More than 100 years ago, when students in Tyrone were battling with the school board to lift a ban on football that had lasted for a quarter of a century, some of the main selling points for the sport were the many intangible benefits the game offered to everyone involved.
It’s not hard to imagine what they were: teamwork, resilience, community pride, to name a few.
Thanks to football, boys in Tyrone had those virtues drilled into them for decades beginning in the 1920s.
More recently, a group of parents and sports organizers in the borough began asking, “If those virtues are good for boys, wouldn’t they extend just as well to girls?”
That’s a fair question, and certainly not one Tyrone superintendent W.W. Eisenhart, who was instrumental in developing high school football in Tyrone, even thought to ask when he was fighting to institute the sport in 1921.
But at some point last fall, the possibility of a girls football league in Tyrone began to take shape, and last weekend, playing under the banner of the Tyrone Youth Athletics Association, a first-of-its-kind girls flag league in the borough kicked off its season at the Harry K. Sickler Athletic Park.
Girls flag teams played games alongside boys teams at the Tyrone soccer field as the Tyrone Youth Football League celebrated its opening weekend of competition.
Morgan Rudy, whose daughter Paisley plays in the junior high division for Freedom Ride, was one of the parents who was instrumental in getting the league off the ground, and one of the reasons she worked so hard was because she knew the benefits the game of football had to offer young athletes.
“The biggest reason I wanted to see a girls flag football league was because I wanted them to have a league of their own to experience the same excitement, competition, and teamwork that the boys have,” Rudy said. “Girls deserve to have the opportunity to play, compete, build confidence, and hopefully fall in love with the sport.”
Ralph VanAllman, the president of the Tyrone Youth Football League, said the idea for a girls league began to gain momentum last year with plans for a girls 3rd to 6th grade league that could compete with teams from Bellwood and Williamsburg. But during the planning process many parents of girls who had aged out expressed an interest for their kids to play, too.
Since there wasn’t a flag league for junior high girls anywhere in the area, “the TYAA football board decided to start one with the hopes of getting enough girls to have 3 teams,” VanAllman said. “We ended up getting enough girls to form four teams, and we got a team from Claysburg to join us.”
The first weekend was a huge success, VanAllman said, with Heath Walk Builders earning a 22-13 win over Freedom Ride and Happy Valley Clothing nipping Mac’s Market 22-18.
“It went well,” VanAllman said. “Everyone is still learning the rules, but we have a lot of athletic kids. And for only practicing for one month, it was impressive. The teams seem pretty evenly matched up, so I think it’s going to be a good season.”
The junior high girls are slated to play six regular season games followed by playoffs and a championship weekend set for November 1.
Tyrone’s elementary teams will begin play this weekend and run the circuit of a five-game season.
The elementary league will compete using 7-on-7 teams, while junior high is 5-on-5.
The teams have adopted the NFL flag rules because “that’s becoming a big thing now and they do tournaments,” VanAllman said. “So maybe someday we will join one.”
The possibility for tournament play is just one way VanAllman and league organizers see a girls flag league extending beyond mere preparation for powder puff come high school. There has been interest in keeping it going after junior high, and VanAllman would like to one day have a league for local schools on the high school level.
VanAllman gave credit to a number of people for putting in work on many different levels to make a girls flag league a reality. Rudy was at the top of a list that also included Heather Johnson, Scott Gummo, and Dan Grazier.
And it didn’t take long to see the benefits.
“It was so exciting to see the girls out there competing, learning the game, supporting each other, and having fun,” Rudy said. “Seeing how excited they were to be a part of something created specifically for them made all the work that went into getting the league started worth it. I’m really excited to see how the league continues to grow.”
ORANGE AND BLACK 