The fastest-growing high school sport in Colorado is girls flag football.

Thank the Broncos for that.

When the 2025 flag football season kicked off for the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) in mid-August, 74 teams were ready to compete. Just a few years prior, that number was zero, because a flag football program in the state did not exist for girls.

The Broncos sought to change that.

“This started in conversations years ago,” Allie Engelken, vice president of community impact and executive director of the Denver Broncos Foundation, told The Denver Gazette. “Myself and our senior director of youth and high school football, Bobby Maestas, met with the Denver Broncos Foundation board of directors and really saw an opportunity to support the growth of girls athletics and through the lens of flag football.”

They quickly learned they were correct. Their vision became reality when the pilot program for girls flag football began in 2022.

The Broncos partnered with three school districts — Denver, Jefferson County and Cherry Creek — to bring the dream to life. Since they had to follow specific bylaws before CHSAA would recognize flag football as a sanctioned high school sport in the state, the Denver Broncos Foundation was responsible for everything during the pilot program. That meant hiring the trainers and the officials and scheduling the games. They also had to make sure there was an end-of-season championship for the teams in lieu of a formal state championship.

Twenty-two teams from those initial three districts competed in the first year of the pilot program. It was so successful the number of teams more than doubled the following year, as 50 teams took part in the 2023 season.

“What that told us is that the interest was there,” Engelken said. “The girls were wanting to play, wanting the opportunity, and at that time we started expanding to other school districts.”

Given the success of the pilot program, it would have been impossible for CHSAA to ignore the demand for the sport at the high school level. After the completion of the 2023 season, the Broncos, backed with data and feedback, made their formal presentations to CHSAA. The latter’s council voted overwhelmingly in favor of making Colorado the 11th state to sanction girls flag football.

While CHSAA has taken over the day-to-day responsibilities, the Broncos are not out of the picture. Not by a longshot.

At the team’s Aug. 16th preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals, the Broncos unveiled additions to the helmet wall at Empower Field that had existed for over a decade, adding flags from all 74 CHSAA-sanctioned teams to the wall. They also hosted a coach’s clinic and implemented a coach-of-the-week program where the winner receives grant funding to support their program. The Broncos bring state champions to a game each year.

While there are 74 teams participating in the 2025 season, the Broncos want to continue to support the growth of the program.

“I hope that it continues to expand, especially outside of the I-25 corridor,” Engelken said. “We’re looking to impact students and schools not only on the Eastern plains, but also on the Western slope. …. This sport will continue to grow stronger as more girls are playing.”

New teams interested in playing flag football are able to request financial assistance from the Denver Broncos Foundation for their upstart costs. The Broncos are also heavily involved in growing the game at a junior level to prepare those athletes for high school-level flag football.

The efforts by the Broncos to get the sport sanctioned have benefited girls all over the state, giving them an opportunity that girls didn’t have just five years ago. That was the ultimate goal of the program.

“Fifty-one percent of our pilot participants would not have played another fall sport if it wasn’t for flag football,” Engelken said. “We’re really able to offer scholastic, as well as sports opportunities, to girls that wouldn’t have been playing sports otherwise without the addition of a new sport.”

And now those opportunities exist beyond high school. Representatives from colleges were present at the state championship games last year to meet girls interested in playing at the next level, which several Colorado girls have gone on to do. In 2028, flag football will debut as an Olympic sport for men and women.

For the players involved, the benefits go beyond having the opportunity to play a game they enjoy. The physical benefits of playing any sport are clear, but the positive impact on one’s mental health can’t be ignored.

A two-year research study partnership between the Broncos and Children’s Hospital Colorado found that female adolescents who participated in a team sport like flag football reported lower anxiety levels than individual sport athletes. In addition, it was found that participation in organized sports was associated with higher body appreciation among females, as well as better sleep consistency during the season.

“There is a place for women in sports, and there is a place for women in football,” Engelken said. “Football is for all, and we’re proud to be a part of that in our landscape.”