Tampa Bay Buccaneers Host Record-Breaking Girls Flag Football Classic With 130 Teams

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers launched their eighth annual Girls Flag Football Preseason Classic on Monday. A record 130 teams showed up. Over 3,000 athletes gathered at the AdventHealth Training Center. The week-long tournament wraps up on Feb. 15.

"It's our biggest year yet. We have hosted this now for eight years. It's the largest tournament in the country," Chief Impact Officer Kourtney Sanchez said, according to FOX 13. "This year, we're expecting over 3,000 athletes and 126 teams to participate."

Tampa Bay area squads will battle it out during the classic, with Alonso, Brandon, Manatee, Robinson, and Plant taking the field. Games unfold on the outdoor field and inside the practice facility.

"I would almost guarantee that there will be a player that plays this weekend that will win a national championship in the sport of flag football," Saunders said, according to FOX 13.

Six of the top 25 squads in the nation will compete this week. Robinson stands among them. That squad has captured nine straight state titles and ten of the last 11.

The NCAA added flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program in January 2026, which gives universities the framework to offer varsity roster spots and opens doors to athletic scholarships.

Flag football will make its debut in the 2028 LA Olympics. Some players at the classic have set their sights on that goal.

"She's even talked about going to Oregon if they took her for flag football because she loves playing the sport," Sara Jones, whose daughter plays for Brandon High School, told FOX 13. "And then, you know, her and her teammates are like, we're doing the Olympics. We're going do it."

Sanchez said the organization hosts these events to keep girls in sports. "Girls drop out of sports at double the rate of boys," Sanchez told FOX 13. "And so, programs like our Preseason Classic, the FHSAA state championship games, they're all born out of this desire to keep girls in the game."

"What the Bucs do with 130 teams, there are people from all over the state here, it's pretty special," Robinson head coach Josh Saunders said, according to Tampa Bay 28. "It's at no cost for the players. Two full games, referees, the whole deal."

The organization will host the FHSAA girls flag football state championships for the third year in a row in May, with those games happening at the One Buc Place's AdventHealth Center from May 15-16.