Will Burke schools field teams in new NCHSAA sports?

While the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) sanctioned two new sports for the 2026-27 school year at its spring board of directors meeting, it remains to be seen how fast and to what extent either will take hold in Burke County.

The NCHSAA officially sanctioned girls flag football as a fall sport and boys volleyball as a spring sport nearly two months ago as last school year was ending.

They become the state association’s 25th and 26th sports but are just the fourth and fifth to be added over the last 20 years, joining boys and girls lacrosse (2009) and girls wrestling (2023).

Nationally, 36 other states have already sanctioned boys volleyball, and 23 others have sanctioned girls flag football.

To be considered to be sanctioned by the NCHSAA, a sport must be played by at least 25 percent of member schools in two consecutive years, so the overall numbers are there to support both sports.

But are the overall numbers, and interest level, there in Burke County?

“I think it’s great because those are two sports across the nation right now that are growing,” said Burke County Public Schools (BCPS) countywide athletic director Casey Rogers. “Now that it’s here, we will have more opportunities for kids to be involved and just have to see what the interest is like at each school.

“Adding sports is great. But it also means they’re competing with other sports for athletes. So, it’ll be an interesting dynamic to see how it plays out. It may be one of those things where we have all four (BCPS schools) playing this year, or it may be we don’t have all four for a couple years down the road.”

So far, the verdict is still out. Freedom athletic director Rob Scott and Patton athletic director Rob Gregory were unsure whether either sport would be offered in 2026-27.

Draughn, via a May 16 Facebook post on its DHS Athletic Booster Club page, announced the news that flag football was being sanctioned and sought to get the community talking in an effort to start gauging interest. A separate post dated the same day mentioned a DHS interest meeting for the sport coming soon, but with no date.

Draughn, East Burke, and NCSSM-Morganton have all fielded club-level teams in volleyball over the past three years, while flag football locally has been limited to powderpuff games.

Practices statewide for the flag football season will start Aug. 31, with the first contest date on Sept. 9. That’s about one month later than the other fall sports’ start dates.

“I’m hoping that’s to give schools a chance kinda to see how much interest is there because that’s hard to do when kids aren’t in school,” Rogers added. “And we didn’t find out about it until so late in the game (this past spring semester). … It would have been nice for flag football to also be pushed to the spring just for this first year to allow for everybody to see where we’re at and have more time to plan for it.

“I think the first step for our high schools with flag football is they’re going to send out some interest surveys as we approach August, look at those surveys, and then when school is back in mid-August, evaluate the interest and potential participation from their conference schools, and make a decision at that point.”

The NCHSAA recently relayed to member schools some of the logistics for flag football. The daily limit for regular-season contests in the sport is two, the weekly limit is four (with one game scheduled on a non-school day), and the season limit is 18.

State playoff pairings will be announced Oct. 28, with the first and second rounds combined on Oct. 31, the third and fourth rounds together on Nov. 7, regional championships being decided on Nov. 11, and state championship games on Nov. 14.

The NCHSAA says that the National Federation of High Schools-adopted rules (which can be found at nchsaa.org/sports/flag-football) will govern the sport in the state.

How many different brackets the state will release, how many teams will qualify and how they will be seeded, and the location of postseason contests are all up in the air to date, as are things like the number of officials expected to work each game.

“I would imagine they will wait and see what everything looks like with the numbers of teams participating,” Rogers said. “I don’t know if they will group classifications or do eight classifications with the playoffs. I would think with the 1As and 2As especially, a lot of them may not have the numbers of athletes to take from a volleyball, for example. Luckily for us (at BCPS), our schools are 3A on up, so I don’t know that that will affect us as much as some people.”

Also, yet undetermined is how teams will put together their regular-season schedules based on how many teams in different conferences offer the new sports.

“The NCHSAA said schools will compete in their current conferences in flag football, so it wouldn’t be like lacrosse where they see who all is fielding teams and draw up unique conferences from that,” Rogers said. “I really don’t know how it will go if only one or two of three schools in a conference have teams in the sport.”

Moving on to boys volleyball, the first practice date is Feb. 15, 2027, and the first contest date is next March 1. Playoff brackets will be posted May 6, with the first round on May 8, the second round on May 11, third round on May 13, fourth round on May 15, regionals on May 18, and state championships on May 22.

“As far as boys volleyball in the spring, I think that works out a lot better because you’ve got time to hear from the NCHSAA in terms of the guidelines and how that sport is going to be sanctioned,” Rogers added, “you’ve got more time to gauge interest level, appoint coaches — and part of their duties may be teaching these kids sports they’ve never played before as well as learning all the rules themselves — and get all the necessary equipment.”