North Carolina Girls Flag Football: NCHSAA Coach Guide

Girls flag football in North Carolina is an NCHSAA championship sport with an association calendar, a bracketing and championship structure, and a published set of state rules adoptions. This guide covers what the association controls, the North Carolina specifics your officials work from, and how one person can score every game the same way.

North Carolina status at a glance

• The NCHSAA board voted to sanction flag football as a championship sport, played in the fall under NFHS rules.
• The NCHSAA flag football page is the controlling reference. It publishes the season calendar, the bracketing and championship schedule, the contest limitations and playoff and seeding format, officiating information, and the sport contacts.
• North Carolina plays the NFHS rules book with the NCHSAA adoption document controlling the state options.
• NCHSAA competition follows the association's rules and championship structure. Teams outside that competition should confirm their rules with their league or school.

Check the NCHSAA sport page for the current calendar rather than a secondhand summary. Practice, contest, bracketing, and championship information is set by the association and changes by season.

The North Carolina rules adoptions

The NCHSAA adoption document is one page and every line matters on a Saturday:

• Field. Diagram one, eighty yards by forty yards.
• Officials. Three in the regular season, four in the postseason.
• Flags. Three flags attached to the belt, triple threat style, required.
• Halftime. Ten minutes, unless coaches agree to shorten it. Extending it requires special permission from the state office.
• Overtime. A coin toss with the designated visiting team calling it, all periods played toward the same goal, and each team getting one opportunity on offense choosing a one point try from the three yard line or a two point try from the ten. If the game is still tied the process repeats. There are no time outs during overtime, with a one minute break between periods.
• Mercy rule. If a team leads by nineteen or more at the two minute time out of the fourth quarter, the game clock continues to run. Coaches may also mutually agree to end a game early.

North Carolina's overtime is a try based shootout rather than a series from the ten, so walk your scorer through it in advance.

Need a printable sheet for game day? Use the girls 7v7 stat sheet to record the game on paper.

What to score every game

Choose a scorer before the game and agree on how the staff will record each stat.

Score every game:

• Touchdowns and who scored them
• Try attempts and results, including overtime tries
• Passing attempts, completions, and interceptions thrown
• Rushing attempts and receptions by player
• Flag pulls, sacks, defensive interceptions, pass breakups, forced fumbles
• Safeties, turnovers committed, and turnovers forced
• Score by period and the final

Flag Football Stats: What Coaches Should Track has the full stat list and why each one earns its place. Print the 7v7 girls stat sheet as a backup for the scorer.

Set up the season in StatHawk

StatHawk is a coach-operated iPhone and iPad app for scoring flag football games. You score the plays. The live score, play-by-play, box score, player and team stats, and season totals are the outputs. Set StatHawk up to match how North Carolina plays: choose 7v7 Girls High School and the NFHS Girls Flag rule set, then change anything your association does differently on the How do you play? screen.

1. Create the team in the girls high school format and load one roster, using the same spelling and jersey number in StatHawk, in MaxPreps, and in school records.
2. Choose Classic Mode or Yardage Mode and hold it. Classic Mode records outcomes and counting stats without requiring yardage. Yardage Mode adds offensive yardage on supported plays.
3. Assign one scorer and practice the workflow in a scrimmage before a game counts.
4. Review before you finalize. Final score and score by period, every touchdown, every try and result, passing attempts and completions, turnovers, and player attribution.
5. Share the Live Game Link, a read-only browser view of the game families open without an account or a download.

How to Track Girls Flag Football Stats All Season covers the season routine, and How to Track High School Flag Football Stats covers the stat definitions.

Getting the numbers to MaxPreps

StatHawk is a MaxPreps stat import partner, and the path is manual. For an eligible finalized high school game, StatHawk exports a MaxPreps file. You save or share it, then import it yourself through MaxPreps Team Admin. The file does not set the final score or game result, and there is no sync, API connection, or automatic upload.

In short: finalize and review the game, export the file, sign in to MaxPreps Team Admin, open the game's stat entry flow, verify the final score, then import the file and publish. Standard PDF game and season reports and the completed game play-by-play CSV are separate exports, and a PDF is never the import file.

Confirm any reporting requirement with the NCHSAA or your athletic director. The full walkthrough is in How to Export Flag Football Stats to MaxPreps, and the partnership is explained in StatHawk Is a MaxPreps Stat Import Partner.

Official North Carolina resources

• NCHSAA flag football page, season details, championship structure, and resources
• NCHSAA adoption of NFHS flag football rules
• NCHSAA sanctioning announcement
• NFHS flag football rules
• StatHawk state guide hub

FAQ

Is girls flag football sanctioned in North Carolina? Yes. The NCHSAA board voted to sanction flag football as a championship sport, played in the fall under NFHS rules.

How big is the North Carolina field? Diagram one, eighty yards by forty yards, per the NCHSAA adoption document.

How does North Carolina overtime work? Each team gets one opportunity, choosing a one point try from the three yard line or a two point try from the ten, repeating until a winner is decided, with no time outs during overtime.

When does the mercy rule apply? When a team leads by nineteen or more at the two minute time out of the fourth quarter, the game clock keeps running.

Does NCHSAA require player stats on MaxPreps? Confirm any reporting requirement with the NCHSAA directly. The StatHawk MaxPreps export is an available reporting path for eligible high school games, not an association mandate.

Can a coach score without entering yardage? Yes. Classic Mode captures scoring and counting stats. Yardage Mode is there when you want offensive yardage as well.