Minnesota Vikings Pledge $75,000 To Launch Girls Flag Football Team

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The Minnesota Vikings have partnered with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) to launch a girls flag football team. The team pledged $75,000 to make it happen, according to KARE 11.

The program took almost two years to develop, experiencing some delays due to the pandemic. The goal is to eventually make girls flag football a high school sanctioned sport in Minnesota.

“It just gives them an opportunity to learn the game of football,” said Madison Cortese, Vikings youth football manager. “Really, our goal for this season is to show that football is an inclusive game and provide them an opportunity to learn the game.”

The pilot season included about 30 girls from different MPS middle schools and ends this Saturday (May 21). Vikings players will meet with the girls as “celebrity guest coaches.”

“The girls are having a lot of fun,” Torrance Hill, associate director of athletics and middle school sports at MPS, said. “They are very competitive. Once they began, the more they played, the more confident they became and the better they performed.”

“It is very interesting seeing 12- and 13-year-olds pound their chests and high five and so forth and so on,” he added. “It’s very exciting.”

Hill hopes to more-than-double their participation next year, and Cortese said they're working on spreading the word to other communities to expand their reach.

“We encourage any communities to reach out if they are interested in having girls flag either in their middle school or high school,” Cortese said. “The Vikings are here to support and we want to support the growth of this sport throughout the state.”


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