Pennsylvania
Girls’ flag football sanctioned as HS sport in Pa.
Pennsylvania made flag football an officially sanctioned girls’ high school sport Wednesday amid a push from the commonwealth’s NFL teams to encourage more female athletes to get on the field.
The approval from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association — the statewide body that governs high school athletics in the commonwealth — makes flag football an official sport for girls in the nation’s fifth-most populous state starting in the 2025-26 school year.
As part of the process to sanction girls’ flag football, the PIAA required at least 100 participating teams from across the state. That threshold was reached in April with 65 schools participating in the Philadelphia Eagles’ flag football league and 36 in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ league.penn
“This is not just an important day for the Eagles and Steelers, but for the sport of football and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Eagles owner Jeff Lurie said in a statement. “When we launched our girls’ flag football league in 2022, we set an ambitious five-year goal to get the sport sanctioned in our state. Now, here we are three seasons later and two years ahead of schedule. The sport’s organic growth is a credit to the participants, administrators, coaches, officials, and parents who helped raise the profile of girls’ flag football.
“We thank the PIAA for their leadership in recognizing a sport that has the power to unlock new pathways and opportunities for girls of all ages in every community.”
Allowing interscholastic competition statewide will open the door to school districts adding flag football as a sport and allows schools to compete for a state championship, ultimately developing a pipeline of talent for the college game and beyond.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, 42,955 girls participated in flag football in the 2023-24 school year, a 105% increase in participation levels from the previous year.
At an Eagles-sponsored girls’ flag football game last year, team president Don Smolenski reflected on the growth of the sport and the club’s involvement.
“That engagement at this age; you make a lifetime fan in this age bracket,” he said. “And if more are playing the game and enjoying the game — and taking away the lessons that the game provides — the better that is for the game and for the National Football League as a whole.”
The move adds Pennsylvania to a growing list of states that have included girls’ flag football in high school athletic programs. Those other states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New York and Tennessee.
A surge in interest in flag football — in which no one gets tackled and a play ends when the ball carrier’s flag is pulled from their belt — hit a high point this summer when the International Olympic Committee announced plans to make flag football an official Olympic sport, for men and for women, at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
RADNOR TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — Three winning scratch-off tickets totaling $7.5 million were sold in Pennsylvania, lottery officials announced on Monday.
One winning “MONOPOLY Own It All” ticket worth $5 million was sold in Delaware County at the GIANT on the 500 block of East Lancaster Avenue. The grocery store will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.
“MONOPOLY Own It All” is a $50 game that offers top prizes of $5 million.
In Erie County, a $1.5 million-winning “Cash Spectacular” scratch-off was purchased at a Sheetz on Perry Highway. “Cash Spectacular” is a $30 game that offers top prizes of $1.5 million.
And in Luzerne County, a $1 million-winning “Millionaire Loading” scratch-off was sold at Schiel’s Family Market in Wilkes-Barre. “Millionaire Loading” is a $20 game that offers top prizes of $1 million.
Scratch-off prizes expire one year from the game’s end-sale date posted at palottery.com.
Winners should immediately sign the back of their ticket and call the Pennsylvania Lottery at 1-800-692-7481.
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A new report from U-Haul shows where Pennsylvania residents are leaving to and where new residents are coming from in 2025. Here’s what to know about U-Haul’s top 10 states with the most and least growth numbers.
Eight warm weather states made U-Haul’s top 10 growth list for 2025, while eight states in the colder Northeast and Midwest filled out the bottom 10, including Pennsylvania and neighboring New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. Delaware ranked 21 out of 50 states in growth for 2025.
U-Haul also noted besides geography, that seven of the 10 states with the most growth featured Republican governors, nine of which went red in the last presidential election, and 9 out of 10 in the bottom growth states featured Democrat governors, seven of which went blue in the last presidential election.
“We continue to find that life circumstances — marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs and other events — dictate the need for most moves,” said John “J.T.” Taylor, U-Haul International president in press release. Adding, “But other factors can be important to people who are looking to change their surroundings. In-migration states are often appealing to those customers.”
U-Haul ranks states growth based on their one-way customer transactions that rented trucks, trailers or moving containers in one state and dropped it off in another state. Their growth index included over 2.5 million annual one-way transactions across the United States and Canada.
Texas holds the number one U-Haul growth state for the seventh time in the last 10 years while California ranked last for the sixth year in a how.
Pennsylvania’s growth rank for 2025 remained at a low 46 out of 50 states, same as 2024, and compared relatively similar to its growth numbers over the last 10 years, according to U-Haul’s data, with the exception during 2022-2023 when its highest growth numbers hit 24 out of 50 in 2022 and 38 out of 50 in 2023.
Oregon, Mississippi, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana and Montana were among the biggest year-over-year gainers in 2025 compared to U-Haul’s 2024 rankings, while Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, Delaware and Nebraska saw the biggest drops.
While the national average rent in the U.S. sits at approximately $1,623 per month (0.4% higher than this time last year) the Keystone State boasts a lower rent average at approximately $1,526 per month (1.9% higher than last year), according to Apartments.com. It is ranked 34th least expensive rent by state.
Here’s what to know about Pennsylvania and what states saw the most and least growth in 2025 according to U-Haul.
Top 10 U-Haul growth states of 2025
In 2025 Pennsylvania ranked 46 out of 50 states on growth as reported by U-Haul.
- Texas
- Florida
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- Washington
- Arizona
- Idaho
- Alabama
- Georgia
U-Haul reported the 10 states with the lowest growth numbers were lead by California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, and Michigan.
Where are Pennsylvania residents moving to and from?
According to the company’s semiannual U.S. migration trends report, based on the one-way rental data after the summer’s high moving season, it revealed that while Pennsylvania remains a top destination, Pennsylvanians are also packing up and heading out. Here’s where they moved to:
- New York
- Maryland
- North Carolina
- Massachusettes
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Florida
- California
- Washington D.C.
According to this report, here’s what states new residents came from:
- New Jersey
- New York
- Maryland
- Florida
- Virginia
- North Carolina
- Delaware
- Massachusetts
- Ohio
- Texas
- West Virginia
- Michigan
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