Flag Football Stats: What Coaches Should Track

If you coach flag football, the score and a few touchdowns are not enough. Stats are how you see what is actually happening on the field, who is improving, and what to practice on Tuesday. This page is the short list of what coaches should track and why.

Quick answer: the core stats coaches should track

Track these every game. Everything else is optional.

• Touchdowns by player
• Completions and attempts for the quarterback
• Receptions and receiving touchdowns by player
• Rushing attempts and rushing touchdowns by player
• Flag pulls, sacks, interceptions, pass breakups, forced fumbles on defense
• Conversions and extra points
• Final score by half, turnovers committed, turnovers forced

In StatHawk you can choose Classic Mode (fast scoring, no yardage) or Yardage Mode, which adds passing, rushing, and receiving yards entered per play. StatHawk computes the rest.

Offensive stats

Passing. Completions, attempts, completion percentage, passing touchdowns, interceptions, sacks. Completion percentage is the single most useful quarterback number. A QB at 65 percent is moving the chains. A QB at 35 percent is forcing throws.

Rushing. Carries, rushing yards in Yardage Mode, rushing touchdowns. Not every league allows rushing. Pass-only formats like 5v5 Air-It-Out skip this entirely.

Receiving. Receptions, receiving yards in Yardage Mode, receiving touchdowns. Track receptions for every player who catches a pass, not just your top targets.

Touchdowns and conversions. Every score, plus the 1-point and 2-point conversion attempts that follow.

For a full breakdown of how the workflow looks on the sideline, see How to Track Flag Football Stats During a Game.

Defensive stats

Flag football defense is simpler than tackle defense and the stats compress into a short list.

• Flag pulls. The flag football equivalent of a tackle. Your best defenders rise to the top across four or five games.
• Sacks. A flag pull on the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.
• Interceptions. The single most valuable defensive play. Ends a drive and flips field position.
• Pass breakups. A defender who knocks the pass away without catching it.
• Forced fumbles. Less common, but worth recording when they happen.

If you only ever track one defensive stat, track flag pulls. It is the cleanest signal of which kids are reading plays and finishing them.

Team stats

• Score by half. Tells you when your team plays its best football.
• Turnovers committed and turnovers forced. The difference, called turnover margin, is one of the clearest predictors of winning at every level.
• Team yards in Yardage Mode. Total passing, rushing, and receiving yards for context on how you moved the ball.
• Efficiency concepts. Touchdown to interception ratio. Conversion rate on PATs. Points per drive, which is free in StatHawk.

A note on girls high school flag football

Girls high school flag football is one of the fastest growing parts of the sport, and consistent stats matter more as it grows. College recruiters want to see completion percentages, yard totals, touchdowns, and defensive production across a full season, not a single game. Tracking the same categories every week, in the same format, is what makes a player's record actually useful later. See the state by state sanctioning tracker for current status by state.

FAQ

Do I need to track yardage? Only if your league or state association reports it, or if you want yards per attempt and yards per reception. Classic Mode is fine if you do not.

How many stats can a single coach realistically track on the sideline? All of the core list above, in StatHawk, in roughly three taps per play. Paper sheets cap out much sooner.

What stat matters most for player development? For a quarterback, completion percentage. For a skill player, receptions and touches. For a defender, flag pulls per game.

Track every stat on this page live with StatHawk

StatHawk is a free iOS app built for flag football coaches. Tap plays as they happen, get a full box score the second the game ends, share a live GameView link parents open in any browser with no app and no account, and build a player and team record across the season. Five formats are built in plus custom formats for league-specific rules. Offline save and sync if signal drops.

Get StatHawk free on the App Store