DON McDERMOTT MORE COLUMNS HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Chelsea Cochrell, 55, was the quarterback for the winning team in a Powder Puff flag football game played at Pahrump Valley High School in November 2005. How many girls would be willing to play the sport if if were added to the NIAA-sanctioned list? Advertisement

Girls flag football is a big deal in Florida and Alaska, as well as in Canada and Mexico, according to the NFL Youth Football Web site (www.nflyouthfootball.com).

We were drawn to investigate this sport by a column Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote in the Wednesday edition, with a subhead noting "NIAA should offer girls flag football ASAP" (www.lvrj.com).

Then, the memory chip was activated.

In November, 2005, there was a girls' flag football game played on the Pahrump Valley High School stadium field, featuring the Lady Trojans fast-pitch softball team against a squad of cheerleaders and drill team members. The softball girls won on a cool Friday afternoon, but what was most memorable was the reaction of the girls involved. They wanted to play the game again; in fact, one even told Rich Lauver, "Let's get flag football here ... this was a lot of fun."

And, indeed it was, and the fans who practically filled the home side of the stadium were excited -- and highly entertained -- as well.

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association has already identified the need to add another outdoors sport for girls. That need stems from a potential law suit a Henderson attorney -- and father of a Green Valley girl who plays soccer and volleyball -- was going to file.

The basis of the suit? Girls Class 4-A soccer was going to be moved from the winter to the fall in the 2008-2009 school year. That switch would would have prevented his daughter from playing volleyball.

The move was delayed for a year, with the NIAA saying it would study which sport could be added for girl student-athletes.

"The NFL has identified the desire of girls to be more involved in the sport of flag football," a report on the NFL Youth Football Web site, said. "Our research shows that there is a high demand for girls' flag football to be legitimized and played as a scholastic high school sport."

Flag football is already big time in Florida, where 161 schools with more than 4,800 players participate. In 1998, 17 schools with 860 players were playing flag football in the Sunshine State. In 2005, flag football started in Alaska with eight schools and 343 girls competing, according to the Web site.

Flag football was added in the Anchorage, Alaska, school district after girls were asked which sport they would like to see implemented; the No. 1 request was flag football, the NFL report said.

The NFL was contacted by one girl in each of 10 U.S. cities to help "pioneer" the addition of flag football for girls. The cities include Las Vegas and Fallon (Churchill County) in Nevada, so there is already a cactus-roots movement supporting the sport.

Across the nation, the other cities are San Jose (Calif.), Glendale (Ariz.), Austin (Texas), Fort Wayne (Ind.), Levittown (Pa.), Charlotte (N.C.), Peabody (Maine) and Wayne (N.J.). According to Graney's report, the NFL, incidentally, "has agreed for the first year to subsidize a program for any school that agrees to pilot a teams."

The NFL has established seven criteria to guide the program:

1. Make it fun

2. Limit standing around

3. Everyone plays

4. Teach every position to every player.

5. Emphasize the fundamentals.

6. Incorporate a progression of skill development for every participant.

7. Yell encouragement ... whisper constructive criticism.

Sounds smart, and fair to me, sports fans.

According to the International Flag Football Federation Web site, in most areas the game is played on a field 80x40 yards, with first downs made by crossing the 20-, 40-, and 20-yard lines. Teams start seven players; less than five would result in a forfeit. The Web site (www.flagmag.com) also lists rules, scoring, and special considerations.

Another possibility for a girls' sport is wrestling. According to information on the Web site, www.pbs.org/independentlens, there are 3,500 girls wrestling at the high school level, compared to 250,000 boys. Texas leads the nation in the number of girls who wrestle: 941 in high school. In Texas, 121 high schools have girls wrestling teams.

Women's wrestling is now an Olympic sport and the sport is offered on some college campuses.

The New York Times reported that "there is a catch-22.

"Without many girls, there can't be girls teams, and without girls teams, wrestling cannot attract all that many girls," the Times report continued. "The legal status of coed wrestling is not entirely clear, but in a few scattered cases, courts have ruled that if there is no girls team, they should be allowed to join boys teams." Which is the case in Nevada; several high school teams have girls wrestling. A few, in fact, have qualified for NIAA-sanctioned state tournaments.

So, those are the alternatives. Someone mentioned lacrosse and field hockey, but those ancient and proud sports are expensive to equip -- both for the players and the field of play.

Flag football and wrestling for girls would be relatively inexpensive to fund and the rules of both sports are not that difficult to understand.

If we had a vote, we would say flag football. The memories of that Friday afternoon in November three years ago are as vivid as ever.