First Official Flag Football State Champions to Be Crowned on the Ravens’ Field

On a sunny September afternoon, coach Sean Brunson gathers 23 members of the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute’s flag football team for a pregame talk. Not anywhere fancy, just a piece of shade beside the school’s turf field off Cold Spring Lane. In navy Under Armour uniforms, the girls stand listening, white flags dangling from their belts.

“Let’s be a team, let’s be a sisterhood,” says Brunson to the group, some swagged out in leg sleeves, others in blue-mirror sunglasses. “Somebody gets knocked down? Pick each other up.”

That wasn’t necessary this game. Poly beat Digital Harbor 44-0 in their season opener, thanks to three first-half touchdowns from senior quarterback Ny’jae Mills, pictured above, second from left, two of them passes to co-captain Danielle Mpoko, pictured left. Senior Reagan McCray, pictured second from right, added an interception.

Three years ago, when these athletes started high school, none of this existed—not even the game. In 2023, Maryland had 10 girls’ flag football teams, all in Frederick County. Today, there are 132, including 14 in Baltimore City, each now playing 12 regular-season games. On Nov. 17, for the first time, three state-sanctioned champions will be crowned at M&T Bank Stadium.

“It’s super exciting,” says McCray, a receiver and linebacker. “My whole life, I’ve been playing sports that are male dominated. Playing flag football really allows for female talent to be showcased.”

It all seems almost shockingly overdue. After all, students have played tackle football here since 1889—Poly and City College were first—and girls’ flag, as it’s called, has existed in pockets. It just wasn’t organized city- or statewide like basketball or lacrosse. But what’s happening now has a lot to do with Baltimore’s NFL team.

Adam Rudel, a Ravens senior manager for youth and high-school outreach, had been talking to state officials about establishing flag-football teams since before the pandemic. Like other NFL clubs, the Ravens are eyeing the game’s Olympic debut in 2028, and, amid a surge in women’s sports, see it as a chance to engage new fans.

Bureaucracy was always the main obstacle, namely the Maryland public-school athletic association’s threshold for sanctioning a sport: 40 percent participation or 80 schools. A Frederick pilot league took off, but the Ravens still had to go county by county with a pitch: $10,000 per school in seed money, Under Armour uniforms, clinics for players, coaches, and officials. Montgomery County came aboard in 2024 and the dam broke: 53 schools that fall, 105 the next.

Baltimore County set up 24 teams this year. Baltimore City is in its third season, with programs also at Dunbar, Forest Park, Patterson, and others. In April, the state made it official. Everyone’s still learning.

“The end zone is at the 10?” one official asked before the county’s first game in Pikesville. It is. Flag uses the boys’ fields, but only 80 of the 100 yards, so the lines mean different things. It’s seven-on-seven without the kickoffs, pads, collisions—or concussions—of tackle. Defenders instead grab one of two flags from a runner’s waist.

Grants may roll in later, but the goal is for budget-squeezed schools to sustain the teams. If they don’t, it won’t be for lack of interest. This summer, players kept texting Brunson about training and practice.

“It’s just like, wow, this joint is really growing,” says Brunson, a 2015 Poly grad who played receiver at McDaniel College. “It’s really happening.”

A dozen girls from Poly’s 2025 inaugural roster came back. At least four have college scholarship offers, including McCray, who’s being courted by some 17 schools.

This month, she and her teammates might walk the same tunnels as Lamar Jackson. But on this fall afternoon, junior co-captain Aubrey Powell, pictured right, broke their huddle in a pocket of shade. “1-2-3,” she counted, before everyone screamed, “Poly!” Then, “4-5-6.” “Family!” And a collective “woo!”

With arms raised, they walked out onto their turf.