PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Some Pasco County families are pushing to bring girls' high school flag football to the district.
For the Millards, flag football runs in the family.
Shawn Millard has been coaching flag football for a little over 20 years while sisters Ariel and Aurora both play the game.
“I’d say seven days a week. Like every single day putting in hard work and effort,” said Ariel Millard.
Ariel is going into high school next year where she’d like to be able to play.
“Honestly, it has such a big impact on me and in all these other girls that really want it, and for it to not be there, then we really don’t have the chance to like play and show how good we are at the sport,” said Ariel.
There are no schools in the Pasco County School District that currently offer flag football.
Shawn is now pushing for Pasco County Schools to add girls high school flag football as a sport for the district.
“All of our surrounding counties, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, they all have flag football and have had flag football for a while, but for some reason, Pasco still doesn’t have it,” said Shawn.
The family thinks the interest is there as the sport surges in the spotlight, from colleges offering scholarships and flag football even making its Olympic debut in 2028.
“The past two or three weeks, we’ve had couple hundred letters, emails sent to the Pasco County school board expressing interest for these girls to play,” said Shawn.
ABC Action News reached out to Pasco County Schools.
The district said staff is aware of the push from parents, and that they’re going to look into it, going further to say if they don’t have the funding for it, they’ll see if they can look to community partners.
Even more than their love for the sport, parents see their kids learning life skills that will stick with them far beyond the field.
“Seeing her grow and just the camaraderie, the action, the love for each other,” said Shawn. “To me, there’s no other sport like it.”
Parents and students plan to go to Tuesday night’s Pasco County school board meeting to speak in favor of adding girls' flag football. The meeting gets underway at 6 p.m.
