The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have announced the creation of a new scholarship for women high school football players, a first for any NFL franchise.
According to a statement from the franchise, the Bucs will commit $250,000 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Girls in Football Scholarship Fund, which will be available to any woman high school athlete participating in a formally sanctioned flag or tackle football program.
The scholarship is open to all women high school seniors nationwide who participate in a formally sanctioned flag or tackle football program, maintain a minimum 3.0 grade average, and plan to enroll in a full-time accredited four-year college or university.
.@BucsFoundation commits $250,000 for the @NFL’s first college academic scholarship for high school girls participating in organized football programs nationwide.
📰: https://t.co/C8OZSg7K0H pic.twitter.com/98uproWTrJ
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) November 14, 2019
“In the state of Florida alone, we have 260 sanctioned girls flag football teams, yet there are no scholarship opportunities for those female athletes after high school that help reduce the burden of their college tuition,” said Buccaneers Owner/President of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Foundation and Glazer Family Foundation Darcie Glazer Kassewitz in the statement.
“We wanted to fill that void by creating a scholarship program that would reward young women for their academic success as well as encourage them to play football,” she continued.
The first round of awards will be distributed at the end of the 2020 academic school year.
Follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter to get the most up-to-date news + views. Subscribe to our newsletter, too.
This article appears in Nov 14-21, 2019.