Maryland flag football star Jessica Chevez lands 10 college offers

Jessica Chevez has already turned 10 college scholarship offers into a loud signal that girls flag football is becoming a real recruiting business. The 17-year-old La Plata standout has emerged as one of Maryland’s most promising players, and her early pile of offers shows colleges are moving fast to secure talent before the market gets crowded.

Her recruitment comes as Maryland’s path for girls flag football has opened quickly. The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association sanctioned the sport as a state championship event in April 2026, setting up the first official varsity season for fall 2026. Before that formal step, the game had already taken hold in places like Frederick County, where schools staged a 10-team pilot in 2023, and across Southern Maryland during the 2025-26 expansion phase.

That timeline matters because Chevez’s offers are arriving just as the sport’s college pipeline is getting more structured. The NCAA added flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program on Jan. 16, 2026, after approval from representatives from all three divisions, and said at least 65 schools were already sponsoring women’s flag football at the club or varsity level in early 2025. The NAIA made women’s flag football its 30th championship sport for the 2026-27 academic year, with 60 institutions expected to sponsor it next season. The NJCAA elevated women’s flag football to championship status on June 25, 2026, and said its first national championship will begin in 2027-28, with 33 member colleges sponsoring the sport in 2026-27, up from 15 two years earlier.

For Chevez, that means the offers are not just a personal milestone. They are evidence that college staffs are valuing athletes who can move quickly, handle space and stand out in a sport where one player can affect both sides of the ball. Ten offers at 17 gives her leverage in a recruiting race that is still young, but clearly accelerating.

Maryland’s official sanctioning and the steady rise of women’s programs across the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA show that the window is open now, and players like Chevez are arriving right as the sport’s next stage begins.