Columbus High wins first girls’ flag football championship
Muscogee County has its first high school girls’ flag football champion.
Columbus High defeated Shaw 27-0 Wednesday night at Kinnett Stadium, capping the first season of girls’ flag football in Muscogee County. And Columbus’ season will be a tough one to top: The Blue Devils did not allow a point all season.
“Not a single point in nine games,” Columbus head coach Christian Greer said. “And that’s hard to do, especially for a team that’s never played flag football before. It’s brand new to Muscogee County, and to come out here and put their effort on the line and just do what they do, you can’t teach that stuff. To be able to coach athletes like that is just a phenomenal thing.”
Columbus will travel next to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for Falcons Champions Day, where it will face a to-be-determined champion from a separate district.
“From the first game, we knew all our plays really well,” Columbus quarterback and North Greenville soccer commit Faith Knoedler said. “We just got it really fast, and we were able to execute them really well.”
The sport’s future in Muscogee County -- and beyond
Flag football will return to Muscogee County, too, as the GHSA has sanctioned the sport, according to MCSD athletic director Jeff Battles.
Next year, Battles said, the sport will have an official start date and end date, and will be regulated throughout the state, rather than on the district level.
“It’ll be a little more regulated this year,” Battles said, “whereas this year, every county kind of got to do its own start and end date.”
The ultimate goal was for it to become a sanctioned sport. Battles said, in a previous interview with the L-E, that the Atlanta Falcons, which partnered with several districts around the state to bring the sport to the playing field, believed the GHSA would pass for flag football to become a sanctioned sport in the 2020-21 school year.
The last time GHSA sanctioned a new sport before girls’ flag football was in October 2018, when it added Esports.
The Muscogee County School District began fielding girls flag football teams in November. Each public high school in the district fielded a team.
After a successful first season in Gwinnett, the NFL franchise pushed the initiative to six counties in Georgia this year. The counties included Cherokee, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Henry, Muscogee and Rockdale — 52 schools in total, according to a Falcons spokesperson.
The district received a $30,000 grant from the Falcons, according to Battles, which funded around 75% of the costs associated with running girls flag football. The grant covered fees for referees, field costs, jerseys, equipment, athletic trainers, administrator fees and coaching stipends, according to a Falcons spokesperson.
The season began with four games on November 5, and ended Wednesday night.
Battles said Wednesday night that, from week to week, excitement surrounding the sport “seemed to grow.” The crowd on hand for the championship game rivaled some of the crowds Kinnett Stadium saw during varsity football season.
“For the girls who don’t play a winter sport, I think it’s a great opportunity to have something to do,” Knoedler said. “It’s just a lot of fun, and I think girls will really enjoy it in the future.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 9:30 PM.
