Football season is officially underway in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers Girls Flag Football League is kicking off on Saturday, with a fun-filled afternoon featuring six high school teams, as well as several local college teams, taking part in the Showcase Game of the Week at Saint Vincent College.
The kickoff weekend is part of the Steelers overall commitment to Girls Flag Football, which was sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) as a high school sport for the 2025-26 school year.
High school teams from Gateway, Jeannette, McKeesport, Penn Hills, Plum and Woodland Hills will all be playing during the season-opening showcase. To add to the flavor and excitement, teams from area colleges, including Allegheny, Bethany, Chatman, Franciscan, Pitt, Saint Vincent and Seton Hill will also play, the first time an NFL sanctioned league has hosted such an event.
The National Football League is committed to supporting the growth of flag football and has been collaborating with all 32 Clubs to grow the game across youth, high school, and college. To continue developing women's flag football in the collegiate space, the Steelers, with the support of the NFL, are giving each college team participating in the tournament a $7,500 grant to aid their programs.
"On behalf of the Presidents' Athletic Conference member schools that have club teams participating in the Pittsburgh Steelers Flag Football Showcase event at Saint Vincent, we want to express our thanks and deep appreciation to the NFL for their generous financial support of this endeavor," said Joe Onderko, the commissioner of the Presidents' Athletic Conference. "We also want to thank the entire Steelers organization for their continuing support in the growth of the sport as well.
"NCAA Commissioner Charlie Baker has spoken publicly about his desire to see flag football grow and develop within the association, and we will continue to evaluate campus student interest in this emerging sport as a potential varsity sport addition for the PAC in the future."
The Steelers have put their support behind girls flag whole-heartedly, hosting events at the high school level throughout the year and working with them all season and the number of schools participating is growing each year. The league grew from 6 high schools participating in 2022 up to 48 teams in 2025, including 14 new teams this season.