NEENAH (NBC 26) — Flag football is gaining momentum across the country, with the sport set to debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics. Now, girls at Neenah Middle School are joining the movement, suiting up for the school’s first-ever girls flag football team.
Head coach Chris Polit, already involved with Neenah’s middle school tackle football program, said the idea came directly from student demand.
"I'm involved with the tackle program at the middle school, and so a lot of the girls in the hallway asked me about tackle football, but they're not quite sure about coming out to join tackle," Polit said. "And so over the last two years, girls basically hounding me to get something started and kind of two years in the making, kinda created it from scratch."
Watch the full story here:
With support from local businesses, school staff, and administrators, Polit built the program from the ground up. The student response, he said, exceeded expectations.
"I sent out a survey and I expected I'm like, oh, it'd be cool if I get 15 to 20 girls interested, and then I had 70 sign up," he said. "So it was kinda crazy to see the response."
Out of the 70 girls who signed up, only one had previous experience: sixth grader Maggie Eastman, who’s been playing flag football through the YMCA for six years.
"My brothers were throwing around in the front yard, and they needed someone else to play, so they asked me," Eastman said. "And after we were done playing, I found it really fun and asked my dad if I could start playing actual organized football."
Eastman said she’s usually the only girl on the field, so seeing her friends get involved has made the experience even more rewarding.
"It's really awesome to me that they wanna do something, you know, not many girls play, mostly for boys, I guess."
For eighth grader Madison Heuer, the sport is brand new. She was introduced to flag football through her brother and now finds herself invested in the game, on and off the field.
"When I used to turn on a game, I'd be bored. 'Dad, change the channel,'" Heuer said. "But now I'm really fascinated, and I know what's going on finally. And I know all the positions and what's going around, so I became more in touch with football."
With flag football headed to the Olympics and a recent Super Bowl commercial spotlighting girls in the sport, Polit believes the momentum is only growing—and that varsity-level competition could be next.
"Obviously, we'd love other middle schools to get involved and play other people other than ourselves," Polit said. "I think it's gonna get there in the next few years. Like I said, there's a few other states that have it, and I think Wisconsin's not gonna be far behind."
Both Eastman and Heuer hope to keep playing through high school, and they’re excited that more schools in northeast Wisconsin will start teams of their own.
