On Sept. 13, the women’s intramural flag-football league will kick off, and the women are out to prove they have skills just like the men. Unfortunately, the league’s numbers are down 50 percent from last year.

Eight all-female teams participated in the league during 2008. This year, however, only four teams registered to compete.

Mike Widen, an associate director of Recreational Services, said he is confused by the low numbers, the smallest he’s seen in recent memory.

Last year’s games were competitive and impelling, he said.

“I’m not really sure why women aren’t excited about playing flag football,” he said. “We are seeing fewer and fewer teams each year.”

Widen said he thinks the decreased numbers in the women’s open league might be based on the difficulty for a team’s manager to recruit 10 or 11 interested women. But he stressed that this is not a specific Iowa problem.

Campuses nationwide are struggling with female participation.

“Maybe it’s harder to get a full team of women who want to [play] and commit to play,” Widen said. “This is something that I know has been an issue for other campuses across the country. Everybody is struggling to find female participation.”

Recreational Services advertises its intramural programs with fliers in all of the residence halls, fraternities, and sororities, in addition to posting information on the department’s website. Despite these efforts, though, numbers are still declining.

UI senior Anna Schmitz, who plays for the Show Stoppaz in the women’s league, said she thinks Recreational Services needs to concentrate more on marketing intramural sports to freshman women and that the ratio of upperclassmen to underclassmen is a reason for the decline.

“I know in my freshman year, nobody really encouraged the women to play flag football,” she said. “I think they push the men’s teams more.”

Even though women’s numbers in the open league are down, female participation in the co-recreational league is stable. In fact, women participants outnumber the open league by a significant margin.

Flag football teams in the co-recreational league must have a four-women minimum to compete. And with 39 registered co-ed teams this year, there are at least 156 women in the league.

Comparatively, all-female teams need at least six members to register, computing to 24 participants.

UI senior Amy Carlson, who plays for the Show Stoppaz, as well as the Chino Stoppaz in the co-recreational league, said she thinks that more women play in the mixed league because the intensity is heightened. She also thinks women in general feel more comfortable playing alongside the guys.

“The competition in co-rec is a little bit more serious,” she said. “Plus, it’s always fun to play with your guy friends.”

Widen said although the numbers are low, the league will be successful and competitive all season. He is unsure about the future of the league but plans to try to reverse the trend next season.

“I hope that it will turn around, and we will see bigger numbers as we go forward into the future,” he said. “I think it’s a quality program in intramurals.”