Flag football is making its way to Sahuaro, and they want your support! With no tackling, diving, blocking, and no contact, flag football is an accessible, incredibly inclusive sport that opens the doors to many players, including female athletes. Tackles are made by pulling off a flag, worn by all players.
This is Sahuaros’ first-ever flag football team. New-to-Sahuaro monitor Ty Lenk and Counselor Colleen Bradley are this year’s coaches. While neither has ever coached this sport, they’ve both coached many sports, including basketball, soccer, and tennis. Coach Ty also played flag football when he was a middle-schooler, and he has coached in places like North Carolina and California.
Currently, there are enough players to comprise a varsity team, and with a couple more players, they will have just enough for a JV team as well. So come on down and join! Practices are from 4:15-6:00 PM on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday’s practices are from 3:15-5:00 PM.
Seince everyone is new to the sport, the team is working on “…building our program the right way, providing space for our athletes to come and play flag football, also for them to be successful on the field and off the field,” says Coach Ty. During their practices, they are figuring out the different positions and where the athletes are going to play for the season, as well as working on their offensive and defensive plays.
Team member Lynnea Montgomery shares, “…they’re trying to figure out what’s important and what we need to be doing. Based off the first practice, we realized we need to start watching film because a lot of girls there don’t have a grasp on football, and they can’t just throw us in there and expect us to know what we’re doing.”
With the first game coming up soon, both the coaches and players have thoughts. Coach Ty shares, “I think the first game will go well once we designate the different positions and the athletes kind of get a hang of playing flag football, since it is a new sport and it is new to a lot of our athletes. But I think that our first game will go well.”
Their first game is at home on September 23rd against Santa Rita High School at 6:00 PM. Be sure to show up for Sahuaro’s first flag football game in history!
Coach Ty signs off with, “I’m super excited to be a part of the program, and to get it started, and for it to grow into a great program here at Sahuaro in the future.”
