Hawaii will become the 12th state in the U.S. to sanction girls’ flag football as an official high school sport, the Hawaii High School Athletic Association will announce today at press conference at McKinley.

All five athletics leagues — Oahu Interscholastic Association, Interscholastic League of Honolulu, Big Island Interscholastic Federation, Maui Interscholastic League, Kauai Interscholastic Federation — have approved the sport for the coming 2024-25 school year. At least three needed to do so for an HHSAA state tournament to be held. Girls’ flag football is the first state championship sport the HHSAA has added in 20 years.

In its inaugural year, girls’ flag football will be implemented as a spring sport.

The development appears to be a major Title IX achievement for the state, particularly in the wake of the landmark settlement reached in the federal class-action lawsuit against the Hawaii Department of Education and the OIA regarding gender disparities in athletics at Campbell High School. First established in October and finalized in February, the agreement assigned an independent evaluator to complete routine assessments at Campbell High in accordance with a seven-year compliance plan.

The lawsuit was filed in 2018. The DOE renewed its Title IX committee in 2019.

Almost two-thirds of state high school athletic associations in the U.S. have girls’ flag football as a sanctioned or pilot program, per the NFHS or National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations. Soon, it will be an Olympic sport.

The 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles will feature men’s and women’s flag football for the first time in the history of the event.