Brooke Johnson shines in flag football, basketball at King/Drew

Brooke Johnson is doing the one thing that makes a young sport look serious: she is winning while sharing her calendar. The King/Drew Magnet High School junior played both flag football and basketball, helped push the flag football team to a 13-12-1 record, and finished with a Division I City Section playoff berth that makes the season feel like more than a participation ribbon.

Brooke Johnson's two-sport edge

Johnson’s value is bigger than one stat line because her profile fits the way high school flag football is actually growing in Los Angeles. She is not a one-sport specialist carved out by a new program. She is a multi-sport athlete moving between basketball and flag football, which is exactly the kind of crossover that gives a younger sport credibility inside a school building.

That matters because established girls’ sports already have the routines flag football is still building: year-round coaching attention, stronger community familiarity, and a clearer recruiting lane. Johnson’s path shows how flag football is borrowing status from those older models without losing its own identity. Her stated goals to play in the WNBA, work in real estate, and become a nurse also widen the picture, because they frame her as a student-athlete with options, not a player locked into one narrow outcome.

A real season, not a novelty

The 13-12-1 finish is the kind of record that tells you the team played meaningful games, not just a padded schedule. A trip to the Division I City Section playoffs confirms that King/Drew was competitive enough to matter when the bracket tightened, and that is the kind of detail that separates a growing sport from a token one.

For flag football, postseason access is the first proof point of legitimacy. A team has to earn its way in, survive a long enough season to post a winning record or stay near it, and then keep playing under pressure. Johnson’s junior year put her inside that structure, which is why her recognition lands as more than an individual honor. It reflects a program that can produce results.

Why King/Drew signals something bigger

King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science serves grades 9-12 in Los Angeles and lists girls flag football on its athletics page. That may sound routine, but it is exactly the sort of institutional detail that changes how a sport is viewed. Once a school places girls flag football on the official athletics menu, it stops feeling like a side project and starts looking like part of the athletic calendar.

That shift matters in a city where visibility is everything. Players need coaches, facilities, schedules, and school-level buy-in before they get the kind of attention that established girls’ sports already enjoy. King/Drew’s place in the picture shows that flag football is no longer depending solely on outside excitement. It has moved into the framework of school sports itself.

Los Angeles is building the ladder

The CIF Los Angeles City Section serves 156 schools in the Los Angeles area and organizes championships in 19 sports. That scale matters because it shows the section is not treating flag football as an experiment on the fringe. It is part of a large, formal competition structure that already governs the city’s high school sports economy.

The City Section also released 2025 flag football playoff brackets for the Open Division, Division I, Division II, and Division III. That bracket depth is another hard sign of legitimacy. A sport does not get multiple postseason paths unless it has enough teams, enough competitive separation, and enough administrative confidence to support them.

In a market as crowded as Los Angeles, that kind of structure helps flag football compete for attention with girls basketball, volleyball, and other established programs. The sport still has to earn the same weekly coaching energy and community recognition those sports receive, but the postseason architecture is now in place. That gives athletes like Johnson a bigger stage than a novelty league ever could.

The numbers behind the surge

The California Interscholastic Federation reported 19,921 girls flag football participants in 2024-25, an 84% jump from the previous year. That is not a slow build. It is a breakout, and it happened in the sport’s second season as a CIF-sanctioned sport. The National Federation of State High School Associations also put total education-based sports participation at a record 821,586 student-athletes in 2024-25, with girls sports driving the biggest gains and flag football among the fastest growers.

Those numbers explain why stories like Johnson’s now carry more weight. A season at King/Drew is no longer isolated from the statewide trend. It sits inside a fast-moving expansion that is pushing school districts, athletic directors, and coaches to treat girls flag football like a real varsity option.

The Olympic backdrop raises the ceiling

Flag football will debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, and that changes the conversation in a city that will host the event. Olympics.com says the LA28 format will be five-on-five on a 50-yard field, with a 25-yard width and two 10-yard end zones. Those dimensions make the sport easier to visualize for new fans, and they also help explain why its growth has been so fast in schools that already know how to organize field sports.

The Olympic link does not solve every problem. College pathways still need to get clearer, coaching depth still needs to grow, and the sport still has to keep earning the same respect that older girls’ sports already command on campus and in the neighborhood. But Johnson’s season shows the direction of travel: strong players, real records, bracketed playoffs, and a school system that is starting to treat girls flag football as part of the main event.