Jerry Rice and Steve Young spent this past weekend running girls ages 7 to 14 through football drills at a flag football camp at Jesuit High School in Carmichael, putting two Hall of Fame former teammates in front of a new generation of players. The camp was held with Sutter Health and Young's Forever Young Foundation, and it was designed to give young girls a direct chance to learn the game from two of its best-known names.
The reason the event drew attention was simple: Rice and Young are not just lending their names, they are coaching. Young said he and Rice have been friends for a long time and have used that bond to raise money for good causes, and he described the camp as helping level the playing field by giving girls a real chance to play football. Rice said the day was about letting the girls experience togetherness and competition, and he said their excitement after a good catch or play was obvious to see.
The camp fits into a larger push that has helped girls flag football move from niche to mainstream in California. The sport was officially sanctioned as a varsity option in 2023 after the California Interscholastic Federation's governing council voted 146-0 in February that year, and participation in California high schools has since jumped more than 80%. Nationally, the numbers have kept climbing too: more than 102,000 girls played high school flag football in the 2025-26 school year, with 3,990 schools reporting participants.
Even with that growth, the sport still does not have equal footing everywhere. Just 12 states sanctioned girls flag football as recently as 2024, and the number has since risen to 23 states plus Washington, D.C., leaving the game unevenly recognized even as interest accelerates. Young has called girls' flag football the fastest-growing sport in America, but the patchwork map shows how far the push still has to go before the opportunity Rice described is available more broadly.
Sutter Health says it is backing similar events throughout Northern California, with Warner Thomas saying the nonprofit partners are there to give back to the community and that the company supports Young as a mentor because it wants to promote activity and healthier lives among young people. The broader effort has already included a separate camp with Young and the Forever Young Foundation at Palo Alto High School, where more than 100 girls ages 7 to 14 attended. For now, the Carmichael camp stands as the clearest sign that the sport's growth is being driven not just by policy, but by the people teaching the next wave of players how to catch, compete and keep going.
