As girls’ flag football continues to grow across San Diego County, a new organized beach flag football tournament gives players a chance to compete on the sand at Oceanside Harbor Beach.
The inaugural Flag in the Sand tournament is scheduled for Nov. 7, bringing five-on-five beach flag football to North County with boys, girls and coed divisions for players in grades K-12, along with men’s, women’s and coed adult divisions. Every team is guaranteed at least three games, with qualifying teams advancing to playoff brackets.
The tournament is being organized by San Diego-area sports event operators Nick Diaz and Jordan Arias, along with Soccer in the Sand founder Chris Lemay. Organizers are targeting 100 teams, although registration remains ongoing and Diaz expects the inaugural event to be relatively small.
“We know it’s going to be on the smaller side because it took a while to get the city to finally give us a permit,” Diaz said. “We got that the second weekend in September, so it’s about a month and a half between then and game day. We’re just trying to get the word out. The goal is to get to 100 teams, and we’re not there yet. We haven’t had a ton of time to market this.”
Diaz, a Torrey Pines High School alumnus and assistant boys basketball coach, said the short marketing window has meant reaching out directly to local flag football leagues as registration continues.
He expects the field to skew toward younger players because the high school tackle football season will still be underway, while the girls’ flag football season will be nearing its conclusion. Diaz said CIF rules limit high school athletes’ ability to compete in outside sporting events during their school season.
“If I had to guess, it’s going to be more K-8 than high school,” Diaz said. “I would imagine they’ll have the most access to playing in this event.”
The growth of girls’ flag football helped convince Diaz there was an opportunity to create the tournament. The San Diego County Football Officials Association lists more than 70 high school flag football teams in the San Diego area.
“You see how many girls are playing now, and in fact, I just learned this recently. There are more girls high school flag teams in San Diego County than there are boys high school tackle teams,” Diaz said. “So that should tell you all you need to know.”
The tournament grew out of Soccer in the Sand, which Lemay founded in 2006. The organization holds beach soccer tournaments around the country, including an annual San Diego event in Coronado.
“The San Diego event in Coronado gets several hundred teams a year,” Diaz said. “Our plan is to take the blueprint they’ve successfully created for 20 years and apply it to flag football.”
The organizers plan to have 10 to 12 fields at Oceanside Harbor Beach, with the first games scheduled for 8:30 a.m. and games starting every 45 minutes until the tournament concludes around 5 p.m.
Teams will pay $430 plus a processing fee and are guaranteed three games, with the possibility of additional playoff games. Rosters must have at least five players, with organizers recommending eight to 10.
For Diaz, the appeal is less about changing the game than changing where it is played.
“Maybe they’ve played catch on the beach before, but how many of these kids have actually played a full organized game on the beach? Maybe none. It’s just a different experience,” he said.
Organizers already are planning a second tournament for spring or summer 2027, which Diaz said would be significantly larger and preferably held somewhere in North County.
“We had a short runway to market it and get the word out,” Diaz said. “After this event, we’re going to evaluate what went well and what needs to be better. Then we want to do a second, much larger event in the spring or summer of 2027, somewhere in San Diego County, preferably North County. That event will have a lot more time to market. We’ll have one under our belt, so we’ll have a much better understanding of what needs to be done.”
The long-term plan, Diaz said, is to hold one or two Flag in the Sand tournaments in San Diego each year, then eventually take the concept to beaches around the country.
For more information or to register a team, visit flagfootballinthesand.com/flaginthesand.
