More than a year ago, the California Interscholastic Federation approved girls’ flag football to be an official statewide sanctioned sport in public high schools. This fall, Franklin High School in Elk Grove gets ready to launch girls’ flag football as an official team at their school.
The goal CIF was aiming for was to get more girls involved with sports and cater to those who had a love for football but didn’t have an option to actually play.
At the start of the 2024-2025 school year, Franklin High started tryouts for the upcoming sport. During tryouts, several girls and coaches shared their excitement for the sport.
Aletha Singleton, a senior, described the feeling of potentially being one of the first girls to be on the flag football team as “setting history,” knowing that the “2024-2025 class did it first for our school.”
“I didn’t believe it at first,” she said. “I didn’t want to be all excited just for it not to happen, but seeing it all happen and come together is making me happy, especially because this is my last year of high school.”
“I’m looking forward to having fun with my friends and just seeing how far we get as a team,” Singleton said.
(Tialah Luapua, safety)
Tialah Laupua, another senior, said she was ready for a change.
“I wanted to try new things, instead of sticking to one sport,” she said. “Many girls can grow off this sport.”
“It’s a new sport that hasn’t been around for long, not even in California, but just a new sport for our school too,” Laupua said. “I think it’s almost like an honor because not a lot of other girls have done this before. It’d be great to be one of the first at our school.”
In addition, she notes her personal excitement being on this new team.
“I’m excited to see other schools trying to play other schools,” she said. “I’ve played powderpuff, but it’s exciting having the ability to actually play other schools and that’s honestly what excites me because it’s something different.”
Faith Lyric Reed, a junior trying out for defense, said, “there hasn’t really been like a football sport dedicated just for girls.”
She said she wants to “push myself” and “put my time into something that I can benefit from.”
“I just want to just play in general because it’s really fun getting exercise,” Reed said. “Obviously, I really want to get into an athletic kind of mindset, and to have that determination.”
Reed’s mother helped smooth her path to the flag football program at Franklin.
“My mom found out (that the flag football program was launching), and she sent me a screenshot of that, and she called me during school right after PE to the screen,” Reed said. “So I was just bubbly about it, and very happy.“
Michael Cody, the girls’ flag football coach, said he is looking forward to this new coaching challenge.
“I am excited to see athletes from our other sports come in and showcase their athleticism in a different way,” Cody said. “Throughout the year I see many of them excel in basketball, softball, soccer and track, and it’s fun seeing them come out and excel in a new sport.”
“We have an incredible group of student-athletes on our team,” he continued. “The first week of practice and tryouts has been really fun. I have been impressed with their attitude, effort, coachability and athleticism. I’m looking forward to a great season.”
Cody said the girls on the team are pioneers.
“This should be a fun and unique opportunity for our team,” he said. “Hopefully at their 20 year class reunion, they can be proud that they helped start the sport on our campus.”
Principal Adam Wood said the new sport has the same purpose as any other Franklin program – helping offer connections for students to the school and to the community.
“We’re trying to build the best team to win when we compete against other schools,” Wood said. “And we also look at it as a way to connect kids to school to try something new, get out there and represent our school with pride.”
“You’re helping start a legacy, building the foundation for something, whether that’s wins and success, whether that’s showing this fun (activity) and building school spirit and getting kids who want to be involved, getting students to come out and watch the games, or more students to sign up next year,” he added.
Wood said students should appreciate the chance they have to participate in a brand new program.
“Being a part of the first team that can kind of establish what that is at Franklin, it’s a huge opportunity,” Wood said. “You could help shape the culture of our school. This could become a pillar of what we’re known about.”
As a principal Wood strives to have every student looking forward to coming to school.
