On National Girls & Women in Sports Day, the Bills are highlighting flag football's growth across Western New York and the benefits it's providing young girls and women.
In just four years since flag started in WNY in 2022, it has grown immensely. For Section VI, it saw a jump from 12 teams to 61 for the 2026 season, which includes high school, middle school and private. Breaking out of the Buffalo area, Section III in Syracuse is set to have 33 total teams for 2026.
Co-State Girls Flag Football Coordinator and Section VI Girls Flag Chairperson Marissa Dauria is witnessing this growth first-hand.
"I've never seen a program, boys or girls, grow this fast in high school athletics," Dauria said. "This is to a really high level too. You watch them at the state championship and they are really competing."
Pioneer quarterback and the Buffalo Bills 2025 Maxwell Award Nominee Ellie Edwards was a part of flag's growth at young age. Edwards got involved early and by the time high school rolled around, teams were popping up all around WNY.
"I wanted to play football when I was younger," Edwards said. "My parents introduced me to a Bills flag league that was through their youth sports program. I started playing when I was around eight years old."
Fast-forward to high school, Edwards couldn't imagine a world without the sport and sees young girls racing to sign up just like she did years ago.
"At Pioneer we have a great community and there's a bunch of young girls really getting interested in flag football," Edwards explained. "I think it just goes to show how big the opportunity really is. I work at a day camp over the summer and there's so many little girls who are interested in playing. And they don't have to stop playing at some point because now they can play in high school and college."
The opportunity to play in college has never been bigger. On January 16 at the 2026 NCAA Convention, flag football was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. This means it is a step closer to becoming a sanctioned sport – one that is officially recognized, governed and regulated by the NCAA.
One of the local colleges that already has a women's flag team is SUNY Brockport. The head coach there, Charrise Everett, believes this growth opens plenty more doors for girls and women.
"All I can think about honestly is opportunity," Everett said. "The opportunities are going to be endless because the next step is being sanctioned. Now you have the girls who can have an official Division I offer, and it's just adding to the growth of the sport."
A few sizable perks to becoming an official sanctioned sport are funding, scholarships and postseason championships. The fact that flag was named an emerging sport means more colleges and universities are willing to add it as a sport. A noticeable positive from that is the fact that girls don't have to quit once they reach a certain level.
"I'm definitely interested in playing at the collegiate level," Edwards said. "It's interesting seeing new colleges add women's flag football almost every day now, especially after the NCAA announced that it's an emerging sport. I feel like it's exciting to see all the big colleges that are getting flag football and seeing how it's being recognized."
The rate the sport is growing at signals there are a ton of benefits. Girls who play sports, like softball and soccer, love the fast-paced environment of flag football. One of the many things Edwards learned from flag is on the mental side.
"I definitely think my mental toughness sets me apart when it comes to being a quarterback," Edwards shared.
As a chairperson for flag, Dauria witnesses confidence blossom in the girls who take a chance at the sport.
"For a girl to walk around their school and be their quarterback, there's just a weight with that that has really elevated things and there's a confidence with that," Dauria explained. "Seeing them compete as a high-level football player, I think, has opened people's eyes in terms of what girls can do in a sport that traditionally was a male dominated sport."
The Buffalo Bills have been a big player behind girls flag growth in the area since its inception. With the help of grants and funding by the Bills, schools introduced teams and grown in plenty of ways.
Buffalo is currently in its second year of a three-year installment for Modified Flag Football grants. Last year, 21 schools received grants and this year 32 will receive grants in partnership with the Bills Foundation and the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation.
"I love how the Bills are standing behind it and putting their support in the schools to make sure schools have modified programs by supplying grants and equipment," Everett said. "… They see what potential this has and they're supporting it, which I think girls in the future will be thankful for."
"I thought it was growing in popularity with the kids, but when you bring in a professional organization and the Bills are so respected, it just automatically magnified it," Dauria explained. "It's the cool thing. All the girls want to play flag."
Beyond the funding provided by the Bills, the recognition of a brand that substantial is for flag's growth in the area. If you talk to those participants, there are plenty of Bills players they model their game after. For Edwards, it's Buffalo's quarterback.
"Josh Allen because he's the hometown hero," Edwards said of who she looks up to. "He's not scared to take a hit when he runs with the ball, and I feel like that's inspiring to me."
Edwards believes what makes her stand out among the rest is her ability to be balanced. She has a great arm but also knows how to gain yards on the ground and isn't afraid to do so, just like Allen.
"I feel like not everyone has the ability to run," Edwards said. "I feel like that's something I'm stronger at."
In addition to flag being named an emerging sport by the NCAA, those involved in it also believe this is a moment in time for girls and women's sports – and that's another motive behind its development over the years.
"I've just never seen something so powerful for girls athletics," Dauria exclaimed. "And timing is everything, right? It's coinciding with the whole Caitlin Clark phenomenon, with college basketball blowing up for women and the WNBA. So, I just think it's a really cool time for women's sports."
This explosion of passion for girls and women's flag football also coincides with the 2028 Olympics, which will include women's flag.
"We are trailblazing a way. We are leaders in that aspect," Everett said of her passion and why she stays involved. "I just encourage everyone to try it out."
Opportunity and flag football go hand-in-hand when looking at how the sport ballooned since 2022 in WNY from youth leagues to modified to high school and college. It's the perfect time to jump in and the Bills are proud to be a factor behind all the growth.
