Most fall sports hold tryouts before school starts. Loudoun County ran its flag football tryouts on August 3, two weeks before the first day of school. Prince William ran theirs the same week.
That means a girl who first hears about this sport on the first day of school has often already missed the window. This page exists so that doesn't have to happen. If your school isn't here yet, we don't have it yet.
Updated October 2. The 2026 season is now being played in both Loudoun and Northern Virginia, so for most schools this year’s door has closed. What is below is kept accurate and dated anyway, because the dates repeat and the single most useful thing on this page is when to be ready next year. Scroll to the bottom for that. If a roster near you is still open, it is still worth asking, and Varina’s is. Tell us and we'll add it, free.
Washington Commanders learn to play clinics Watching for the next one
The Commanders ran a Girls WFLAG learn to play clinic on Saturday, August 29 at the River City Sports Complex in Midlothian, open to any girl 13 to 18 with no experience needed.
That one has been and gone. We are watching for the next, and if you hear of one before we do, tell us and it goes up here free.
Henrico County
Varina High School Door still open
Tryouts finished on August 10. You can still join. A girl who wants to play should speak to the head coach, Coach Ashley Banks.
The program posts updates on Instagram at Varina_Girls_Flagfootball.
Varina had the first girls flag football team in Henrico County.
Loudoun County
All seventeen schools Tryouts closed August 3
Registration opened June 15 and tryouts began August 3, before the school year started on August 17. LCPS says in its own announcement that tryouts start before the school year does.
If you missed it, ask your school's athletics office whether the roster is still open. Some programs take players after tryouts and some do not. We said in August that we were asking each school which, and we did not: the season started and the results took over. It is on the list for next summer, when the answer is actually useful.
Loudoun's full season is published here: the complete schedule for all seventeen schools.
Fairfax County
Thirty schools, five pods Season began September 29
The season opened on September 29 and 30, three weeks after the rest of the fall calendar. Practice began September 14. Both dates have passed.
It is also bigger than we said here in August, and it is not only Fairfax. Thirty schools play in it, in five pods of six, and they come from four jurisdictions: Fairfax County, Arlington County, Alexandria City and Falls Church City. We had it down as twenty-five Fairfax schools from August until October 2, when the league’s own commissioner sent us the fixture list. We have asked him what it is properly called.
That window has closed for 2026. If you are reading this in the autumn and want to play, the useful move is to ask your school’s activities office to be told when 2027 registration opens, and to get the physical done over the summer. The section at the foot of this page says why.
Fairfax plays Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, usually two games a night, because tackle football has the stadiums on Thursdays and Fridays. The regular season ends November 3 and 4. Play-in games and quarterfinals are November 11, and the county semifinals and final are Saturday, November 14.
Registration runs through FinalForms, which is new for 2026-27. You will need a sports physical dated within the last 14 months. Ask your school's activities office.
Richmond, Petersburg, Prince William
Teams play in all three, and we don't have their joining details yet. Prince William's tryouts appear to have run in the first week of August. Richmond has been playing this sport longer than anywhere else in Virginia we know of, with two full championship seasons already behind it.
If you coach, run athletics, or are simply a parent who knows how it works at one of these schools, tell us and it goes up free the same day.
Coaches, athletic directors, activities offices:
Send us a date, a place, or a name to ask for and we publish it free, with your school credited. Nothing is ever behind a paywall.
hello@flagsupvirginia.com
If you want to play in 2027, these are the dates to watch
This is the part of the page that keeps working after a season has started. Every date below is one we watched happen in 2026, so it is a guide to roughly when to be ready rather than a promise about next year.
- June. Loudoun opened registration on June 15, before school was out.
- Early August. Loudoun held tryouts on August 3 and Prince William the same week, both before the first day of school. This is the window people miss.
- Mid September. Northern Virginia started practice on September 14, three weeks after its school year began.
- Late September. Northern Virginia played its first games on September 29 and 30. Loudoun had already played six weeks by then.
The two leagues nearest each other in Virginia start six weeks apart, which is worth knowing if you move, or if a neighbouring county’s timings are the ones you have heard about.
The one thing to do now, in any county: ask your school’s athletics or activities office to put you on the list to be told when registration opens, and get the sports physical done. Announcements often come with a few days’ notice.
One thing that helps everywhere
Every district we have looked at requires a current sports physical on the VHSL form, valid for 14 months from the date it is signed, and none of them will let a student try out without it. It is worth getting done over the summer, because tryout announcements often come with only a few days' notice.
Last updated October 2, 2026. The Fairfax section was wrong from August 11 until today: it said twenty-five schools and a season that had not started, and by October both were untrue. If anything here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it the same day.