Panthers Partner With CMS For Year Two of Girls High School Flag Football

CHARLOTTE, NC – A partnership between the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Mecklenburg schools puts girl high school athletes in the spotlight.

From the NFL to CMS, girls high school flag football continues to find the pylon, proving it is anything but powder puff football.

“Girls high school flag is really taking a foothold across the country there are a handful of states that have already sanctioned it as a varsity sport. So the girls that are out here this season the girls that started last season the girls that are out here this season they are trailblazers in that effort,” said Riley Fields, the director of community relations for the Panthers.

“It is not powder puff the girls are very serious about it they are very competitive and they are taking this thing seriously and they want people to know this is not powderpuff we are for real playing football,” said Erica Turner, the director of athletics for CMS.

The two organizations joined together in 2022 to create the league, hoping for a handful of teams to participate. Neither side could imagine the impact the idea had.

“The number of people that came out just to watch scrimmage games for an intermural sport not even a varsity sport we knew this was a thing and here we are day one for the 2023 season and we have picked right back up where we left off last season,” said Fields.

The Panthers supplied all twenty four teams with Nike uniforms, belts and flags, other equipment and sixty thousand in funding to the league as a whole, with the goal of sanctioning the sport across the state.

“It is important that we change up it is time to change the kids are different they think differently they move differently and so we have to catch up with them and create different opportunities for them, its jus ta different pathway,” said Turner.

While there is a lot in the works, for now teams will focus on playing hard, having fun, and a trip to Bank of America Stadium in May.

“I like the relationships I built, you know last year it was a whole bunch of new girls first year and we all came together as a family and we pulled it out first time year first time and first time state champions,” said Jaela Parks, a star player for the defending champions, the Chamber Cougars.

Regular season competition begins Saturday, March 18, 2023.