The ball is snapped and, in a flurry of white and black jerseys, a pass is thrown. Its destination: an Aragon High School student. But defensive team captain Ellie Paul, a senior at Sequoia, has other plans. She intercepts the pass and begins dodging Aragon defenders, but her flag is quickly pulled. Cheers, high-fives, and shouts of encouragement are heard as Sequoia’s team celebrates and gets ready for the next play. Sequoia welcomed its newest sports team, girls flag football, this Fall season following its approval as a brand new high school sport in California back in February of this year.

The team has 26members and two coaches: head coach Matthew Kelly and assistant coach Luis Ledezma. Currently, they are competing against nine other schools in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL). The creation of the team was supported by many school administrators. After it was announced, interest and excitement began to rise among students and coaches, who cite the newness of the sport as the primary reason for people’s excitement to join. “I’m looking forward to how our games are going to go because it is a new sport for everyone and a lot of new people are new to it,” Desiree Huffer, a junior team member, said, later adding, “I just wanted to try something new, especially since I was talking to some of my friends to see who was going to join.” The coaches echoed similar sentiments.

“The girls out here, they are excited,” head coach Matthew Kelly said. They’re enthusiastic about it. They’re showing up, they’re ready to go. I think it’s just that it’s brand new.” While excitement for the new team was high, the turnout for the team ended up being less than expected. “When they first hired me I was told that
there were about 40 girls that were coming out,” Kelly said. Currently, there are 26 players on the team. Despite these numbers, the players on the team come from many diverse backgrounds. “I feel like we’re pretty diverse,” Huffer said. “There’s a lot of different girls from different backgrounds. There’s Latina, Polynesian, Caucasian, a lot of different people that I got to meet and they’re very nice at the same time.” As this is the second sport for many of these players, they are balancing flag football with their commitment to other sports.

“I think people see this as an extracurricular thing,” assistant coach Luis Ledezma said.“They don’t really view it as the four main sports like baseball or football, so they tend to miss practice to support other sports. I think one of the most important things is, because this is the first year, we have to set the expectations right.”

Another challenge the flag football team faces is the lack of history. As it is a new high school sport in California, many of the players have limited prior experience with the game.Because of this, the coaches have specifically selected drills that focus on hammering down the basics of different positions and routes that can be run. Kelly and Ledezma have noticed significant improvement since the start of the season, and everyone remains optimistic.“I hope that a lot of people see it as an opportunity since our coaches popped out that there can be offered scholarships to a few colleges that have this sport,” Huffer said. “I hope that that’s something that progresses throughout the years.”