Slow-pitch softball is dying on the vine.

Last season, only 197 of the 265 Mississippi High School Activities Association member high schools fielded a slow-pitch team. Vicksburg and Warren Central formed a two-team slow-pitch division this season, with both qualifying for the postseason before the season began. So much for a great division race.

Mississippi and Oklahoma are among the only holdouts in a primarily fast-pitch oriented world as their activities associations still sanction it as a varsity sport. In this era of Title IX, when state governing bodies are trying to keep their gender numbers square with the regulations, this is very telling.

Fast-pitch is the present and future, as judged by the crowds watching the College World Series live and on ESPN. Slow-pitch is a thing of the past, a rusting relic holding on for dear life.

But when one sport withers away, another is always waiting to take its place.

There’s a new sport sweeping Florida and Alaska and there’s no reason why it couldn’t work in this football-crazed state.

That sport would be girls flag football. It’s not a powder-puff game.

More than 5,000 girls played varsity flag football in Florida, according to a recent story in the New York Times and the sport is easy to set up and requires little in the way of equipment.

A couple of footballs, cleats, Velcro flags, sneakers and some end zone markers for the 80-yard field are all that are required. School districts would not require a huge capital expense to get this sport moving.

Rules-wise, this game is a winner with a great combination of strategy and athleticism. Also, it would be a sport where size really doesn’t matter, giving more average-sized athletes a chance to compete on a level playing field.

The game is seven-on-seven, with teams receiving four downs to move the ball 20 yards and no tackling. But other than that, it’s a game with universal appeal. Imagine the best of a run-and-shoot style, with passing and lots of trick plays and you’ve got flag football.

But when could it be played?

The easy way to slot flag football into the academic calendar would be to first move fast-pitch to the fall. Georgia does it and it works remarkably well. With most fast-pitch players hitting the field in the summer, the quality of play would likely improve.

Also volleyball could be an alternative in the fall, with soccer and basketball in the winter and flag football hitting the field in the spring.

It’s time to give girls a league of their own. It is an idea whose time has come.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.