Auburn girls flag football off to hot start in year two

As girls high school flag football enters its second season and awaits WIAA approval to be an official sport, the season has kicked off, and these girls are back in action on the gridiron.

Auburn High School returned 12 girls from last season, then proceeded to add 31 players this year. In just the second year of the sport, there are enough girls to have a junior varsity program.

“It’s amazing. Last year we had to practice,” Assistant Head Coach Lincoln Burt said as he pointed to fellow Head Coach Adrian Hayes.

“So it sucks we don’t get to practice, but we have 40-plus girls. Girls are always interested and there are like a million girls in the hallways at school asking if they can still play. It’s awesome,” Burt said.

In week one, Auburn won its two games with wins over Federal Way High School and Thomas Jefferson High School. The two wins have improved the Trojans’ all-time record to 11-3.

“That’s the best part. Aside from the connection with the ladies, getting the ‘W’s’ is the best part,” Hayes said.

From year one to year two, the team’s improvements have been night and day. Early on last year to warm up, the girls would throw the football back and forth. As expected with a new sport, footballs were thrown all over the place. As the season went on, the throws got more accurate and the catches were more routine.

“They work hard in practice. I mean we practice hard. We are getting after it every day and that shows on the field,” Burt said.

This year, when the girls came out for the first time, they were nervous throwing and catching the ball, Hayes noted.

But he gave them some advice: “The girls you’re scared of, didn’t know either when they started. But we figured it out.’ The growth has been tremendous,” Hayes said.

The reason for flag football being instituted is to give girls a chance to play football with other girls. Most players have siblings or family members who played football and they wanted to give it a go.

“It has been really good for the girls finally to have a football team because it’s always the boys. We are like a family,” quarterback Fele Gasetoto said.

That poses a challenge to coaches across the county, as they have to break the game down deeper than they ever have. The girls have accepted this challenge, and anyone who goes to these games can tell.

“We see some one-handed catches, see some girls breaking on the ball. There is some natural stuff that not just boys do. This is natural and the girls are starting to get good at it,” Burt said.

On Dec. 5, of the four teams playing, all of them had coaches from the football teams on the sidelines. The coaches were giving hand signals, just like with the boys, and on offense, wristbands and call-outs are common place. Motions, shifts on offense are also frequently seen.

The Trojan girls are even developing their own flag football team culture. From singing, chanting and scoring touchdowns, a lot of fun is being had on the sidelines of the green and gold.

“Getting together, singing together,” is something that quarterback Gasetoto looks forward to.

Auburn also does chants before and after along with a prayer: “That’s my favorite part,” Gasetoto said.

Now this season, flag football is in a weird spot — not being a WIAA sport, but it now is no longer a club. So girls cannot play a sport like basketball and flag football.

“It hurts to cannibalize other sports, but there is such a passion and an interest for the game. If it hurts other sports, it hurts other sports. If we can find another season that works better for not hurting other sports numbers, we should. But girls want to play football,” Burt said.

“Yes I agree,” Gasetoto said emphatically.