Falcons honor first girls flag football coach as their high school football coach of the week

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Falcons named head girls flag football coach Alicia Barton of Shaw High School in Columbus, Ga., as their High School Coach of the Week on Friday.

Barton is both the first girls flag football head caoch and the first female head coach to receive the honor since the NFL and Falcons' Coach of the Week program started in 2009.

Barton led Shaw to a 7-3 record in 2019 and a runner-up finish in Muscogee County during the school’s inaugural season last year, and the Raiders are off to another impressive start in 2020.

Two years ago, the Falcons and the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation agreed to partner with Gwinnett County Schools to fund the first-ever girls' high school flag football league in Georgia.

In December, the GHSA recognized girls flag football as an officially-sanctioned sport, and Georgia became the fourth state in the country to do so.