WATCH: Highlights of 2025 All-City Girls Soccer Tournament
WATCH: Highlights of 2025 All-City Girls Soccer Tournament
BATTLE CREEK – It’s been a long time since an area high school football team has played on the final weekend of the season at Ford Field for a chance at a state championship.
Unless you count the Battle Creek Central girls flag football team.
In the growing world of girls high school flag football, the Battle Creek Central Bearcats advanced to the final tournament and played at Ford Field last spring in their first season of the sport.
And the Bearcats are hoping to do that again.
“It was cool. Like, during the NFL season, my family was watching the Lions and I just said, ‘I played on that field. And, scored a touchdown,'” said Battle Creek Central’s Ka’aliyah Williams. “It was great we got a chance to do that. It’s a fun sport to be a part of.”
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Battle Creek Central is one of three area teams participating in girls flag football this spring, along with Marshall and Colon. The Bearcats will play their final regular season game on Sunday (May 18) at Colon. At 2-1, heading into that game, BCC has a chance to advance to the postseason tournament at Ford Field once again.
The Detroit Lions helped create the Michigan Girls High School Flag Football League, which started with just four teams in its inaugural season in the spring of 2023 and grew to 24 schools and 600 participants last spring. With even more growth this year, the league is the first of its kind at the high school level in Michigan, aiming to join the 13 other states where girls high school flag football is state-sanctioned. The Michigan High School Athletic Association hasn’t yet adopted girls flag football as a varsity sport, but the hope is that one day it will.
“We had a group of girls that came together and this was something they were passionate about, in wanting to have a flag football team last year,” said BCC coach Mario Brown. “We heard the Detroit Lions were having a pilot program and it went from there.
“The aspiration is that it will one day become a varsity sport. The biggest decision is whether it will stay in spring, or if it works better in the fall.”
The noncontact version of football, the teams are made up of seven players on the field. There are rules regarding how teams can run and pass the ball. But the basics remain the same, which makes it fun for those involved who grew up loving the game.
“It’s a vey exciting sport,” BCC’s Nae’ary Wilson said. “It’s nice that is noncontact so the girls can get into it. It’s been a great experience. Plus, there are scholarships out there. For example, Siena Heights has a college program.”
Brown and his team practice a couple times a week, learn new plays as they go, and develop flag football skills.
“We have girls that are athletic enough, that they really adapt to the game quickly. From there, it’s about learning the rules and the plays,” Brown said. “There have been more and more girls each year here at Battle Creek that are excited about it. The biggest hurdle is that most of our girls are multiple-sport athletes and they have other sports they are playing as well. So that’s been the biggest obstacle.”
Bill Broderick can be reached at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @billbroderick
