(Note, parking information has been updated.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio — What’s becoming a growing springtime tr🌞adition, the Northeast Ohio girls high school flag football season, will see its champion crowned this year back at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Th♑e Browns hosted the event in 2022 with nine participating high schools from the region. The league is now up to 51 teams, with last year’s championship tournament in Mentor and Willoughby South topping Hawken for the title.
The top 28 teams will be at Browns Stadium on Monday, starting at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free for all spectators and parking will be free in the behind the stadium on the lake side of Erie Side Avenue near the northwest end of 🌳the facility. (not the neighboring lot owned by the city near the northeast end of the stadium).
Mentor, Brush, Euclid, Willoughby South, Villa Angela-St. Joseph and Kirtland are the top seeds with first-round byes. There are five rounds with the championship s🌌et to start around 8 p.m.
Girls flag football is currently a club sport in Ohio. At least nine states have adopted it as officially sanctioned sports within their high school athletic associations, including California and New York adding it officially for this season.
In July, the Pro Football Hall of Fame will host the NFL Flag Championships for girls and boys at 17-under and 14-under levels with live coverage on ESPN. Troy Vincent Sr., former All-Pro with the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins and current executive vice president of football operations for the NFL, wrote in March he believes the Oꦜhio High School Athletic Association needs to adopt th👍e sport for girls.
As of last year, the OHSAA said it was aware and moni🧸toring the progress of the sport a💖t the club level.
Monday’s championships can be another step toward i🌞t becoming a varsity sport.
Contact sports reporter Matt Goul on X (), Threads () or email ([email protected]).