THE GIRLS OF FALL
Catawba County schools field girls flag football clubs. Are teams next?
Addie Egbert (11) of St. Stephens tries to get away from a pair of Maiden defenders during a flag football game at Fred T Foard on Tuesday.
LEFT: A Fred T. Foard defender prevents a big gain by pulling the flag from a Maiden ball carrier.
ABOVE: St. Stephens coach Patrick Smith watches his team in a game against Maiden on Tuesday.
HIGH SCHOOL FLAG FOOTBALL
About 60 high school football players put on flags and faced off on a shortened football field at Fred T. Foard High School on Tuesday.
The games were the first high school flag football games in Catawba County. Although girls flag football is now a fully sanctioned high school sport in North Carolina, Catawba County schools are starting it off as a club sport for now. Fred T. Foard coach Thomas Peeler said it makes sense to start it that way, especially due to the tight timeline this fall.
"We're doing it for club this year all around the county really to give all the schools a chance to figure out the logistics," he said. "It's really a year of testing for everybody."
According to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, first practices could be held Aug. 31 with first games taking place 12 days after the school year starts. For schools in the Charlotte and Raleigh areas that already had established club programs, that schedule hasn't been a challenge. At Foard and other Catawba County schools, though, there were interest meetings, signups, tryouts, jerseys, equipment, first practices and summer heat to deal with.
"It's a lot of new stuff," St. Stephens coach Patrick Smith said. "It was all trying to learn the rules, trying to learn the way the high school athletic association does it and things like that, but it has been fun even though it has been quick."
The first day of games went off without an issue. Saint beat Fred T. Foard 54-12 in the first game. Maiden topped Foard 20-14 in game two. Saint beat Maiden 41-6 in the third. Bandys and Bunker Hill also have teams, and will get in on the action with Fred T. Foard on Monday, Sept. 14, at Bandys High School. From there, games will rotate through Catawba County Schools' high schools each Monday until Oct. 5.
Smith hopes this year's club games will help lay the groundwork for fully sanctioned games in Catawba County next fall.
Opening the door
Smith said he is excited about the opportunity to lead the flag football club at St. Stephens because he wants to be able to open up more opportunities for girls to play sports.
"Having two daughters, I want to keep building different sports and opportunities for girls to play," he said. "It's something new and it's a sport that's just exploding right now. A lot of times, girls grow up wanting to play football and those opportunities aren't always there for them."
Peeler said he's excited to help lay the groundwork for a new generation of young women. He said it's something some of the girls were talking about even before the NCHSAA officially sanctioned it.
"These girls have already told me they've seen the DII, DIII schools out there starting official flag football," he said. "It's a really good opportunity for them to think about the next level or ... for the kids to come out here that only do a winter sport or a spring sport to have another opportunity to come out, be part of a team and get in shape."
Fred T. Foard's Justice Reed plays soccer in the spring. When she heard the school was going to have a flag football team, she saw it as an opportunity to try something new.
"It just really called my name," she said. "I was like, 'That's something I really want to do.'"
Emma Fulbright plays softball and said she has always enjoyed watching football.
"I was like, 'OK, yeah, bet, I'm going to come out,'" she said.
One of the girls
St. Stephens quarterback Briley Travis is one of those girls who has always wanted to play football. She said she grew up around mostly boys. She remembers playing football with her brothers and male cousins but never thought she would have the opportunity to play for her school.
"When I was with them, I wanted to be more like them, so I started to like the idea of football," she said. "I've been playing for like three years now, and when I heard Saint was going to have a flag football team, I was so excited."
Travis is a freshman at St. Stephens and has played flag football in middle school at St. Stephens Lutheran and at the Athletes Lab Performance Center in Maiden.
Other than the Athletes Lab, though, her only opportunities to play were with the boys. She said it is exciting to be a part of the sport in its first year as a sanctioned high school sport in competition.
"As someone who had to play as one girl on all-boys teams, I was so excited to hear it was going to be just girls," she said.
Audreyna Binns also grew up playing football with her brothers. She said when she heard about the flag football team at St. Stephens, she started spreading the word to get more girls involved.
Passing the torch
Travis realizes she is on the front end of a movement in women's sports.
"When I'm walking in the hallway, a lot of guys will ask if we play soccer because they see the cleats," she said. "It makes my heart happy when I tell them I play flag football."
Reed recognizes this is an opportunity that girls before them didn't have.
"I feel like it's an opportunity to be a role model for underclassmen and girls coming up from middle school and elementary school," Reed said. "They can see, 'Hey, this looks really fun and it's something I want to do.' So, we can keep building it throughout the school."
