As the head coaches of the girls flag football teams at Harrison and Pinelands respectively, Dan Nankivell and John Tierney have seen first hand the rapid rise in popularity of high school girls flag football as experienced in just a few short years.
Perhaps no bigger proof of that growth comes on Sunday when 53 players from across the state gather at Kean University for the inaugural NJ Girls Flag Football North-South All-Star Game.
The game will be held at halftime between Phil Simms North-South All-Star Football Classic, giving high school girls flag football it’s biggest New Jersey stage yet.
“I think it just kind of highlights how quickly the sport is growing. Things tend to happen quickly in this sport I’m finding out,” said Nankivell, who just completed his second season with Harrison. “Whether it’s the all-star game or opportunities beyond high school for some players that I’ve heard of around the league. There are college programs that are starting up and made offers to a number of players in our league, which is awesome. The whole thing is becoming quite the phenomenon. It’s really growing quickly and it’s exciting and it should grow quickly.”
“I think the Phil Simms All-Star Game is going to do a great job of showcasing the girls,” Tierney said. “They’re doing a great job of showing everybody that this sport is here and that it’s here to stay.”
Tierney’s Pinelands team was one of the original eight Shore Conference teams when the league was first formed in 2021 in conjunction with Nike and the New York Giants. At the same time, Nike and the New York Jets started a high school girls flag football league in North Jersey. Nike in conjunction with the Philadelphia Eagles have done the same in South Jersey with the West Jersey Football League after starting a pilot program in Philadelphia.
Between the different leagues hosted by the Jets, Giants and Eagles, 80 different New Jersey high schools had girls flag football this spring. Girls Flag Football is not officially sponsored by the NJSIAA and is currently designated as a club sport. The designation allows girls to play flag football as well as an additional sport during the spring season.
“There’s always been a place for it,” said Tierney, who has two girls – Mackenzie Jennings and Zinnia Moon – in the game. “I can’t tell you how many former students will come up to me and say I wish this was here when I was playing (in high school), I would have done it.”
Camden Mastery Charter, which competed in the Eagles’ Philly League last year, won the first ever South Jersey Flag Football championship on May 17 at the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice facility and has three representatives in the North-South Game with Jermyra Bethea, Arianna Clark and Elaysha Vereen.
Also on the South team is Taylor Crow of Shore Conference Champion Rumson-Fair Haven. Three members of the Big Central Conference champion Hillside team – Raniyah Green, Julie Jerome and Ashley Pierre – are also on the South team.
Among those on the North team are Jordyn Becker and Isabella Javier of NJIC champion Lodi Immaculate as well as the trio of of Anyaa McLamb, Faith Phillips and Janasia Wilson from Irvington, which has been selected by Nike and NFL in the Nike Football Kickoff Classic at Nike headquarters this August.
“I really do feel that all of them understand the magnitude of being the first ever all-star team,” said Nankivell, who counts two of his players, Rasha Abdeljalil and Fatma Mohamed, among those in the game. “It’s really cool to see and be a part of.
“Anytime that we can introduce the sport to a wider audience it can only be good. It can only inspire other people to want to play. Maybe get a couple of towns who don’t have programs to think that maybe it’s time for us to start a program. The more we can do things like this, I think the more the sport is going to continue to grow.”
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