Glass family in the foreground of the local girls flags football movement | sport

Thanks to the most important efforts by both Pittsburgh Steelers and the organizations of Philadelphia Eagles, Flag football in September became an official sport for high school girl, when Piaa held her third and last voice for taking over the ES Emergun Sport program -the same program with the girl wrestling two years ago.

And similar to girls who struggle a few years ago, the development of the structure and guidelines for the flag football of girls-Sowohl at the National Federation of State High School Association (NFSHS) and Piaa-Level-IM Gange to debut the sport in the school year 2025-26.

The interest in Flag football was a big increase last summer when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced plans to make Flag football at the 2028 games in Los Angeles an official Olympic sport for men and women.

In Pennsylvania, the girls flags concentrated in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in recent years, where the two NFL franchise companies are located.

However, this does not mean that girls in other parts of the states have not played the emerging sport. In fact, the Dubois Brockway area has had its own leagues in recent years, with the current newcomer to the Dubois Area High School, Reese Glass, one of the main faces of this league.

Glass is at the forefront of the experiment to promote flag football as a Piaa sport in Dubois, and has already participated in a variety of large competitions in the sport at local, state and national level.

The Dubois Oklahoma Athletic Association (Doaa) begins her eighth year of the hosts of the NFL flag football for young people in Dubois and Brockway areas. The age groups of the players start at 6 and run until 14. At the moment, dubois and Brockway 18 Junior High Girls have in the local NFL Flag Football League, which uses a 5 vs. 5 format.

Glass' Father Ryan Glass is Dubois Flag's football coordinator, while Tom Bussard plays the same role in Brockway. Jarod Cooper is currently the Dubois Girls Junior High Coach.

The Elder Glass is no stranger to the flag football sport and brings 25 years of experience with the office, games, directing and coaching teams to the world. He has been part of the national championship teams, an all-American player for over twenty years, who was served in the USA World Championships, International Women's World Championships and Usftl National Championships.

Ryan Glass was included in the United States Flag and Touch Football League (Usftl) Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Hall of Fame of the United Flag Football League 2014.

As for the younger glass, she and her PFFL Ladies of Steel team won the Girls 14u title at the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers region in Coraopolis on March 9 in Coraopolis, to take a return trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame of Canton, Ohio this summer to take part in the NFL flag championship.

Her squad defeated the Central Jersey Storm 7-0 and 14: 6 in a best-of-thread championship series to get another trip to Canton.

“I am so happy to represent our team in the hometown (Pittsburgh Steelers),” said the younger glass. “That was a goal all year round to win Pittsburgh.

“I had so much fun in the Hall of Fame in Canton last year, so I'm happy to go back and compete.

“I'm so happy that I can do it with my father, and we both go to Canton.”

Shortly before winning this 14u Girls Steelers Regional Qualifier, the Glass' team in Pittsburgh had just won the Pffl Pittsburgh Boys 14u League championship.

In the last season of last year, the Glass team from Pittsburgh won a hardcount pittsburgh tournament, the Flag football life Philadelphia tournament and a Detroit NFL Flag tournament.

Last June, Reese and her family traveled to San Diego to take part in the HardCount National Championships, and in July (from 2024) they accepted in Canton, Ohio, in the NFL Hall of Fame in the NFL Flag National Championships, which were emphasized on ESPN.

There she had the opportunity to hang out the past with NFL players, tour Hall of Fame and compete with 32 other teams from all over the country.

This season ended in January when the Pittsburgh team from Glass in the USA Flag World Championships in Tampa, Florida, competed. The tournament set a Guinness book with world records for the largest assembly of Flag football players in the world with 11,779 players.

Every tournament that the girls ended in the top 8 of the country and the world when they competed against teams from California, Texas, New England, Hawaii, Florida, Virginia and Mexico, to name just a few.

For those who have not played Flag football, it is a 5 -VS. -5 sports, in which everyone is entitled to get a pass and not to have a contact rule. However, this does not mean that there is not much blunt and physicality.

The field is 70 meters long and 25 meters wide, and the teams start every series on their 5-yard line. You have four downs to get a first, then three downs to score a goal as soon as you cross the midfield.

Offensive possessions are played and called like regular football games. Defensive is the only important provision that the Rusher has to start seven meters from the Scrimmage line to advance the quarterback. The teams can decide not to hurry, and then the QB only has seven seconds to pass the ball.

The younger glass started in flag football at the local level as a rusher for the young 14U team when she was 12 years old. She played with the boys in Dubois for years and when her father joined the Pittsburgh ladies from Stahl at a tournament in Baltimore, his old acquaintance led the All Girls team.

This planted the seed to bring Reese from Pittsburgh to the All Girls team, and the rest, as they say, is history.

With their great experience in this group in recent years and the knowledge of their father about sport, the glass family is looking for travelers to bring travelers to the area of ​​dubois for boys and girls and urges the local schools to jump on board with the flags of Girls Flaggs.

“Reese hopes that Dubois will be on board with Flag football next year,” said Ryan Glass. “This would be the first year and would be exciting for the girls in Dubois together with District IX on the ground.

“Colleges explode with programs and money to play for the Olympic Games in 2028.

In the meantime, the younger glass with its Pittsburgh Travel Team, which already has three qualifying national tournaments, will continue to improve their craft in sports, in which the 2025 travel season begins.