opportunity to the population that really hasn’t had an opportunity to before to be on the same playing field,” she said. “No pun intended.”

Locust, who is familiar with the obsession with high school football in central Pennsylvania, said she thinks that girls flag football could be a hit once it’s picked up.

“It just needs that boost,” Locust said. “But I think once it catches on, it’s just going to continue to grow.”

Incoming Warwick senior Lily Smith enrolled in the camp because she wanted to learn more about a sport she enjoyed growing up.

“I’ve done a lot of learning here because I haven’t had the opportunity to play on a team yet,” Smith said. “They’re teaching really useful drills and help me build my understanding of how the game works and the different positions. It’s fun.”

Smith said she wants girls flag football in the Lancaster-Lebanon League because she grew up wanting to play football and this would give her and future girls like her an opportunity to do just that.

“I’ve always wanted to play football myself and never had the opportunity because it was always a boys sport,” Smith said. “Now we can connect and bring our athletic potential to a whole new sport and really show what we have to put on the field.”

The sport is an idea being booted around by the Lancaster-Lebanon League, and is still in the very early stages of discussion.

“We are basically taking a wait-and-see approach to this,” L-L League Executive Director Todd Reitnour said. “I believe it will take time to get us with the impact we would need to officially make it a league sport.”

The National Federation of State High School Associations’ official rulebook is out, something that was still being written in the fall when the PIAA sanctioned the sport.

“Now that the NFHS has released an official rules book, I’m sure discussions will intensify at multiple levels,” said Lancaster Country Day Athletic Director Zac Kraft, who is also president of the L-L League AD Association. “The process will continue to evolve organically in the upcoming school year, and I expect that we’ll have a clearer picture of the landscape in the next six to nine months.”

“As a league, there has been a little discussion about girls flag football,” said Annville-Cleona AD Tommy Long, who also serves as and the L-L’s football chairperson. “The vibe I get is that most schools are not in the position to look at starting a girls team just yet, if at all.”

Long said no discussions of a team at Annville-Cleona have begun at this point.

That’s not to say that there will never be L-L girls flag football, but there are still many logistical issues to face — like hiring coaches, organizing facilities and getting officials properly trained.

But there is certainly interest, and Lancaster County has now gotten a small taste of what girls flag football could someday be in its own backyard.