GHSA to add bass fishing, girls’ flag football in ’20-’21

The Georgia High School Association is set to add two more items to its list of sponsored sports and activities with bass fishing and girls’ flag football beginning with the 2020-21 school year.

Bass fishing will be a co-ed sport with no designated seasons. According to the GHSA, there will be four different state qualifying tournaments held in different areas of the state beginning in January with the open state championship tournament to be held in March or April. The schedule will be announced in late July or early August.

The GHSA also announced that it will partner with The Bass Federation/the Student Angler Federation/flw for this new offering.

Girls’ flag football will also become a Ghsa-sanctioned sport for all high schools in 2020. The addition of the sport comes on the heels of the NFL’S Atlanta Falcons and The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation approaching Gwinnett County Public Schools in 2018 to fully fund a girls’ high school flag football program with each of their 19 high schools.

Hundreds of girls tried out in the first year and, by 2019, Cherokee, Forsyth, Henry, Muscogee and Rockdale Counties joined Gwinnett to implement the sport in 52 high schools across the six counties, once again to be funded by the Falcons and the Blank Foundation.

“We knew the need for more girls’ sports in Georgia was there and that was enough for us to get started,” Atlanta Falcons president/ceo Rich Mckay said in a press release. “The goal was always to get this program to become an officially sanctioned sport and give girls more opportunities to play sports in high schools and we are thrilled that the GHSA shared the same vision. It’s an exciting time for high school sports in Georgia.”

The Falcons hosted the 2019 Girls’ Flag Football Championship at Mercedes-benz Stadium for the second consecutive year, an event attended by both Falcons and NFL executives.

The GHSA also recently said that dance and gameday cheerleading will become state championship events in 2020.