BEAVERTON – The Creswell Bulldogs girls flag football team’s reward for going undefeated in their league was to be one of eight teams to travel to the Nike Headquarters last Saturday to compete in the state tournament. The tournament was hosted at Nike as the company invested thousands of dollars into girls flag football this season. The Bulldogs faced off with defending champion Banks and fell 30-6, ending their inaugural season as a program.
“We went even higher than my expectations. This whole thing was just to get a group of girls interested in football, getting out to compete and have fun,” said Creswell coach Scott Worsham. “We ended up actually having a pretty darn good team. To be the league champs and go to the state tournaments was awesome for the first season. That’s well above and beyond what I thought we were gonna be.”
Worsham said that after the Bulldogs lost to Banks, Nike did have a “combine-like” set of competitions, such as the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, and broad jump. Blitz, the mascot for the Seattle Seahawks, also made a special appearance at the event.
With two years under its belt, and over 30 teams competing this season, girls flag football continues its trajectory toward becoming an emerging sport, and eventually an officially sanctioned Oregon School Activities Association sport.
“If it does become one of those official sports it’s gonna be more of a practice five days a week thing, and you probably get a little more serious about it. But for now, I kind of liked where it was – just a couple days a week we go out to compete and have fun,” Worsham said. “We really enjoyed it. The girls were fun to work with, they picked up on things really quick. It was really just a lot of fun to go out there and coach them.”
Worsham said Creswell plans to have a team again next year assuming flag football continues. It will be an Olympic sport in 2028.
“We want to keep this thing going. Especially after the excitement we had around it this year. A lot of people were saying things like, ‘Wow, these kids can really play football,’” Worsham said. “I think there’s a lot of excitement around here in Creswell, and I feel like we’re gonna get more girls interested and have more girls come out next season.”
