ODESSA, Fla. — Middle school girls in Pasco County are pushing to add flag football as a sport in the high schools and to be treated the same as girls in other counties.
Max Luedy has a passion for flag football but the 8th grader is worried she may not be able to play much longer.
“I love to see it grow, more and more girls joining it,” she says. “There's like 40 counties across Florida that have it, and our county doesn't.”
As she and other girls from Pasco age out of travel teams like the Pirate Bay Krewe, they won't have the option to play in high school. Pasco is the only county in the Tampa Bay region that doesn't offer the sport for girls. For more than a year, girls and their parents have been lobbying the schools to fund it but have been told there's no money.
“It's really hard as a parent to have a girl that has such passion for something,” Max’s dad, John Leudy, said. “To know that if she doesn't have that opportunity and we don't get it in high school and afford the same opportunity to her that we have in all surrounding counties.”
It's not just about fairness for these girls, it's all about the possibilities. Colleges are recruiting for flag football and offering scholarships and it'll be a sport in the Olympics in 2028.
“We're working and we're trying,” Anna Quatrino said. “We're just coming together, all trying to get flag football there.”
School board members at a meeting last month showed support for the effort. Today a spokesperson said budgets are still being finalized and no decision has been made.
“Two or three months ago, we were like, eh, we're hoping,” Pasco parent and Pirate Bay Krewe coach Shawn Millard said. “After last month's board meeting, we were a lot more optimistic about it.”
Those parents have been sending letters in support from potential donors to the schools to show it could be funded by residents and businesses. All other counties in the region that offer flag football have it funded from the district budgets.
The first step for these girls was showing they can do what the boys can do; now they're trying to compete against other girls for years to come.