Teresa Varley

Football season is officially underway in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers Girls Flag Football League is kicking off on Saturday, with a fun-filled afternoon featuring six high school teams, as well as several local college teams, taking part in the Showcase Game of the Week at Saint Vincent College.

The kickoff weekend is part of the Steelers overall commitment to Girls Flag Football, which was sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) as a high school sport for the 2025-26 school year.

High school teams from Gateway, Jeannette, McKeesport, Penn Hills, Plum and Woodland Hills will all be playing during the season-opening showcase. To add to the flavor and excitement, teams from area colleges, including Allegheny, Bethany, Chatman, Franciscan, Pitt, Saint Vincent and Seton Hill will also play, the first time an NFL sanctioned league has hosted such an event.

The National Football League is committed to supporting the growth of flag football and has been collaborating with all 32 Clubs to grow the game across youth, high school, and college. To continue developing women's flag football in the collegiate space, the Steelers, with the support of the NFL, are giving each college team participating in the tournament a $7,500 grant to aid their programs.

"On behalf of the Presidents' Athletic Conference member schools that have club teams participating in the Pittsburgh Steelers Flag Football Showcase event at Saint Vincent, we want to express our thanks and deep appreciation to the NFL for their generous financial support of this endeavor," said Joe Onderko, the commissioner of the Presidents' Athletic Conference. "We also want to thank the entire Steelers organization for their continuing support in the growth of the sport as well.

"NCAA Commissioner Charlie Baker has spoken publicly about his desire to see flag football grow and develop within the association, and we will continue to evaluate campus student interest in this emerging sport as a potential varsity sport addition for the PAC in the future."

The Steelers have put their support behind girls flag whole-heartedly, hosting events at the high school level throughout the year and working with them all season and the number of schools participating is growing each year. The league grew from 6 high schools participating in 2022 up to 48 teams in 2025, including 14 new teams this season.

"It's awesome to see how girl's flag football has taken off," said Mike Marchinsky, the Steelers senior manager of alumni relations and youth football. "We've done two-day football camps since 2009, and there have always been girls coming to the camps, but they were vastly outnumbered by the boys that were in those camps. But the girls that were there were just as talented as the boys when they're running and catching and throwing. So, I always knew there was a big interest in having girls only camps and girls' football. There were girls playing in flag programs in the communities around Western Pennsylvania and all over the state.

"Now that there's a more concerted effort to give them an elevated opportunity, it's very fulfilling because I'm a girl dad, too. To see it have such a big impact on people is really special."

The Steelers Girls Flag Football season will run throughout the spring, with regular season games every week through May 11, followed by playoffs the weekend of May 17-18.

"Flag is growing tremendously," said Joe Lofton, the Steelers football development manager. "I think more girls are getting involved and wanting to play the game of football. The popularity of girls flag football is growing at a tremendous rate. We hope to keep it growing even more at the middle and elementary school level as well. It's definitely encouraging. We want to help give the girls an opportunity as well."

Flag football got a huge boost globally when it was announced as an Olympic Sport for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It has energized the sport and is introducing it to new audiences.

"Excitement for flag football continues to build around the globe with its inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics," said Stephanie Kwok, Vice President and Head of Flag Football at the National Football League. "Pittsburgh has a deep history rooted in football and it is exciting for the Steelers to promote opportunities for the local community, and especially women, to play flag football. This tournament will showcase the talent and aspirational pathway for young women to play football, across local high schools and colleges, to celebrate the growth of the sport."