Girls throughout the region will have the opportunity to take to the gridiron this spring.

Most schools in The Post-Journal’s circulation area are creating teams — either on their own or as shared teams with neighboring school districts — after the state Public High School Athletic Association created a pilot program last year. The success of that pilot program led to an expansion of girls flag football as a varsity sport throughout the state.

That’s unsurprising. Flag football has been a popular offering for youth throughout the country with flag football leagues across the nation. Of course, that interest ties into the growth of 7-on-7 passing leagues in the summer for many high school football players — but often by that point girls who played in youth leagues in earlier years have been moved on to other sports or activities.

Thumbs up to all of the districts that are offering the sport to their students and taking on the additional expense of coaches and equipment, particularly those schools that have done so on short notice with January or February approval of a team that is to start play this spring. There are fields that have to be made available, transportation to be arranged and other spring sports that may be affected. Sharing teams adds another layer of logistics to be figured out quickly.

As Maureen Donahue, Southwestern Central School superintendent and Section VI president, said during a recent Southwestern Board of Education meeting, “it’s an incredible opportunity for our female athletes.”

Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.