The Indiana High School Athletic Association announced the pairings for the first-ever Unified Flag Football State Tournament Series Sunday via webstream at IHSAAtv.org.
Twenty-five teams have entered the inaugural state tournament and are spread across eight sectionals to be played on Sept. 29. The teams that emerge as sectional champions will move on to a single regional championship game on Oct. 6 with the four remaining teams advancing to the state finals on Oct. 13 at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center, the training facility of the Indianapolis Colts.
In a sectional hosted by Warsaw, Wawasee will play Goshen, while Tippecanoe Valley will play the Tigers.
Unified Sports® enables persons with and without intellectual disabilities to participate on the same team for sports training and competition as part of the “Champions Together” partnership between the IHSAA and Special Olympics Indiana.
Unified Flag Football, played on a 25-yard by 40-yard field, is five-on-five with three athletes and two unified partners to a side. Teams play two 20-minute halves with a touchdown worth six points, an extra point from the five-yard line worth one point while two points are added for a successful play from the 10-yard line. Two points may also be scored for a safety.
Starting on its 5-yard line, a team has four plays to cross mid-field, then an additional four plays to score a touchdown. Failure to cross mid-field or score a touchdown in the prescribed number of plays results in a change of possession starting at the opposing team’s own 5-yard line.
Unified Flag Football is the 22nd sport sponsored by the IHSAA and the second co-ed sport, joining Unified Track and Field, which debuted in 2014.
