Runnin’ Rebels

Nevada program is using flag football to empower young women

In April this year, middle schoolers in Nevada played flag football as part of a program to show how sports can be fun, competitive and help with mental health. The program, called Raiders, UNLV, Sport and Health - or RUSH - is taught by University of Las Vegas professors and funded by the Las Vegas Raiders.

As we’ve reported, teens leave sports at far too early an age due to poor experiences with teams, pressures to perform or disappointment with the experience - in our 20-year tracking study, we found that teens in more competitive youth sports at early ages like 5th to 7th grade tend to fall off quickly and never return.

Rising incidence of depression and anxiety, even amongst athletes and in teens, spurred the idea for the RUSH program and the organizers picked flag football given its emphasis on team and its growing popularity with kids and teens. The sport is now sanctioned by some states as a regular high school sport and not just a club, such as in Illinois starting in the fall of 2024. The sport is also going to be a women’s Olympic event in 2028 and is becoming more popular globally. In Nairobi and other parts of Africa late last year, the non-profit 2-4-1 led a sports program including flag football for kids. Details of that program here and more information on RUSH here.