By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Girls’ flag football was deemed a success for Eastern Alamance and Southeast Alamance and those schools are waiting to see what’s next with the sport within the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
The NCHSAA at its annual December meeting pushed back a decision regarding sanctioning the sport, but all signs point toward it becoming part of the group’s official offerings at some point.
“I’m confident it will get done,” Southeast athletics director B.J. Condron said.
Eastern and Southeast were the only Alamance County schools to participate in games during the past fall season.
The NCHSAA is looking for continuity for the sport, which has been contested across the calendar depending on the area of the state. Some teams have held winter competitions, while Charlotte-area schools are competing in the spring.
“We’ve been in different places all across the state,” NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker said.
Stephen Gainey, NCHSAA president and superintendent of the Randolph County School System, said there’s no question that flag football is coming to the NCHSAA.
“It’s just a matter of let’s do it right,” he said. “We don’t need to get in a rush.”
Condron said it’s not only a matter of what season that flag football should be contested. He said some areas of the state play under different sets of rules.
“They’ve got a lot to figure it out, to streamline,” Condron said.
Eastern athletics director Brad Costa helped organize a league with the two Alamance County schools and others from Chatham County.
“I was hopeful that we would have had it sanctioned at the winter meeting,” Costa said.
“I’m hopeful that it will move forward as an official sport in the fall season. It would be difficult for many of the area schools to field teams if it is placed in the spring.”
Tucker said a subcommittee for girls’ flag football has been asked to review the possibilities, including how many games would constitute a season.
Tucker said the NCHSAA board of directors isn’t opposed to reconvening to February to take additional steps on the topic.
Gainey said the processes involving adding lacrosse and girls’ wrestling are examples of the NCHSAA making it work well.
Meanwhile, the NCHAA meetings earlier this month in Chapel Hill had a different tone from a year ago.
With the NCHSAA going to eight classifications beginning this school year, the topic of conference realignment dominated much of the discussions for months.
“We were constantly having to separate that business from the realignment,” Gainey said.
This month, the conversions were more typical of many past years.
“We were due for a meeting that didn’t seem as heavy,” Tucker said.
There are budget concerns. With more classifications, additional venues are needed to hold championship competitions, so the NCHSAA’s expenses have risen.
“We may have to look at different ways of doing these championships and reducing some of our costs,” Gainey said. “It’s a concern of the board. It’s a concern of the staff.”
Tucker said by the end of the school year there will be more data on the impact on the NCHSAA’s budget.
