This year, students at Neshaminy High School (NHS) are stepping onto the field for a fresh lineup of sports, including flag football and unified bocce ball. These new additions are not only sparking excitement, but also opening the door for discussions about what other sports could soon join the school’s athletic program. 

With 500,000 girls playing, and that number continuing to grow, girls flag football is quickly gaining popularity in high school sports across the country. NHS’s first year of implementing the sport was in the spring of 2025, led by Head Coach Zachary Cleale and Assistant Coach Josh VanReed. 

Cleale explains the game as, “one of the fastest growing sports,” and says it’s “awesome to see that there are lots of girls getting involved in learning the sport.” 

The Neshaminy girls had a great first season with a final record of 8-4. During that season, they were considered a club rather than a sport for the school.

However, this year they are being introduced as an official sport of NHS. As the upcoming season approaches, anticipation builds and tryouts inch closer to get ready for their first game of the season against Central Bucks East High School on March 10, 2026. 

Flag football isn’t the only new sport being introduced at NHS. Recently, posters have been plastered around main street that read “Join the Unified Bocce Ball team!” But, what exactly is bocce ball? And what impact will it have on the Neshaminy community? 

Bocce ball is played by players taking turns tossing their balls to try and land closest to the pallino, or target, earning points based on proximity after all balls are thrown. And anyone can play!

This club sport is part of the Special Olympics program helping children with intellectual disabilities get involved and experience what it’s like to be a part of a team.

McKenna Mullin, in the special education department, is the lead running bocce ball for its debut season. She explained that it was added due to the inspiration to “help us expand the social lives for the kids here at our school.” In the following years, Mullin says she hopes to “be able to put together two teams and to add a bunch of different sports.”

Currently, there is a Unified track team held in the spring but Mullin wants the chance to “add more [sports] like bowling and cheer and other sports to grow the program in that way.”

In order for a sport or club to be formed, there needs to be teachers interested in it, students wanting to join, and the passion to make it succeed. With all of that, applications just need to be passed through administration.

 Lisa Pennington, head of co-curriculars and athletics at NHS, explained the process of executing a new program of sorts. She described that a forensics club couldn’t rerun this year because there were not enough students involved.

 “I know there are students still interested, it’s just I can’t have a club running under 15 [members]. We have roughly 2,000 kids in the school, we have to have some type of interest in the club for it to run,” Pennington explained. 

There’s even a waitlist for students with ideas for upcoming clubs if others stop meeting. 

Sports like badminton could be a club, but not a sport due to the fact that they are not Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) approved. Pennington used NHS’s new sport of flag football as an example, as it had to go through the state process of becoming an official sport.

There are some sports that  PIAA does offer, but NHS does not have enough students interested in them to become a school sport. 

This brings questions for what other sports may arise at Neshaminy. From pickleball to dodgeball, there are endless possibilities for what may be in the high school’s future. With already over 50 extracurriculars and counting, what could be coming next? 

Not only is administration an important part of this process, but so are the opinions of students. New sports need students to be interested in order to succeed. 

When NHS students were asked which sports they would like to see at the school, pickleball got the highest number of votes with 44.4%. Following pickleball was badminton with 20%, competitive dance with 13.3%, water polo with 11.1%, and rugby with 8.9%. Rugby Pennsylvania has 11 school-affiliated programs and aims to reach 25 to be recognized as an emerging sport by the PIAA. 

When Pennington was asked about some of the sports students had interest in that weren’t offered, she explained, “Rugby is not something that’s even offered in PA for public schools. One that [Neshaminy] doesn’t offer is water polo, but water polo is a PIAA sport that you can offer. I think in our district, district one, I think there’s six [schools] that offer it. There’s not a lot of schools that offer it.” 

Competitive dance is another popular sport in high schools, and most of these teams go to the Universal Dance Association’s National Dance Team Championships in Orlando, Fl. 

Students were also asked if they would be interested in participating in these sports if NHS offered them and 48.9% of them answered yes, 35.6% answered maybe, and 15.6% answered no. Students are open to these new sports and are hoping to see NHS implement them into their available sports options someday. 

Sports and clubs are so much more than an after school activity, and they can make a substantial impact on the community. When asked about possible clubs for Neshaminy, Roberta Cimochowski, the 11th grade principal, recalls her high school and college experience in a community service core. During this she emphasized the impact community service can have on character development. 

“I would really love to give our Neshaminy High School students an opportunity to give back and make a difference and see with your own eyes that you really can impact people’s lives in such a positive way,” Cimochowski voiced. 

There are so many ways to get involved at school, but students are always looking for more. As times change and new sports arise, Neshaminy will keep doing what’s needed to get the study body as involved as possible.

The future of sports at Neshaminy looks promising, with endless possibilities waiting to be discovered! Ten years ago a girls flag football team was unheard of, so what might be to come in the next 10 years?