High School Football
Join us in spreading the word about the benefits of participating in high school football.
Girls across the country can now dream a new dream: being a flag football player.
Best estimates project that there will be over 5,000 high school programs and more than 100 collegiate programs by 2028—the same year the sport makes its Olympic debut.
And, with a push to include flag football in the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, it’s clear that flag football is on a path to full championship status.
Are you ready to run a new route towards the future? Play high school flag football.
Be sure to use the hashtag #ThisIsHSFootball whenever you share stories and photos about football on social media!
Joe Carter watched his World Series-winning walkoff homerun float over the Skydome fence in 1993.
The second week of September is the peak of the high school football season, with 7,246 games across the country.
In 2021, we partnered with the NFL to launch the #ThisIsHSFootball campaign. Our mission was to promote the benefits of playing and increase participation.
More student-athletes played 11-player high school football in 2025-26 than in any year since 2016-17. That's 1,043,716 student-athletes out under the Friday night lights, an increase of 14,128 over the previous season. Now let’s keep that momentum going.
Through this initiative, we aim to:
With your help, we can spread the word about the benefits of participating in high school football and celebrate this essential team sport for decades to come. No matter if you’re a coach, administrator, state association representative or even a fan, we can all help continue to increase participation numbers by using these tools to introduce more students—and their parent(s)/guardian(s)—to the game! Please share our messages on social media by clicking the share buttons wherever you see them. And be sure to use the hashtag #ThisIsHSFootball when creating your own content!
Promote the value of participating in football
Restore confidence in player protection
Improve the perception of football