In recent years, girls flag football has become an increasingly popular sport and more and more schools are starting to offer girls flag football as a sport in which people can join. While the sport “football” is most commonly resonated with and depicted as a boys sport, girls Flag Football offers girls a chance to participate in the beloved sport. This year was Ayala High School’s inaugural season for their girls flag football team.
This past spring, Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD), Ayala and other schools held a mini season for flag football but starting this school year, flag football became an official sport that girls could join and participate in.
“This is our first full season to really play against people who have been doing it, against other people who are new, just like we were,” Head Coach Amy Campbell said.
Most of the girls who participated in flag football this season were returners from the spring’s mini season but a majority of the girls who participated were new-comers and freshmen. The returners already knew the basics of the sport but for the new-comers, they had a bit of catching up to do. Despite this, everyone was able to become familiar with the sport and get ready for their season.
“Everyone was super welcoming,” Sierra Pye (9) said. “I made a bunch of friends here and it was nice.”
On August 10, flag football had their official first game of their inaugural season against Moreno Valley High School. Although it was a home game, it was held at Don Lugo High School. Both the Junior Varsity (JV) and the Varsity teams won against Moreno Valley, marking the start of an exciting season to come.
In their league games, Ayala’s record ended being 3-3, their overall Varsity record for games 19-9. The JV team’s overall record was 11-1-1. The girls played with their all this season and with every win as well as every loss, they were motivated to do even better at the next game.
“I thought the girls gave an extreme amount of effort towards what we were asking them to do. We challenged them in different ways, physically, mentally, emotionally, all of which are life lessons but they responded positively to them,” Coach Campbell said.
Every high school sport’s biggest goal is to have a great season and ultimately make it to and win the highest level in Southern California high school sports, CIF. Ayala flag football had this goal and they successfully accomplished it, getting to the first round of CIF. Although they unfortunately did end up losing, it was a massive accomplishment getting to CIF in the sports inaugural season.
“Although we fell a little short, it doesn’t mean [the players] didn’t achieve different goals within themselves, they all had individual goals and then we had team goals,” Coach Campbell said.
There were five seniors on the flag football team this season and they will be greatly missed when they graduate. The senior players are Brooklee Harris, Jazlynn Rojas, Mariah Sanchez, Mckenzy Becerra, and Mireya Castro. This season was filled with memorable moments and plenty of fun and exciting memories that both the players and coaches will not forget.
“I think something also really memorable was that everybody was just such a positive influence,” Audrey Layaye said. “I really appreciate the camaraderie that we had on the team, with the coaches [and] with the players. It just felt like one big family”.
Even though this exciting season has come to an end, there are so many more seasons to come, each bringing new memories and memorable moments for everyone. Bulldogs are excited to see what the future holds and are looking forward to the next season to come.
