Out of 200 high schools in the state of Georgia that have a flag football team, McIntosh High School does not. Compared to other schools in the Fayette County district, Starr’s Mill, Fayette County, Whitewater and Sandy Creek, McIntosh is the odd one out.

“[The] reason we [don’t] have a flag football team [yet] is because we just had a teacher come forward and express interest in coaching a flag football team for next year,” McIntosh Athletic Director Leon Hammond said.

Flag Football is a non-contact sport that requires five players per team to move down the field trying to pull three flags from the waist of their opponent. The objective of the game is to score as many points as possible within a 40-minute period.

“So, the process that goes with starting a team, obviously, you have to declare with the [Georgia] High School Association a year in advance that you are going to have a team. So as of last year, we did not have anybody on staff or in the county willing to coach a team,” Hammond said.

As the interest in flag football increases, people in the school and community are questioning whether or not McIntosh should have a girls’ Flag Football team.

“I’m extremely interested and sad that I won’t get to play at McIntosh. A lot of the schools in the county like Trinity, Starrs’ Mill, they all have teams and I feel like we’re left out. So, I do think it’s a necessity because it’s a sport that people can get recruited for, they added it to the Olympics recently,” Jayla Jackson said.

Another senior and Varsity Girls Basketball player, Kendall Davis, shared the same sentiment.

“Yes, I think that’s a really good idea, honestly, because there’s a lot of very athletic girls who I could see playing flag football next year and the year upcoming. So yeah, I think we should [have a team]. It’s a good idea,” Davis said.

Others don’t think McIntosh is left out of anything,

“No, I don’t feel odd because what you have to look at is if people take a step away from just looking at the sport specific piece, if you look at McIntosh versus the rest of the schools in our district, we’re landlocked, we don’t have the space they have to create [new sports]. And one of the biggest issues you have is when you throw sports out there, if you’re not giving them adequate practice time, adequate space, you put yourself in another heap of trouble,” Hammond said.

According to Olympic.com, the sport is set to debut in the 2028 Olympics. Flag football was not added earlier because of the 2020 pandemic that took over for 2 and half years.

“The pandemic stalled efforts for about a year, ‘all the stars aligned’ and officials found themselves facing L.A. 2028 organizers,” according to theathletic.com.

Others are excited for the sport to debut in the Olympics.

“I’m excited. I like seeing new sports get added to the Olympics. You know the Olympics, a lot of times outside of sprint events for track or basketball, they become a little boring because they are your traditional old guard kind of sports. So when new things get added it is exciting, and I mean flag football in it itself is an exciting sport,” Hammond said.

With many different varieties of sports at McIntosh such as Tennis, Swim, Soccer and tackle football. Finding a place for Flag football to fit in may be a challenge.

“Where do you fit [flag football] into the mix of McIntosh sports,” Hammond said.