FLAG PLANTED

Once a homecoming novelty, girls’ flag football has become a sanctioned sport—and Barrington High School’s Fillies are happily along for the ride.

It’s late September, minutes after a night game. Caley Skidmore stands near the football field at Barrington High School’s (BHS) cavernous stadium with an ice pack wrapped around her left thumb.

And a smile on her face.

The Fillies senior safety has hyperextended the thumb while doing something that sounds considerably less hazardous than it apparently can be: pulling an opponent’s flag.

Occupational hazard.

“I love being in this environment,” Skidmore says.

It is an environment that barely existed a few years ago.

On this Game Night, Barrington High School’s players wear red headbands and neon-green flags at their hips. Music fills the stadium. When sophomore Harley Thalheimer catches freshman Camryn Goss’ pass and races for a 57-yard touchdown late in a 20-6 loss to Lake Zurich High School, “Chelsea Dagger”—the Chicago Blackhawks’ familiar goal song—blares.

Football.

But different.

Not so long ago, girls’ flag football at BHS was Powder Puff: juniors against seniors during homecoming week, with Broncos varsity football players serving as coaches and, in the early 1980s, occasionally roaming the sideline in cowboy hats.

Fun?

Certainly.

A legit sport?

Hardly.

Now girls’ flag football is an Illinois High School Association-sanctioned sport. And it’s taken seriously. Participation has surged nationally, the Chicago Bears have invested in its growth in Illinois, and men’s and women’s flag football will make their Olympic debuts at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

That’s quite a journey from Powder Puff.

And here’s the twist: Powder Puff—or Filly Football, as it’s now called—hasn’t disappeared. BHS still stages the annual juniors-against-seniors game during homecoming weekend.

So the old and new versions coexist.

For sophomore quarterback Gia Klauer, there’s even a family connection. Her mother, Lauren, played Powder Puff football at BHS. So did Klauer’s aunt Taylor, a member of Barrington’s state championship gymnastics team in 2000.

A generation later, Gia isn’t playing football once a year as part of homecoming festivities. She began playing flag football in eighth grade, has helped at youth camps, and now stands behind center for the Fillies, trying to spot things others don’t.

“Fans watching us don’t see openings I can see,” Klauer says.

Same school. Same fall sport with flags.

Entirely different game.

Fillies flag football coach Emily Behrendt, a 2012 BHS graduate, has watched the transformation up close. Her program was a club in 2024 before beginning IHSA competition in 2025. Behrendt’s 2026 edition went 8-8 and split two Illinois High School Association state playoff games.

“Excitement surrounds this sport,” says Behrendt, who competed in sprints and the high jump for BHS. “It’s something new, and it’s challenging.”

Her athletes arrive from everywhere. When flag football was still a club at Barrington, Behrendt remembers a number of hockey players giving it a try. Now lacrosse players are prominent; three Fillies also played on BHS’s third-place state lacrosse team last spring. Skidmore is a basketball point guard and triple jumper. Freshman Claire Trzaska, another basketball player, simply decided to give flag football a try.

That might be the sport’s greatest charm.

No lengthy apprenticeship required. No childhood résumé necessary.

Try it.

Behrendt gets to watch what happens next.

One of her greatest rewards, she says, is “seeing them be great at a sport right after giving it a try.”

Then try stopping.

Klauer’s favorite part?

“Competing with my friends,” she says.

Klauer and Skidmore even watch NFL games differently now. They study plays. See openings. Anticipate what might happen next. Think along with the players.

They’re football players.

BHS trailed LZHS’s Bears 20-0 late that September night. The Fillies still scored with 1:34 remaining. Fillies sophomore Gia Belcore recorded a sack 14 seconds later, delighting the home crowd. Barrington wasn’t going away quietly.

On the final play, Barrington’s offense opted for some trickery, trying a flea flicker.

Why not?

The play failed.

But the entertainment value was priceless.

The victors smiled.

The other team?

Fillies formed a huddle for a postgame confab with their coaches. One thumb throbbed.

Not one head hung low.