CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Football is back this weekend at Paycor Stadium, but it’s the girls planting their flag on the home field of the Bengals.

The second season of Bengals Girls Flag Football will begin with a jamboree at Paycor Stadium on Saturday, March 8. More than 300 girls and 40 coaches are expected to be on the field at the stadium to hear from Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, participate in drills and scrimmage to kick off the upcoming season.

“We have the sport sanctioned in fourteen states nationwide now, we’re hoping that Ohio is one of the next ones to come on board,” said Bengals director of community involvement Taylor Conklin. “I think as we see the Olympics in 2028 with girls flag (football), it’ll just continue to explode.”

Six teams played in the inaugural season of Bengals Girls Flag Football, but it has increased to 20 teams this season. Each local high school team will play 8-10 regular season games and the Bengals will host the championship in May.

“We would love to see, in the next two years, 50 high schools participating or more,” Conklin added. “We’ve been working with the OHSAA, with NFL Flag, with the Cleveland Browns for a statewide effort to get this sanctioned.”

The opening jamboree coincides with International Women’s Day.

Mount Notre Dame won the inaugural championship last season.

“A lot of them are just excited, especially the ones that participated last year to go into it with a season under their belt and then the girls, that this is the first time participating, it’s real exciting for them too,” said Conklin. “Some of them, I would say over 50%, have never played a high school sport before so we’re seeing girls coming back into participating in sports, which, I think, is always exciting to see as an organization too.”

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 WXIX. All rights reserved.