This year the previous girls flag football club has become an official AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association) sport. This means that it is no longer a club but an official school sport. The team this year has about 20 players with many of them returning this year. In previous years the team has played under the title of a club but these players have returned to play but there are also some new players. Becoming an official team sport for the AIA comes with changes to the dynamics of the sport. Junior Kylee Wick said, “It changes how serious we take it and how much effort we put into it. More people take it seriously and we play more experienced schools too.” In addition to the feel, the team also received new flags along with new uniforms for away games.
Although their most recent game was a loss against Mountain View with a final score of 0-13, head flag football coach Celaya said, “We’re starting to know our roles as defense and how we cover offensively. We’re learning different paths and different routes. Every player has a different route to run each play.” As the team gets more organized the coach expects massive improvement. Wick said, “A lot of us are faster and learning how to catch better.” The team practices every day from 2:30 to 4 p.m. excluding game days where they do not have practice.
Team captains, senior Peyton Tinghe, said, “I like it alot obviously playing in fall is a lot different then playing in spring just because of the heat but I think it’s a new competitive nature just because it’s now fall.” Wick commented, “Oh I love it, I quit volleyball for this sport, it’s my favorite sport ever.” The flag team seems to see nothing but positives with all of the new changes.
Being a new official sport, the girls flag team is trying to gain traction and catch the attention of interested students. This has resulted in a large addition of players who are new and underclassmen. Wick said, “We have a lot of returning players but at the same time we have a lot of new girls because it’s an upcoming sport.” In addition, coach Celaya said, “Grade wise we have two seniors so we do have a pretty young team.” Although she considers this a good thing, there is more room to grow.
With the team being young and new there is much room for improvement. The team will be working hard to recover for their next home game verses Corona Del Sol. The girls continue to work to learn the dynamics of the sport and move as a team on the field.
