By Michael Adams
Austin Sports Journal
Ava Wallace will play football in college on an athletic scholarship.
The Maxwell Football Club’s national high school player of the year will attend Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the fall to play on the Seahawks’ woman’s flag football team.
She’s also a member of the U.S National U-18 team and a U.S. Army All-American.
Now, the Rouse senior is championing bringing the sport to Texas high schools.
“Make it a UIL sport,” she said after leading Rouse to the inaugural Pflugerville/Texans’ girls flag football league championship earlier this month.
“I started playing this sport when I was like six years old, there were only boys teams, so I was like the only girl,” she said. “To see the growth of the sport, just in the last three years, is amazing.”
Photos from the AISD and Pflugerville seasons
Click image to make slideshow full screen.
The Houston Texans announced the league in Pflugerville in February and featured nine area high schools from Round Rock, Pflugerville, Hutto and Leander ISDs. It was the first league of its kind in the Austin area.
The Dallas Cowboys sponsored a similar league with Austin ISD schools, which culminated on Friday with the league tournament that saw Bowie defeat McCallum in the championship game.
The Cowboys and Texans’ girls flag football programs have reached 80 high schools across the State of Texas, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and El Paso.
There are 18 state high school athletic associations across the United States that recognize girls high school flag football. The UIL, which is the governing body of Texas high school athletics, isn’t one of them.
With women’s flag football set to debut in the 2028 Olympics, it’s hard to ignore the growing popularity of the sport. Florida has one of the highest-rated high school girls flag football programs in the country.
Girls flag football was considered to be added as a sport at last year’s UIL summer meetings. However, the discussion was tabled. The UIL has long stated that there needs to be increased participation before adding it as a sport.
UIL communications manager Julia Zachary told the Dallas Morning News in a prepared statement, “For the UIL Legislative Council to consider sanctioning any new activity, there needs to be established programs and widespread participation across multiple districts and regions of the state, along with a strong push from member schools. While we haven’t seen that level of development for flag football yet, we look forward to following its continued growth.”
The UIL last added a sport in 2022 when it sanctioned water polo as a varsity sport. A pilot program was approved in 2019 before its full debut in 2022. There is only one classification with 150 schools participating in the sport.
The UIL will conduct its 2025 June Legislative Council meeting on Wednesday, June 11 to consider rule change proposals and whether to add new sports. Girls flag football, along with lacrosse, will likely be on the list of sports to consider.
