Flag football continues to be a preferred option for many young athletes that aren’t into its tackling counterpart. Now, it’ll be at most high schools across the state.

Starting in 2024, girls flag football will officially be a state championship sport across New York. Kingston High School’s athletic director called Mike Dittus to see if he’d be open to coaching. Although initially hesitant, it only took a day for him to change his mind.

“Why not? What’s the big difference gonna be?” said Dittus.

The father of two boys quickly realized that he signed up for a whole new ballgame: coaching girls.

“They’ve taught me a couple things and still do every day,” said Dittus.

While it may be girls instead of boys, the pure love of the game is still there.

“They love football. It’s awesome. It really is. So they make it easy, they really do. They make it easy and I’m the lucky one,” said Dittus.

Keeley Savona is on her second season as center, convenient after you learn her goals center around football. She hopes to become an agent for either a NFL player or team, but for now, she’s got her chance on the field.

“I love watching football anyways, so on Sundays I’m always watching football and everything, and I always wanted the chance to play so when I was told I had the chance, I was ecstatic. I don’t know if there is even a word for it, but I was really, really excited,” said Savona.

Many of the athletes play other sports at the high school as well. Now, they get to learn the ins and outs of the game instead of just cheering from the sidelines.

“One of the things we’ve talked about is, ‘you know, you’ve cheered for boys your whole life, now you get to play,’ ” Dittus said. “These girls now, they get together on Sunday with their friends like the boys do and they eat wings and pizza and watch football. That’s what they do and a couple of years ago, before we started doing this, I don’t think we did that.”

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association says there are at least 140 girls flag football programs across New York.

“It’s grown because of them, you know? They’re the ones with the enthusiasm. They love the game,” said Dittus. The game is fun, so it’s been fun for me to just be around them and watch how much they really enjoy it.”