HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Flag football just wrapped up its fourth season since it was added by the Georgia High School Association in 2020.
The sport continues to grow each year, but the new conversation around the sport involves safety - specifically adding more protective gear like helmets to the sport, and while flag isn't technically a contact sport, some players and coaches said that's not always the case.
"It's a non-contact contact sport," said Tim Bohnstedt, head coach of Houston County flag.
The biggest difference between flag and football is contact. The girls grab flags to call the ball dead but senior linebacker Caryn Cummings at Houston County said pulling a flag isn't easy work.
"There's countless times I'm on the ground grabbing somebody's flag or I ran into a girl like busted my chin like you get hit very well," the senior said.
One solution to make the sport safer? Adding padded head gear.
There are a few different options the GHSA is looking at, but Cummings believes people will go for the stylish option.
"I think a lot of girls would go for this one simply just because it looks better but if I had an option I would go for this one just because it's like more safety like I mean t doesn't look the best but like more safety why not," Cummings said.
A padded helmet isn't a new sight for HOCO. Lily Brzezicki wears a helmet to play after suffering a concussion in the playoffs last season.
"There was a throw into the corner of the endzone I jumped up to try and catch it and then I got hit by two people and I fell back on my head," Brzezicki said.
Kyle Eversgerd works with GameBreaker the company trying to bring the padded gear into Georgia. He said they wanted to bring their equipment to the peach state because this is where the sports is growing.
"The infrastructure has already been there on the male side but just the off season training, the specialist training, the skill based training I think you're seeing that grow year over year, but in Georgia it's six years ahead of everyone else," Eversgerd said.
The GHSA said they started out with 88 schools in the inaugural flag football season. This year it grew to 270 schools.
"Like for our first year there was like no safety precautions. Like that wasn't even a thing. Like this just became a thing. So if there is, I feel like a lot of people would be more comfortable letting their children come out here playing," Cummings said.
As more teams join the flag space, the more physical it gets.
"The reality is you're still playing football and practicing football so the natural instinct is to what? Run fast, make plays, and collisions happen...There's still that gap in safety in terms of protecting and reducing the risk of injury for when those instances happen," Eversgerd said.
Brzezicki knows just how physical the game can get, so when she's playing in games she makes sure she suits up no matter what because she wants to keep playing.
"Getting a concussion sucks and if you want to prevent that from happening and keep playing sports you might as well just wear it and it's not that bad I mean people may laugh at you but who cares," Brzezicki said.
The game breaker equipment isn't mandated yet. The company will meet with GHSA next month to talk about rules and regulations when it comes to new safety equipment for high school flag football.