The excitement around women’s sports has grown dramatically in recent years. Macon-Bibb County Parks and Recreation is adding to the hype with their inaugural season of girls’ flag football.
Jamal Hamilton is coaching the team and says there is a lot of excitement from not only the girls that participated, but also from the community. Hamilton said he was surprised by the size of the crowds.
“Attendance rose week by week and we saw people get excited and even began discussing the weekly matchups,” Hamilton said.
In December of 2019, the Georgia High School Sports Association implemented girls’ flag football. As the sport began to grow rapidly throughout high schools, the interest began to pick up for younger age groups as well. However, Macon-Bibb County’s first attempt at starting the league was unsuccessful.
Christopher Austin, the athletic coordinator for Macon-Bibb County Parks and Recreation, said that in their first attempt to start the girls’ flag football program, they did not garner enough participants to have more than two teams. Now in 2024, they just completed their first full season with over 30 girls suiting up every week.
Austin described the recreation league as an “introduction.” He said the purpose of the league is to give the young ladies a chance to learn the fundamentals before they reach the high school level.
Fundamentals aside, the young ladies in the Macon-Bibb girls’ flag football league are advanced athletically.
From 30 yard pass plays to interceptions returned for touchdowns, these girls on the gridiron do it all. On the fields of Carolyn Crayton Park, the girls are executing exciting and complex plays that mirror what you’d see from their male counterparts on any given Friday night in Macon.
Whether the increase in engagement for their inaugural season came from better advertisement or just general curiosity, the importance of the season cannot be understated.
Ashley Griffin, athletic coordinator for Macon-Bibb County Parks and Recreation, credits the popularity of their league to the meteoric rise of women’s sports over the past few years.
“I believe it’s things like the exposure of the WNBA and just seeing women’s sports more prevalent on TV,” Griffin said. As the spotlight increases for women’s sports, so does the spotlight for the girls on the gridiron in Macon-Bibb County.
