Bucs to host 2024 FHSAA Girls Flag Football State Championships for the first time

TAMPA, Fla. - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are set to host the 2024 FHSAA Girls Flag Football State Championships for the first time. 

"We want to get everyone involved to play," said Tara Battiato, the Bucs' vice president of community impact. "It teaches life skills about being a member of a team. And the competition is super fierce."

The team has hosted regional playoffs before, but 2024 marks the first time the state title matchups will be held at the AdventHealth Training Center. The championships will take place May 10-11.

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This week, the Bucs are hosting their sixth annual Girls Flag Football Preseason Classic at Ed Radice Sports Complex, home of the Tampa Bay United Soccer Club. 

"A lot of our players are participating in their school teams. So it's fantastic to see," said Tricia Taliaferro, the executive director of Tampa Bay United Soccer Club. "It's the confidence, the discipline, the accountability, and it just translates from sport to sport."

The four-day tournament features more than 100 teams from across the state. 

"It's just great, because at first, it was so small and now, it has grown so large," Steinbrenner High School freshman quarterback, Kaylin Ramsey, said of the growing popularity of women’s flag football. "It's in colleges, it's in high schools. And obviously they're still trying to make it grow bigger."

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Last fall, Olympic officials announced flag football will make its debut in Los Angeles in 2028. Ramsey is hoping for a shot at history and wants to represent our country.

"It would mean so much. And it means so much to every girl from around the world for that to happen," Ramsey said.