This fall marks the first season for the new girls flag football team at Aragon, making it the first sport to be added in 10 years. All six high schools in the San Mateo Union High School District are implementing a flag football team this fall, along with Sequoia, Woodside, Carlmont and Terra Nova high schools.
Flag football has been gaining popularity across the nation, seeing a 67% participation increase among girls ages 6-17, according to Sport Business Journal. The choice to start the Aragon team follows a California approval to make flag football a recognized high school sport statewide.
The flag football team is especially important in efforts to increase opportunities for female athletes in the district.
“There’s a significant gap between the number of boys participating and the number of girls participating in sports,” said athletic director Steve Sell. “You want to close that gap, you want to provide more opportunities for girls. We’re eager to try something different, [that] might get some new athletes out in a season where it’s not going to take away from too many other sports.”
Freshman Livi Ramseyer, who has previous experience with the sport, agrees with the benefits of seeing female representation in a male-dominated sport.
“I [played flag football] in middle school,” Ramseyer said. “It was a fun experience, because there had never been a girls football team. You grow up watching men do it all the time, so it’s cool to be a part of it.”
Tryouts concluded on Aug. 22, testing athletes on all skill sets necessary to play the sport including speed, agility, passing, catching and offensive and defensive drills.
Given that this is many students’ first experience playing flag football, the team was open about accepting athletes from all backgrounds, resulting in a high turnout at tryouts.
“A lot of us come from different sports, like soccer, softball and basketball. Everyone was pretty new to it,” said senior Angie Alvarenga. “[Tryouts] were a free ground to make mistakes and grow and learn the game.”
Even though this is the first season of the sport, there are eight seniors on the team, many of whom this is their first experience with flag football.
“It’s…my last year and I wanted to get as involved as I can in sports,” Alvarenga said. “I already play basketball…and I wanted to try something new to stay in shape for my season and have fun.”
Head coach Barbara Beaumont doesn’t have a specific goal in mind for the season, but is rather taking a holistic approach to the team’s training.
“There isn’t really one thing [to focus on] the most,” Beaumont said. “It’s a new season. It’s a brand new team … We [just] want to win.”
“There had never been a girls football team. You grow up watching men do it all the time, so it’s cool to be a part of it.”
However, early in the season there has been a priority on the team’s offense.
“[We’re] focusing more on offense because that’s kind of the way to go,” Ramseyer said. “We’re focusing on routes, which is where each person is running [in a play] and prioritizing running over passing to keep [our games] accurate.”
Their next game is Sept. 20 at 4 p.m. at Burlingame against Terra Nova.
my daughter played football w/Aragon her sophomore year and was shut down by the coaches because she was a GIRL. She was a great running back and unfortunately, the coaches could not see pass the fact that she’s a girl playing a “boy” sport. I feel like the district made a girl flag football team so they can keep girls from playing football with the “boys”!