It all started with an 8th grader and a dream. 

As a student at Buford Middle School, Caroline Blank dreamed of playing girls flag football for the Black Knights. But, as it turned out, there wasn’t a team.

“My dad said, ‘You should start one,’” Blank said. 

Still an 8th grader, she emailed CHS Student Activities Director Andy Jones to advocate starting a program at CHS. Two years later, the now-sophomore is the quarterback for Charlottesville High School’s first-ever girls flag football club team under the direction of Coach Kelcei Edmonds-Tindal. 

Edmonds-Tindal is a seasoned football player who previously coached in a Pittsburgh Steelers’ girls flag football pilot program and currently plays for the Charlottesville Bears rugby club. 

On many afternoons after school, the field next to the CHS baseball stadium is filled with more than 20 girls practicing and learning about flag football. It’s exactly what Blank was hoping for when she reached out to CHS as an 8th grader to advocate for starting a program.  

“It's been amazing,” Blank said. 

While Blank has been playing flag football since she was a child, some of her teammates are new to the sport. They have been making steady progress since practice began. 

“What I appreciate, especially as an educator, is that if I can see the growth from A to B, that's all I need,” said Edmonds-Tindal, who is also an English teacher at CHS. “I have some girls out here who were not catching the ball at all when we started, and now they are. It's been amazing, really.”

The Black Knights will get the chance to see how much progress they have made on Saturday, October 24, when they host a three-team, round-robin flag football jamboree at the Curtis Elder Track and Field Complex. CHS will be joined at the jamboree by Fluvanna County and Western Albemarle. CHS will face Fluvanna in the opening game at 3pm, then Fluvanna and Western Albemarle will square off at 4pm. CHS will take on Western Albemarle in the final game of the jamboree at 5pm. 

“I'm so excited,” Blank said of the jamboree. “I think a lot of our girls are really excited, and I think it's just going to be a good experience to finally put what we've been doing in practice into a game.”

Edmonds-Tindal expects the jamboree to be a special experience for her players. 

“They've never had a flag football game, so I think it's going to be interesting just walking in as a team,” Edmonds-Tindal said. “I think just being in the environment and seeing it, that's going to take a couple of my girls who are iffy about it and show them that, ‘Oh, this is legit. We could do something with this.’” 

It may not be long before the Virginia High School League does something to further legitimize girls flag football in the state. As the sport continues to increase in popularity in Virginia, it could potentially become officially sanctioned by the VHSL. 

Last year, the Washington Commanders NFL franchise announced that it would invest more than $1 million in girls flag football and provide resources to programs in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. 

While that investment currently does not include programs in the Charlottesville area, it is paying major dividends in other parts of the state. According to WUSA, the Commanders are working with more than 100 high school girls flag football programs in Virginia, including 51 that are fielding teams for the first time this fall. 

Girls flag football has already become an officially sanctioned high school sport in both Maryland and Washington, D.C. If Virginia follows suit and makes girls flag football an officially sanctioned sport in the near future, CHS will be well-positioned to hit the ground running. 

“It’s an emerging sport,” said CHS Athletics and Activities Director Andy Jones. “I think it is going to eventually be a full-on sanctioned sport. It's great for CHS to be a part of it."  

During Edmonds-Tindal’s time as a coach in Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) made girls flag football an officially state-sanctioned high school sport in 2024. She hopes to see the same thing happen in Virginia.  

“If we can do that here in Virginia, that's the goal,” Edmonds-Tindal said. “Every girl should have the opportunity to play some form of football. It's ingrained in our culture. Not every girl is going to tackle, but these girls can go out there, they can run, they can catch a pass, and they can throw a ball. And that's really what I want. I don't want any girl to feel as though football is something that she can’t do.”