During its September meeting Wednesday, the Van Buren County Board of Education approved girls’ flag football as Van Buren County High School’s newest TSSAA sport.
Flag football becomes the 13th non-co-op sport at VBHS. The team will play its first full season during the Spring 2025 semester. History teacher Shane Hall will serve as the program’s first head coach, and girls’ basketball coach Tyler Sapp will assist.
"I am excited to see girls' flag football coming to VBHS,” said Jared Copeland, Van Buren Director of Schools. “I believe it provides our female student-athletes with a new, fantastic opportunity, and I see it being a sport our students and community will be excited to support. We're looking forward to seeing this program thrive under Coach Hall's leadership and enthusiasm."
VBHS is one of 528 Tennessee schools expected to play flag football during the 2024-25 school year, while another 37 schools are considering adding the program.
In its pilot year, the team will play at least one home game at White County High School’s Dee Harris Field. Additional home games at WCHS are expected to be announced.
Flag football was sanctioned as an emerging sport by the TSSAA in April. Emerging sports are treated the same as all other TSSAA-sanctioned sports except a state championship will not be offered initially. Instead, TSSAA will work to classify participating schools into districts, regions, and/or sections for a postseason invitational in Spring 2025.Schools can currently choose to play in any season as long as they meet the following stipulations of the sports calendar:
Maximum number of regular season contests - 16
Three weeks of practice allowed before the first contest date
Regular season cannot extend past 10 week
“It is exciting to bring football back to Van Buren County,” Hall said. “We had nearly 30 girls sign up for the team at our interest meeting earlier this month. We are working on putting together a schedule now that we hope to release soon. We’re aiming to play at least 10 games in the spring.”