Minnesota girls flag football season kicks off for the first time
Sartell High School is one of 51 schools across Minnesota participating in a new girls flag football league in spring 2025. For coach Scott Hentges (left), it has meant the chance to coach his daughter, Maya Hentges, before she graduates.
Courtesy of Scott Hentges
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Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: There haven't been many options for girls who want to play football on a team, but that's changing thanks to the explosive rise of flag football, which is one of the nation's fastest-growing high school sports. 15 states have created official high school programs. Minnesota is not one of them. But as of this past weekend, 51 schools across the state are now competing in a league that's supported by the Minnesota Vikings. Joining me now is Sartell High School Head Football and Flag Football Coach Scott Hentges and his daughter Maya, who plays on the team. Thank you both for your time this afternoon, really appreciate it.
SCOTT HENTGES: You're welcome. Happy to be here.
MAYA HENTGES: Yeah.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. [LAUGHS]
Scott, I wonder-- so you had your first game this weekend. How did it go?
SCOTT HENTGES: It was a ton of fun. I think if you ask the girls how their experience was, I think, regardless of whether you talk win or loss, I think everybody had a lot of fun. It's something that they haven't had a chance to do before. And to see other girls out there, doing it right along with them, I think everybody had a blast. We actually won our first game--
NINA MOINI: Nice.
SCOTT HENTGES: --26 to 2. And then we lost our second game 24 to 18 in 2 overtimes.
NINA MOINI: Oh, wow.
SCOTT HENTGES: Everybody had to look up what the overtime rules were.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
SCOTT HENTGES: It was just really a really fun experience.
NINA MOINI: Maya, how was it for you this weekend?
MAYA HENTGES: It was so fun. Going into it, I had really no idea what to expect. But it was so fun to be out there with all these girls and just have a good time, do something new. It was great.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, and I'm assuming football's been a pretty big part of your life, too, Maya, given your dad being a football coach and everything. Tell me a little bit about just how it feels to be able to participate in this way. Had you tried before?
MAYA HENTGES: I had not ever tried football or flag football or anything before. But it kind of feels like a rite of passage for me as a member of the Hentges family. My brother played football. My dad played football. My grandpa played football. My dad coached my brother. So now I feel like I've officially reached that benchmark.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And Scott-- oh, go ahead.
SCOTT HENTGES: As I say, I always tried to get her to give it a shot. And we'd play catch and stuff. And she actually always helped on the sidelines for me on Friday nights. But unfortunately, her main sport is swimming. And girls swimming is during the fall.
NINA MOINI: Oh, sure.
SCOTT HENTGES: She's pretty committed to that. But she would always be at our games on Friday nights too.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And Scott, just for anyone who doesn't know, can you just briefly explain how flag football works and how it's a little different?
SCOTT HENTGES: Sure, yeah. So it's five versus five. And so that's a little bit different than-- actually, each state kind of has their own version, but ours is five versus five. So you have a quarterback and four eligible receivers. One girl snaps it. And let's see, all the passes have to be forward. So you can't pitch it behind you at all. But other than that, you go against the defense, and you pass the ball. They chase you down. And they try and pull your flag. You can spin. You can twirl. You can do all kinds of stuff to try and not get your flag pulled.
And then on defense, the defense can rush one girl. So they have to start 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage. And then they take off right as soon as the ball is snapped. And then that puts a little pressure on the quarterback to try and get the ball out a little sooner. So we learned a lot about the rules over the weekend. And I think we'll make a few changes for this upcoming week. But overall, it's just a really fun experience.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. I'm having flashbacks to gym class as you're talking. We did used to play flag football. I was not very good. Maya, was there a lot of interest from your friends and other people in school and other girls on the team? Were people excited for this? Have they been wanting it for a long time?
MAYA HENTGES: Yeah. I think we had a lot-- we have a lot more people than, I think, we expected to have.
NINA MOINI: Wow.
MAYA HENTGES: Yeah, the interest has just been great. And everyone's really enthusiastic about it. And yeah, it's great.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, I think some people feel like-- are the boys like, girls can't play, or is that sort of an outdated stereotype? Or what's just the reaction around girls being able to play this game?
MAYA HENTGES: I don't know. I feel like people aren't that put off or surprised by it or anything like that. I mean, it's just something new for us to do.
NINA MOINI: Right, exactly. So Scott, you're going to be coaching. You coached your son, and now you're also coaching your daughter. What is that like? And how is it different? [LAUGHS] And Maya's listening.
SCOTT HENTGES: Yeah, I know. It's just fun. It's been fun to just interact with Maya football-wise, which is different. But in that case, a lot of like coaching my son. I had a chuckle on Sunday. We signal in the plays once. And something got mixed up. So I kind of got, I didn't think, too fired-up. But then Maya fired right back at me from the field. And I'm like, oh, that sounds about my son and I on Friday nights too.
[LAUGHTER]
No, it's just a really fun experience, just to be able to interact with that. Maya and I have played catch a long time, more focused now in the last three weeks since it's been nice out. And we'll go home after school and play catch. And we'll do a little bit of drill work whenever we can. And just to be able to interact with Maya that has been really, really fun for me. I tried to swim with her for a little bit when she was younger. But she passed me up in swimming a long time ago.
NINA MOINI: Sure. Maya, what is it like from your perspective, I wonder, having your dad as a coach?
MAYA HENTGES: I think it's great. I think it's really fun for me, just the way he and my brother always talk about football. I have no idea what's going on. Now I know a little more about what's going on. So it's fun. I like it a lot.
NINA MOINI: And Maya, so your dad mentioned--
SCOTT HENTGES: Maya.
NINA MOINI: Oh, go ahead.
SCOTT HENTGES: Oh, I gotta tell just a short story.
NINA MOINI: Sure. Please do.
SCOTT HENTGES: We were at practice a week ago. And Maya was throwing into the wind. And the ground was a little bit wet. And then she's picturing girls rushing at her. And she's putting all this together. And she goes, jeez, dad, this is really hard. I didn't realize this was so hard for Cole, my son. And so she sent him a Snap and told him all that. So we had a pretty good laugh.
NINA MOINI: Oh, yeah. Just, now you know what that's like. But Maya, you're an amazing swimmer. And you're going to swim in college, I understand, next year. Are you excited for that? Do you feel like you would do more football or flag football in addition to that, like at school?
MAYA HENTGES: I mean, I've-- first of all, I'm thrilled for swimming. But I'd always be down to participate in a little flag football. Yeah, I would. I mean, I don't think they have it where I'm going to school. But if they were ever to have an intramural team, I'd sign up.
NINA MOINI: Well, it's just fascinating to me. I didn't know, I guess, that flag football is the fastest-growing sport for girls and boys around the country. Apparently, it's going to be at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
SCOTT HENTGES: Yep.
NINA MOINI: Scott, do you see this becoming a sanctioned high school sport in Minnesota? Because we mentioned at the beginning, this is the Vikings-- it's kind of being funded in a different way, it sounds like.
SCOTT HENTGES: Yeah, for sure. And I think this is part of the NFL's overall initiative to get more girls participating in football. And the Vikings have been extremely supportive. And they've been fantastic with all of this. And yeah, their goal is to try and get it a high school league-sanctioned sport. I don't know what the realities of that are. But I think the interest is definitely there. And frankly, I think, as more publicity gets out about the 51 schools in Minnesota that are doing it, I think there's going to be more teams that aren't doing it that are going to want to do it for next year. So regardless, we'll keep having a team, and we'll keep competing. And I'm definitely supportive of that process.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
SCOTT HENTGES: I think there's six small colleges around the Midwest here that now have a real flag team for girls, too.
NINA MOINI: Cool.
SCOTT HENTGES: So I do think it's catching on.
NINA MOINI: It's growing. It's definitely growing. So you're going to be playing Sundays through June 1. And then it's the playoffs. And then the championship game is June 9, it sounds like. So when you're in the championship game, I would love for you both to come back.
[LAUGHTER]
All right?
SCOTT HENTGES: That's a long way from here. We're just worried about--
NINA MOINI: You're like, I'm learning the rules.
SCOTT HENTGES: --executing stuff for Sunday.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. All right, Scott and Maya, thank you. Take care.
SCOTT HENTGES: All right, thank you.
NINA MOINI: Bye, bye. That's Scott Hentges, Head Football Coach for Sartell High School, and his daughter, Maya. Thank you so much for listening to Minnesota Now. Now I'm Nina Moini. We'll be back here tomorrow with the latest news and weather for you. We're going to be joined by Paul Huttner. Have a great rest of your afternoon.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SCOTT HENTGES: You're welcome. Happy to be here.
MAYA HENTGES: Yeah.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. [LAUGHS]
Scott, I wonder-- so you had your first game this weekend. How did it go?
SCOTT HENTGES: It was a ton of fun. I think if you ask the girls how their experience was, I think, regardless of whether you talk win or loss, I think everybody had a lot of fun. It's something that they haven't had a chance to do before. And to see other girls out there, doing it right along with them, I think everybody had a blast. We actually won our first game--
NINA MOINI: Nice.
SCOTT HENTGES: --26 to 2. And then we lost our second game 24 to 18 in 2 overtimes.
NINA MOINI: Oh, wow.
SCOTT HENTGES: Everybody had to look up what the overtime rules were.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
SCOTT HENTGES: It was just really a really fun experience.
NINA MOINI: Maya, how was it for you this weekend?
MAYA HENTGES: It was so fun. Going into it, I had really no idea what to expect. But it was so fun to be out there with all these girls and just have a good time, do something new. It was great.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, and I'm assuming football's been a pretty big part of your life, too, Maya, given your dad being a football coach and everything. Tell me a little bit about just how it feels to be able to participate in this way. Had you tried before?
MAYA HENTGES: I had not ever tried football or flag football or anything before. But it kind of feels like a rite of passage for me as a member of the Hentges family. My brother played football. My dad played football. My grandpa played football. My dad coached my brother. So now I feel like I've officially reached that benchmark.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And Scott-- oh, go ahead.
SCOTT HENTGES: As I say, I always tried to get her to give it a shot. And we'd play catch and stuff. And she actually always helped on the sidelines for me on Friday nights. But unfortunately, her main sport is swimming. And girls swimming is during the fall.
NINA MOINI: Oh, sure.
SCOTT HENTGES: She's pretty committed to that. But she would always be at our games on Friday nights too.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And Scott, just for anyone who doesn't know, can you just briefly explain how flag football works and how it's a little different?
SCOTT HENTGES: Sure, yeah. So it's five versus five. And so that's a little bit different than-- actually, each state kind of has their own version, but ours is five versus five. So you have a quarterback and four eligible receivers. One girl snaps it. And let's see, all the passes have to be forward. So you can't pitch it behind you at all. But other than that, you go against the defense, and you pass the ball. They chase you down. And they try and pull your flag. You can spin. You can twirl. You can do all kinds of stuff to try and not get your flag pulled.
And then on defense, the defense can rush one girl. So they have to start 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage. And then they take off right as soon as the ball is snapped. And then that puts a little pressure on the quarterback to try and get the ball out a little sooner. So we learned a lot about the rules over the weekend. And I think we'll make a few changes for this upcoming week. But overall, it's just a really fun experience.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. I'm having flashbacks to gym class as you're talking. We did used to play flag football. I was not very good. Maya, was there a lot of interest from your friends and other people in school and other girls on the team? Were people excited for this? Have they been wanting it for a long time?
MAYA HENTGES: Yeah. I think we had a lot-- we have a lot more people than, I think, we expected to have.
NINA MOINI: Wow.
MAYA HENTGES: Yeah, the interest has just been great. And everyone's really enthusiastic about it. And yeah, it's great.
NINA MOINI: Yeah, I think some people feel like-- are the boys like, girls can't play, or is that sort of an outdated stereotype? Or what's just the reaction around girls being able to play this game?
MAYA HENTGES: I don't know. I feel like people aren't that put off or surprised by it or anything like that. I mean, it's just something new for us to do.
NINA MOINI: Right, exactly. So Scott, you're going to be coaching. You coached your son, and now you're also coaching your daughter. What is that like? And how is it different? [LAUGHS] And Maya's listening.
SCOTT HENTGES: Yeah, I know. It's just fun. It's been fun to just interact with Maya football-wise, which is different. But in that case, a lot of like coaching my son. I had a chuckle on Sunday. We signal in the plays once. And something got mixed up. So I kind of got, I didn't think, too fired-up. But then Maya fired right back at me from the field. And I'm like, oh, that sounds about my son and I on Friday nights too.
[LAUGHTER]
No, it's just a really fun experience, just to be able to interact with that. Maya and I have played catch a long time, more focused now in the last three weeks since it's been nice out. And we'll go home after school and play catch. And we'll do a little bit of drill work whenever we can. And just to be able to interact with Maya that has been really, really fun for me. I tried to swim with her for a little bit when she was younger. But she passed me up in swimming a long time ago.
NINA MOINI: Sure. Maya, what is it like from your perspective, I wonder, having your dad as a coach?
MAYA HENTGES: I think it's great. I think it's really fun for me, just the way he and my brother always talk about football. I have no idea what's going on. Now I know a little more about what's going on. So it's fun. I like it a lot.
NINA MOINI: And Maya, so your dad mentioned--
SCOTT HENTGES: Maya.
NINA MOINI: Oh, go ahead.
SCOTT HENTGES: Oh, I gotta tell just a short story.
NINA MOINI: Sure. Please do.
SCOTT HENTGES: We were at practice a week ago. And Maya was throwing into the wind. And the ground was a little bit wet. And then she's picturing girls rushing at her. And she's putting all this together. And she goes, jeez, dad, this is really hard. I didn't realize this was so hard for Cole, my son. And so she sent him a Snap and told him all that. So we had a pretty good laugh.
NINA MOINI: Oh, yeah. Just, now you know what that's like. But Maya, you're an amazing swimmer. And you're going to swim in college, I understand, next year. Are you excited for that? Do you feel like you would do more football or flag football in addition to that, like at school?
MAYA HENTGES: I mean, I've-- first of all, I'm thrilled for swimming. But I'd always be down to participate in a little flag football. Yeah, I would. I mean, I don't think they have it where I'm going to school. But if they were ever to have an intramural team, I'd sign up.
NINA MOINI: Well, it's just fascinating to me. I didn't know, I guess, that flag football is the fastest-growing sport for girls and boys around the country. Apparently, it's going to be at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
SCOTT HENTGES: Yep.
NINA MOINI: Scott, do you see this becoming a sanctioned high school sport in Minnesota? Because we mentioned at the beginning, this is the Vikings-- it's kind of being funded in a different way, it sounds like.
SCOTT HENTGES: Yeah, for sure. And I think this is part of the NFL's overall initiative to get more girls participating in football. And the Vikings have been extremely supportive. And they've been fantastic with all of this. And yeah, their goal is to try and get it a high school league-sanctioned sport. I don't know what the realities of that are. But I think the interest is definitely there. And frankly, I think, as more publicity gets out about the 51 schools in Minnesota that are doing it, I think there's going to be more teams that aren't doing it that are going to want to do it for next year. So regardless, we'll keep having a team, and we'll keep competing. And I'm definitely supportive of that process.
NINA MOINI: Sure.
SCOTT HENTGES: I think there's six small colleges around the Midwest here that now have a real flag team for girls, too.
NINA MOINI: Cool.
SCOTT HENTGES: So I do think it's catching on.
NINA MOINI: It's growing. It's definitely growing. So you're going to be playing Sundays through June 1. And then it's the playoffs. And then the championship game is June 9, it sounds like. So when you're in the championship game, I would love for you both to come back.
[LAUGHTER]
All right?
SCOTT HENTGES: That's a long way from here. We're just worried about--
NINA MOINI: You're like, I'm learning the rules.
SCOTT HENTGES: --executing stuff for Sunday.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. All right, Scott and Maya, thank you. Take care.
SCOTT HENTGES: All right, thank you.
NINA MOINI: Bye, bye. That's Scott Hentges, Head Football Coach for Sartell High School, and his daughter, Maya. Thank you so much for listening to Minnesota Now. Now I'm Nina Moini. We'll be back here tomorrow with the latest news and weather for you. We're going to be joined by Paul Huttner. Have a great rest of your afternoon.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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