In 2022, the California Interscholastic Federation approved girls flag football to be an official varsity sport. Although the season was initially set to begin last fall, Santa Clara Valley Athletic League pushed the season to this upcoming fall due to logistical issues to include more teams.
Success has been common throughout the few schools that held an inaugural girls flag football season last fall, according to SCHS Athletic Director Nelson Gifford. He mentioned that despite the delay, there has been a major demand for the sport amongst Bruin students and athletes.
“Even last year, as girl flag football started for the first time, there’s been a demand for it,” Gifford said. “Every school that I’ve spoken to that has had a flag football team raves about it. They say, the girls that are playing love it, but it’s also just really, really popular in terms of attendance, and people coming out and watching the games.”
Gifford explains that media coverage for Girls Flag Football has significantly expanded, bringing in more viewers and followers as it grabs the attention of many.
“It was the first time the sports were being played, and they’re on the front page of the San Jose Mercury News and The Times,” Gifford said. “So it clearly is capturing the culture at the moment.”
Despite the support other schools have received for their teams, Gifford anticipates that there may be challenges in balancing and fitting the needs of the other fall sports now that flag football is being added.
“The field sports were football and field hockey. Now, you’ve added a third field sport, and you have marching band, so now you’ve got these four. It was three groups all competing for field space. Now, you’ve got four groups competing,” Gifford said. “Right now, you’ve added more games that are gonna be happening. How does that work?”
Gifford believes that athletes currently participating in a fall sport will not be pulled away despite adding flag football and will not affect the demographic of athletes who are not participating in any fall sports.
“The worry is, if you add another sport, does that actually increase the number of athletes participating, or does it pull athletes away from other sports?” Gifford said. “We believe it’s going to actually increase the amount of participation of kids that maybe don’t play a sport at all, or only play a winter sport.”
Sophomore Stacy Plancarte Martinez has had a definite interest in the upcoming flag football season. She believes that participating will benefit her mentally as well as physically while simultaneously preparing her for track in the spring sports season.
“I think it’s gonna just make my mentality better because track is actually a very difficult sport, especially because it’s all mental,” Plancarte Martinez said. “If I have a good mentality, I think I would really improve not only in track, but in flag football. It will get me fit for the (track) season because for track, you need to be fit, so I feel like it’s a great opportunity to prepare myself.”
Plancarte Martinez always liked the idea of participating in football due to her brothers playing, but there was never an adequate outlet for her to live out this interest. Once she heard about the upcoming flag football team, she was excited to learn more and possibly participate in making history on campus.
“When I heard they were creating a team for girls, I was very excited and happy that I get the chance to express myself through the game and make history within the game as well because it is new,” Plancarte Martinez said.
Although many female athletes have expressed their interest in playing the sport, due to football being a contact sport, the worry of size differences was revealed. Specifically, the concern of the size difference between female and male bodies is a reason many choose not to play.
“Physical size is a part of the game, and a lot of parents don’t want their girls going out and playing against boys, and some girls don’t want to do that either,” Gifford said. “Now, we’re creating a space for girls to go play, and a lot of parents are gonna be willing to let their girls go out there and do it”
There is a club component to sports, whether it is softball, basketball, soccer or volleyball. Club flag football is not a common opportunity among female athletes. Thus, there is no expectation for players to have any prior experience.
“You’ve caught a ball before. You’ve probably played flag football in PE at some point in your life,” Gifford said. “To me, the level of entry into that is really low, and so I think it offers a lot to girls that have not participated in sports before this.”
Despite the many opportunities given to athletes, head coach Michelle Bumbaca mentioned that sustainability might be a challenge the flag football team may face.
“So people might not come back in future years, but we hope to keep it a more positive and fun environment so that more students would want to come out and play,” Bumbaca said. “I think people will come out in the beginning because they’re interested and intrigued by it – they want to see what it’s about – and then it might fizzle out.”