As the fall season for sports starts at DVHS, the newly formed women’s flag football team takes on its first season. Last year was the first year flag football teams existed in the district. However, due to a lack of time, DVHS was unable to set up a team.
In preparation for this year, Head Coach Kevin Barth and Assistant Coach Ann Booras started gathering athletes early by hanging posters around the school and hosting a meeting with those who were interested. At first, the coaches did not anticipate much interest since it was a niche sport, and new to DVHS. However, they were surprised by the number of people who showed interest.
“We had over 100 girls that said they were interested,” Barth said. “When we had our meeting last school year, we had over 40 girls show up for that.”
California High School is one of the tougher opponents and the game against them was a major event. While DV lost the game with a score of 29-9, the team has made significant progress compared to when they played Foothill a week earlier.
Over the summer, the coaches hosted open fields for athletes to come down and practice. This also attracted students who did not have previous experience in flag football to join and learn to play. The current varsity running back, junior Jhace Parson, was among the ones who started playing in the summer.
“My soccer teammates played and they said that they really liked it so I wanted to try it out,” Parson explained. “I also thought I’d be good at it because I’m pretty fast.”
Despite the enthusiasm and interest, the team has yet to secure a win for the season. They have played four games so far: three league games against Foothill, Cal, and Monte Vista, and one non-league game against Northgate. Despite the outcomes, the team has a positive and hopeful attitude towards the games to come.
“Winning would be great. I know the girls would love to win. But for me, if I see that we are continuing to get better and the girls are having fun doing it, then I consider that a success,” Barth remarked.
“I think our Cal High game was better than the game we played before that,” Parson notes. “We played Foothill and we lost pretty badly, but our loss was a smaller gap against Cal High, which is impressive because it’s only one game difference but we already improved a lot more.”
As far as personal challenges, both coaches are anxious about their lack of experience in flag football. Barth has coached football and was a rugby coach for 15 years, while Booras has experience in football from her kids playing. However, both coaches do not possess a professional background in flag football.
“The only anxiousness I have is that everything is happening very fast. I’m new to the sport. I wish I could do a better job in terms of coming up with the plays and guiding them,” Barth reflects.
In the long term, the coaches hope to establish a strong and foundational flag football team here at DV. They want to focus more on the growth of the athletes than wins and losses.
“[My goal] is to keep the kids motivated, keep them happy, keep building skills and techniques,” Booras said.
Overall, the athletes are confident and optimistic about the upcoming games. They have made substantial advancements as a team compared to the start of the season, both physically and mentally, and have gained more self-awareness and learned more about their teammates.
“[The game against Monte Vista] showed a lot of the mentality of our team. It showed who crumbles and gets frustrated and who continues to have that fight in them,” Parson points out, “I’m excited about [playing Monte Vista again] because I think we can beat them. I definitely do. It’s just a mindset thing.”
