Aysia Jones-Robinson can do it all.

One second she’s throwing for a touchdown; then she’s intercepting a pass. She runs with ease, maneuvering around defenses. It’s no wonder she’s referred to by her coach and teammates as the Lamar Jackson of flag football.

“All you have to do is go and watch her,” Clarksburg coach Kyle Landefeld said. “Aysia just takes off. You’re not going to get her to sit in the pocket. She likes to move.”

Her teammates, a hodgepodge of softball and basketball players, picked up the sport a year ago, when Montgomery County Public Schools introduced it at the varsity level across all 25 high schools. They were assigned a position at tryouts, then watched YouTube videos to learn how to play. It’s a fun way for them to fill the fall season, but most don’t have any desire to play it after high school beyond an occasional pickup game.

Not Jones-Robinson. She’s been playing her entire life, often with boys, and she’s now got the chance to play in high school and is interested in taking her skills to the next level.

But is the sport developed enough right now to give her that opportunity after she graduates high school?

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’m still figuring that out.”

Developing a new sport

Jones-Robinson, a lifelong player, heard the buzz during the spring of 2024, her freshman year at Clarksburg, and was instantly in. MCPS was launching flag football that fall, and this was the opportunity she had been waiting for. She was playing on the girls basketball team, but football has always had her heart.

But to fill a team required convincing classmates — and a coach — to learn a new sport. Landefeld had sworn he was done coaching in the fall season after decades of leading the volleyball team, but he was convinced to take on this team. His daughter, now in her late 20s, would have loved to play, he said, so he decided to jump back into coaching to help all the girls who are now getting the chance.

Jones-Robinson’s basketball teammates Destiny Turner and Aerin Payne opted to give it a try. So did Alexandra Blauer and Grace Gentilli from the softball team.

Their first practice was a mess. They had no idea what they were doing — the basketball players had agility and the softball players could track the ball, but they had to translate those skills to football.

Jones-Robinson, a wide receiver on her youth team, was asked to play quarterback. She didn’t want to, but as the most experienced player on the team, it only made sense to have her calling the plays. Turner could catch, so she became a wide receiver. Bauer and Gentilli had no idea how to memorize plays or read the defense, so they spent their first few weeks just trying to keep up.

“It brought different aspects to our team,” Gentilli said. “The basketball girls are aggressive. They bring that fire onto our team. In softball, we have really specific techniques with stuff. Having the two groups combined has only led to our success.”

They only had a few weeks to prepare for their first game and weren’t quite ready. They lost in double overtime but have gone undefeated since, including winning the inaugural Flag Football State Championship hosted by the Ravens last year.

Athletes who otherwise might have never crossed paths at a school with over 2,000 students suddenly formed the best team in the state while blazing a trail for future girls to follow.

“A lot of us have grown up watching our older brothers play or watching with our family on the weekend, and now you just think, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m them, we get to do that,’” Gentilli said. “It’s really cool.”

This was the future that MCPS athletic director Jeffrey Sullivan envisioned when he stood on the sidelines of a Frederick County high school in 2023, debating whether he should add the sport in his own county.

The Ravens had been working since 2018 to create a girls high school flag football league. Frederick County, which already had a popular youth girls team that played in a boys league and only 10 public schools, was the first county to take the plunge. In 2023, the Ravens and Frederick County worked together to create a rule book based on other states, such as Florida, where it’s been an official sport since the early 2000s. The Ravens sent instructors to schools to host clinics for players, coaches and officials.

It was an instant success in Frederick, and Sullivan was sold. He took his pitch to the Montgomery County Board of Education, which approved the new sport at all 25 high schools for the fall 2024 season. The Ravens provided a $5,000 stipend for each school, plus uniforms, equipment and training. More than 600 students participated in 2024. Over 70% of them, Sullivan said, had never played a fall sport before.

With Montgomery County, the largest and most-endowed county in the state, on board, other counties wanted in, too. Prince George’s, Washington, Charles, Calvert and Baltimore have since added programs. The Commanders have begun supporting the sport as well, taking over funding for Montgomery and Prince George’s, plus schools in Virginia and D.C. that fall into their marketing district. They provide $3,000 per school.

In 2023, Maryland had 10 schools with flag football teams. Now, just two years later, there are 92 schools, with 13 from Howard County committed to joining them in 2026.

“The addition of Montgomery County was really, really important for the growth and development,” said Adam Rudel, the Ravens’ senior manager of marketing and football outreach who helped launch this program. “When they decide to do something, other people take notice.”

What does the future look like?

When Clarksburg took the field this fall for its second season, the players were all business. They understood the language of the game and were ready to build on the plays that helped them win the state championship in their inaugural season.

“Last year it took us a whole year to figure it out,” Landefeld said. “This year, we came in saying, ‘OK, here’s our starting point. Now we can get even better,’ and they absolutely did.”

Clarksburg’s tone this season mirrors how the rest of the state feels. Last year was about having fun and getting the sport off the ground. Now it’s time to get serious about creating a sustainable future.

The goal, Sullivan said, is for girls flag football to become an official state sport in 2026. To do so, they are mirroring the way the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association operates this year, placing schools in divisions and advancing them through their regional bracket for the playoffs. They also amended the rules, allowing downfield blocking for the offense and extending the game by eight minutes.

“This is going to explode,” Landefeld said. “This game will challenge other fall sports. ... The upside is just massive, and I think you’re going to start seeing it at earlier ages.”

That’s already happening. Montgomery County has an interest in adding junior varsity and middle school teams, and local organizations such as the Olney Boys & Girls Club have teams for kids of kindergarten age.

It’s not just growing in Maryland, either. The number of girls playing flag football at the high school level jumped from 42,955 for the 2023-24 school year to 68,847 for 2024-25, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. It’s expanding so fast that, for Jones-Robinson and others interested in taking it to the next level, the opportunities beyond high school haven’t caught up.

Professional leagues exist, but players aren’t able to make a living off the sport, if they are even paid at all. The NFL said it would like to create a league prior to the 2028 Olympics, but when hasn’t been announced.

Players such as Sandi James, who has more than a decade of experience playing on tackle football teams and now coaches flag football, expect these opportunities to come quickly as participation levels rise.

“It will be no different than how the WNBA started or the women’s soccer league,” James said. “I don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon or ever, for that matter. I’m just grateful that these girls get the opportunity and the access to be able to play, because for so long we were never associated with football.”

That includes opportunities in college, too. Although there are dozens of club teams, it’s not an NCAA sport. In January, the NCAA will vote to make it part of Emerging Sports for Women, a program that aims to add more athletic and scholarship opportunities. If approved, at least 40 schools will have to sponsor the sport for it to be considered for championship status.

Currently, only two Division I schools offer it as a varsity sport. Mount St. Mary’s, located in Emmitsburg, is one of those. It will play its first season in the spring and will compete in the Carolina Conference against Division II colleges.

Fifteen of the 17 players are from Maryland, with two coming from Montgomery County high school teams.

“My goal is to put Maryland on the map,” James said. “A lot of the girls that I want to recruit, I want them to come from Maryland.”

But they can’t offer scholarships, which might limit the talent they can get. Jones-Robinson has a scholarship offer from Washington Adventist, which will begin the sport in the spring, and more schools are interested, her mother, Angelica Jones, said.

They hope that, in the next year and a half before she graduates, there’ll be even more scholarship options at higher-profile schools.

They know she is talented. She just needs the opportunity to show it off beyond high school.

“That’s why I hope this platform can open it up for more colleges to see that more girls really want to do this and are really athletic,” Jones said. “Honestly, make it even bigger for her to go even further to try for the Olympics. I think she is that fabulous.”