Tennessee all-state flag football honors Creek Wood stars after title run

Creek Wood’s title run did more than deliver a Class A championship. It pushed the Lady Red through the center of Tennessee’s first real all-state flag football map, with Grace Merryman, Hollee Wilson and Samantha Heath all earning statewide recognition after the 25-6 win over Merrol Hyde Magnet in the title game on May 15.

The Tennessee Football Coaches Association’s 2026 all-state selections showed how quickly the sport has hardened into a competitive landscape rather than a novelty. Merryman was honored at quarterback, Wilson at wide receiver and Heath on defense as a rusher, a spread that reflected Creek Wood’s hold on both sides of the ball. The school’s championship core was not alone. Silverdale Baptist’s Macie Curtis made the offensive list at quarterback and Layla Hixon was recognized on defense, while Fairview’s Kennedi Black and Brentwood Academy’s Chelsey Goodloe were named among the top running backs.

That distribution matters because it maps where Tennessee flag football is taking root. Creek Wood, Fairview and Brentwood Academy sit in the same Class A Region 6 grouping for the 2025-26 cycle, putting several of the state’s most visible programs in the same competitive lane. The all-state list showed that the region is already producing repeat names and multiple-position talent, the kind of depth that usually comes only after a sport moves beyond first-year curiosity and into routine high school competition.

Tennessee’s governing structure tells the same story. The TSSAA approved girls flag football as a sanctioned emerging sport for the 2024-25 school year on April 9, 2024, then removed it from emerging-sport status and approved a state championship on June 10, 2025. The association also shifted the sport into a spring season for 2025-26, signaling that girls flag football had moved from trial phase to a permanent place on the calendar.

By the time the 2026 championship was staged, the sport had a full postseason framework: region champions were required to advance, the region deadline was Saturday, May 9, and the state tournament was set for May 14-15 at Richard Siegel Soccer Complex in Murfreesboro. The site used pool play on Thursday and single-elimination bracket play on Friday, a format that gave the championship the feel of a fully built event rather than a stopgap experiment.

TSSAA now lists girls flag football on its official sports pages, rules pages, championship pages and calendar, with the 2025-26 competition using the NFHS Flag Football Rules Book. That institutional shift is why this all-state team lands with more weight than a standard honor roll. It is a snapshot of the programs and players shaping Tennessee’s next set of flag football strongholds.