During the spring 2026 season, girls flag football debuted at Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School for the first time. It is soon to be added into the Oregon Schools Activity Association 6A-Portland Interscholastic League, the same league all other IBW sports play in.
The girls flag football coaches, Danny Bradach and Britney Small, have supported the team in playing many games against other Oregon teams, including St. Mary’s, Forest Grove and Central Catholic.
Beginning their season on Feb. 28, 2026, IBW held a Girls Flag Camp for two hours, which let players from IBW and surrounding schools practice and learn how to play flag football.
On March 2, 2026, IBW held their first practice, with 37 girls showing up ready for the upcoming season. As of March 5, 32 girls have registered for the team, but Bradach is hoping to see more girls register in the coming weeks.
From then until mid-May, the girls flag football team will practice three times a week for two hours. These practices go from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., which lets girls participate in other spring sports along with flag football.
You may be wondering what the differences between flag football and tackle football are. NFL Flag Football says, “The most notable difference between flag football and tackle football is tackling. In flag football, contact is not permitted. Players wear flags and defenders are tasked with removing the flags in order to ‘tackle’ their opponent. If the ball carrier can reach the goal line with both flags intact, he or she scores.”
At IBW, the field for girls flag football is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide, which is slightly smaller compared to the tackle football field that is 100 yards long (from goal line to goal line) and 53.3 yards wide. Furthermore, while tackle football is played with 11 players from each team at a time, flag football is played with seven players from each team.
There are many similarities between flag football and tackle football, as both games involve intricate plays, strategy and athleticism.
“In my opinion, there’s more emphasis on having quick feet,” says Bradach. “Because if someone’s rushing in, you have to move your body to be like an obstacle, since they [your opponentents] can’t run into you. So there’s a whole different dynamic to it. But, you’re still trying to throw the football, try to catch it, get a first down, and eventually get a touchdown.”
Overall, the similarities tend to outweigh the differences between tackle football and flag football. If you have a good knowledge of football, there’s a good chance you will quickly catch on to the game of flag football too.
In the past, IBW has hosted day-long girls flag football tournaments in the spring called Powderpuff. This tradition allows female students to play shorter, more fun-oriented, flag football games during flex periods. “The biggest difference from Powderpuff is that we see this [the girls flag football team] as a legitimate athletic program in our school, whereas Powderpuff is just a fun event,” says Bradach.
But, the girls flag football team is different from Powderpuff because not only will it include two teams: JV and varsity, but it is set to soon become an OSAA sanctified sport. As of now, girls flag football is qualified as an “emerging activity”, similarly to boys volleyball.
According to OSAA, “The purpose of emerging activities are to grow meaningful interscholastic participation opportunities for students in athletics and activities that have the potential to meet the required number of schools participating to be considered for official sanctioning by the OSAA.” Meaning that although boys volleyball and girls flag football are not yet officially recognized as OSAA sports, they are on track to become sanctioned in the coming years.
Girls flag football is now an official sport at IBW, and has games almost every weekend. Be sure to go support your female guardians before their first season ends, with their playoffs taking place during the week of May 11-16.
