Marian University's Smith Field. PC: Fox 11 Online
FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Marian University is expanding its athletic offerings to the football gridiron.
With flag football growing in popularity, Marian University becomes just the second college in Wisconsin to introduce women’s flag football to its athletic department.
“It’s one of those sports that really gives that opportunity to anybody,” said Aaron Sadoff, president of Marian University. “Anybody who can run, can jump, can throw the ball, wants to be part of the team, they can be part of flag football.”
According to the National Federation of High School Associations, around 500,000 girls ages six to 17 competed in flag football last year — up 63% since 2019.
Dani Chaname, a freshman soccer player a Marian, played flag football in high school back in California. She says she is excited to start taking snaps at the collegiate level.
“I was always focused on soccer and it kind of gave me a mental break of that,” said Chaname. “So, I grew up loving the sport and then being able to play it was so much better.”
Marian University joins at least 30 other institutions across the nation that sponsor women’s flag football. Leaders emphasize how this could give them an edge with drawing future students to the school.
“Currently, we don’t really have a club team on the female side, so we can expand our offerings to females. We can expand our geographic footprint because this has exploded at the high school level,” said Tony Draves, athletic director at Marian University. “Especially in pockets of the country where there are NFL teams, because the NFL has been so involved.”
Leaders at Marian say the Green Bay Packers offered insight while working to bring flag football to the university.
The Packers say they are not formally involved with Marian’s program at this time, but are looking at ways to be involved with the growth of women’s flag football at the collegiate level.
The Packers added their Packers Give Back program is currently offering 20 high school girls flag club/intramural grants, worth $5,000 each. 12 of the 20 have been approved so far, including Catholic Memorial, Greenfield, Kettle Moraine, Milwaukee Reagan, Milwaukee Washington, Mukwonago, Muskego, Oneida Nation, Port Washington, Southern Door, Weyauwega-Fremont, and Xavier. The program runs until the end of March.
Flag football becomes the 26th sponsored sport at Marian. The university believes it will see a great return on investment from an economic standpoint.
“One of the keys is bringing in more student athletes, which then helps us with revenue coming in, which then helps us with running the university,” said Sadoff.
While it’s not an official sanctioned sport within the NCAA, there’s hope that could change soon.
The Sabres flag football team will take the field in their first season in the spring of 2026. When the team’s first season is underway, the school is aiming to have around 15 players, with hopes of that roster expanding in the future.
Marian University is looking to hire the team’s head coach within the next few weeks.
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