Ogden launches girls flag football push with free skills night

Ben Lomond High School will host the free Ogden Plays Flag Football Skills Night on Friday, July 18, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Ogden City Recreation is opening its girls flag football push with the session, which will let local youth take snaps, learn the basics and try the sport before Ogden’s inaugural girls league begins in September.

The fall program runs from September 14 through mid-October, with registration open April 1 through August 31. The city lists resident registration at $45 and non-resident registration at $75, and each player receives a reversible Raiders flag jersey. Girls-only divisions are available from kindergarten through ninth grade, grouped for 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th, and 7th through 9th grades.

Organizers are planning roughly 16 teams across four grade levels, with an eight-game schedule that will wrap in mid-October. Kindergarten players get four days of practices and scrimmages plus six games, while the 1st through 9th grade divisions play eight games with no postseason tournament. Players are assigned to teams based on school attendance as much as possible, and buddy requests are honored in the girls divisions.

The skills night includes Ogden City Recreation, Ben Lomond High School and the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders’ Silver and Black Flag Football youth program launched in Southern Nevada in 2022 and is now expanding into Utah. Ogden City Recreation organizer Kami Leatherwood said the collaboration gives the city a chance to get ahead of the trend and help girls flag football grow in northern Utah.

The school’s athletics facility cost $28.2 million, and coach Ty Smith’s Elevation 801 youth program has been expanding around it, growing from 24 players in Week 1 of the 2025 season to about 50 players at summer workouts. The Utah High School Girls Football Association had 10 high school programs last season, and more than 20 states now officially sanction girls flag football.