North Pole’s victory in the first-ever State Flag Football Championship proves the importance of expansion

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – In 2006, Alaska became one of two states in the country, joining Florida, to offer high school flag football. Nearly two decades later, the sport’s growth could no longer be ignored.

In addition to promoting another sport in which girls can participate, flag football attracted more than 300 athletes from eight schools in its first year, demonstrating high demand.

This year, three different school districts spanning hundreds of square miles of Alaska competed in the state’s flag football. The South Anchorage Wolverines were invited to the Nike Kickoff Classic in Oregon and defeated Louisiana’s defending state champion De La Salle 13-0 in a game televised on NFL Network. The Wolverines’ roster included 53 players between varsity and junior varsity.

ASAA, the governing body of high school athletics in Alaska, also conducted the first sanctioned Flag Football State Championship tournament, which featured eight teams from across the state.

“Flag football founded our state when the Anchorage School District was looking for a way to find a sport that more girls would want to play,” said ASAA Executive Director Billy Strickland. “So they surveyed their students and she was overwhelmingly chosen.”

“Fairbanks came on board about 10 years ago,” he continued, adding that the Mat-Su Borough School District is the most recent because “for the first time, we finally met our criteria for hosting the state championship.”

Participants in the state tournament included the 11-time Cook Inlet Conference champion Dimond Lynx and the 17-1 top-seeded South Anchorage Wolverines. No one told the North Pole Patriots that, and they didn’t care.

The standard-bearers from up north had a 9-1 record themselves and outscored their Mid Alaska Conference opponents 225-32 with seven shutouts. While this would have been a very nice regular season capped off with a conference title, the Patriots would have finally had the opportunity to compete with the larger schools in the Anchorage area in the state tournament at Wasilla High School.

In its first taste of state championship flag football, North Pole seemed right at home. Sophomore Jade Skipps scored her first two of many touchdowns in the tournament while the defense kept the Mustangs going, shutting out Chugiak 14-0.

Things didn’t go so smoothly in her first breakthrough at a school in Anchorage in the semifinals. The Patriots needed several overtimes before finally holding off West Anchorage 26-19 thanks to creative play calling and timely defensive stops.

North Pole then faced the Service Cougars and competed for the right to hoist the first-ever Alaska High School Flag Football trophy. If there was ever a question of “who wants it more,” the Patriots settled it in the first half.

Taimane Skipps intercepted a pass on the game’s first possession before the standout two-way quarterback marched down the field and capped the drive with a rushing touchdown. Twin sister Jade Skipps managed to reach the end zone herself a few times before the duo connected on a touchdown pass late in the third quarter to make the score 27-0. Without a doubt, the North Pole Patriots proved to be the best high school flag football team in Alaska, which was evident in the first-ever state flag football championship.

“That’s something North Pole has always said about flag football, which is, ‘Don’t count us out,'” Patriots coach Jamie Darby said after the historic win. “We may be a small town, we may be a small school, but we have some really, really tough girls and they will come and play.”

With only two other flag football competitors in the area, North Pole had been dizzy for years circling back and forth between these opponents, with occasional road trips or visits to Mat-Su schools. The players were eagerly awaiting the chance to showcase their talent on a larger scale.

“It feels good,” said Taimane Skipps, “because North Pole is making history.”

Tiahna Guzman said the field has changed tremendously since she started playing a few years ago.

“When I started it wasn’t that big at all, I didn’t even know there were teams in Anchorage,” she said. “We didn’t even come here and play, we didn’t even travel, we played the same two teams every day and now we’re playing ten different teams. It’s grown a lot.”

The tournament was capped off with fireworks, similar to North Pole’s on-field performance.

The growth of the sport is not just national or statewide, but now worldwide. There are 22 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) colleges participating, including Ottawa, where Darby’s daughter currently plays. The sport will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028.

“It’s time,” Darby said. “More girls play flag than many other sports and as the country expands it is a great opportunity to get girls playing at a higher level and with the Olympics in 2028 it just opens up a lot more opportunities. “ for girls worldwide. We have some great athletes up here who deserve the recognition, so I’m excited about the sport.”

No matter who won the first Alaska High School Flag Football State Championship, they would make history — but the win for a smaller program outside of Anchorage underscored the importance of expansion.

“In our perfect world at ASAA, when we host a state championship, we don’t know who is going to win it,” Strickland said. “That’s what we like – when there’s a lot of parity on the field and great action and we just feel like it’s everything a state championship should be.”

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