With a self-explaining name, flag football is a sport growing in popularity. While it has a shared objective with tackle football, the game is played on a smaller field with different rules, added flags, and no tackling. Garfield’s girls flag football team won their first two games of the season against Eastside Catholic and Holy Names Academy. Currently, flag football is not officially considered a WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) sport, and instead is a club team, but it is included in the Metro League.
You can feel the energy of the team- tightly bonded, humorous, lighthearted, but also competitive. Senior quarterback, receiver, and lineman player, Wren McIntosh, said the people are what makes it special. She mentioned how Garfield’s team is “very different, both physically and mentally. We’re very aggressive on the field. Not going to lie, sometimes it gets out of hand.” Kaitlyn Washington, a sophomore on the team, stated, “everyone has their own individual swagger and then as a team, we all match each other’s energy.” Sarah Lessig, a senior quarterback, receiver, and safety on the team said the group is “full of energy” and Washington added how the girls flag football team is “built different from the rest.”
Lessig described their coach, Scoob, as, “super inviting… he’ll make sure everybody gets a chance to play.” He allows the team to have their own input on how practices are run. With no captains, different players on the team take turns running drills, scrimmages, conditioning, and warm ups. Washington explained how during practice, everyone is pushing each other to improve. She said they are, “competing with [themselves], but also [with] each other.”
With games on Saturdays, more support for the girls flag football team from Garfield students can never hurt. McIntosh said, “the future of flag football in the league is very promising. The number of teams has already doubled since it was introduced to the Metro League… [getting] bigger and better.” Go cheer on and represent the bulldog spirit!
