UW-Oshkosh debuts women’s flag football as sport grows across Wisconsin

Jaia Carson, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, longed to play football growing up because her dad was a coach.

Now, she’s getting the opportunity to quarterback the first-ever women’s flag football team at UW-Oshkosh. She hopes seeing her team competing on the field will inspire young girls.

“I always wanted to play football when I was younger, so now being able to see all these little girls coming to our games and just cheering us on, that’s just amazing to me,” Carson said.

Women’s flag football is growing and a number of Wisconsin colleges are adding it as a varsity sport.

UW-Oshkosh is one of at least 10 Wisconsin colleges that have added or announced plans to add women’s flag football, according to Collegiate Flag Football, an online publication tracking the sport’s growth.

The Oshkosh Titans opened their season on Feb. 25. Other colleges sponsoring women’s flag football include UW-Stout, Marian University, Ripon College, UW-Parkside, Mount Mary University, Lakeland University, Wisconsin Lutheran College, Beloit College and Bryant & Stratton College.

Some of those schools are already competing while others plan to officially launch their teams in the coming years.

Women’s flag football is also gaining momentum nationally, receiving the designation of being an “emerging sport” by the NCAA. It’s also slated to make its debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“When you think of football, you think of big, tough guys tackling each other, but now we’re changing that narrative,” said UW-Oshkosh junior Ashlyn Clemens. “That is so powerful to me to think that women can be on this field. Women deserve to be on this field.”

The Titans dropped their first contest to Aurora University 34-0 on Feb. 25. But the team was soon back on the practice field, waking up at the crack of dawn to start practice by 6 a.m.

As they competed in drills and scrimmages, the players often cheered each other on. Players described the team as a “family.”

“We hold each other accountable,” said junior Paige Vitek. “We come to practice, we make sure everybody’s working hard and getting things done outside of practice. And I’m really proud of everybody for just being with each other and keeping each other strong.”

While traditional tackle football features 11 players on offense competing against 11 players on defense, flag football is played in a seven-on-seven format with average rosters of around 25 players.

The UW-Oshkosh players described their first game as a learning experience. They’re hoping to clean up the mistakes when they travel to Fond du Lac for a double-header against Marian University and Illinois Wesleyan University on March 22.

“That was really our first time going true seven-on-seven,” Clemens said. “It was a lot of girls’ — mine included — first flag football game ever, so just getting our feet in the water and seeing how the sport actually functions, I think, was really imperative for us.”

Head coach Deante Jefferson said his message to the team in its inaugural season has been that they have “nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Jefferson said he’d like to see even more colleges in Wisconsin offer women’s flag football, specifically more schools in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference like UW-Stevens Point, Whitewater, La Crosse and River Falls.

“This is the hardest conference in (NCAA) Division Three,” he said. “I want to play good teams because that’s going to make us better, and it’s going to make these women better individuals.”

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