Central Community College first two-year college in Nebraska to offer women's flag football, beach volleyball

Central Community College is the first two-year institution in Nebraska to announce it’s fielding a women’s flag football team. The Raiders will also become the first community college in the state to compete in women’s beach volleyball.

The Columbus campus will compete in beach volleyball, while the Hastings Campus will offer women’s flag football. Indoor volleyball coach Bree Spenner will run the beach program, with recruiting already underway and the goal of being ready for the 2027 spring season.

Athletic director Mary Young said the flag football program could start in spring 2027 as well, but its coaching search is currently ongoing. The decision adds a second sport to the Hastings campus, joining co-ed shotgun sports, which has mostly drawn men into the program to this point, Young said.

“We're always looking for ways to increase our enrollment but also increase our engagement on our college campuses, and athletics is a great way to do that,” Young said. “Flag football is an up-and-coming sport, it's emerging.”

She said the flag football roster will be filled by about 15 to 20 student athletes. Beach volleyball will have “crossover” athletes from indoor volleyball and some beach-only athletes, Young said.

CCC is at least the second college in the state to build a women’s flag football team, with the Nebraska Athletic Department announcing a similar decision in January.

For the Raiders, which mostly compete out of the Columbus campus for sports, the Hastings campus being near Kansas should help them fill out a schedule. The state of Kansas has “a great pocket” of schools offering women’s flag football, Young said. Currently, 16 junior and community colleges compete in flag football, but Young expects that to jump to 30 or 40 soon.

“Flag is one of those sports that really has a presence in the state of Colorado and in Missouri and in some of our surrounding states,” Young said, “and I think it's just a matter of time before we see that at some of our youth sports.”

CCC is a member of the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference. That conference has offered beach volleyball for a while, the school said in a newsletter, “while women’s flag football is seeking emerging status.”