The varsity women’s flag football squad is no longer the only team in the program.
This season Cal High added a new JV girls team to the flag football program, which kicked off with great success during its inaugural season last school year.
Athletic director Chad Ross was at the forefront for the addition of the program.
“[I’m] super excited that the participation [of flag football] has grown so much,” Ross said. “With the amount of students we had attending open fields last spring, we saw a need for an additional team.”
Open fields provides athletes with the opportunity to get out on the field and work with coaches to get ready for an upcoming season. Often this is time for athletes new to the sport to test the waters and interact with potential teammates.
Talks about the addition of a second team gained steam after the success of the sport’s first varsity season.
“We are very excited about our JV team and the progress they’ve made,” JV coach Frank Grgurina said. “I enjoy seeing the development of the players, the speed of the game, and the opportunity for women to participate in the sport of football.”
In recent years, women’s flag football as a whole has grown tremendously. According to The New York Times, women’s flag football has experienced an increase of 44 percent from 2014. With time, the sport is expected to continue to grow and the landscape of high school women’s flag football could be drastically different.
Freshman JV players Tammy Liao, Akshara Nandagopal and Adithi Chennavaram have only been playing since the open fields during the spring and joined the team this season.
“It’s a really fun sport and I think the more time I put into it the better I’ll get at it,” Nandagopal said.
Liao enjoys the sport because of its competitive nature and she has many friends on the team.
“I think JV is pretty fun so far because I’ve been working properly with my teammates and I’ve been experiencing new positions.” Chennavaram said. “I think the whole concept of flag football is really exciting and a fun sport to play.”
Varsity players freshman Danica Boisseree and junior Olivia Horton are excited for the future of the sport now that a JV team has been added.
“I feel like [the new JV team] is good because it gives more girls an opportunity to play.” Boisseree said.
Horton shares the same sentiment as she is excited about the JV team this year because of the amount of interest from female athletes in joining the new program.
Boisseree and Horton advise JV players looking to move up to varsity to put in the work to see improvement.
“[JV players] should set high expectations and goals for themselves so they have to work even harder to achieve them,” Horton said. “Improvement everyday is super important and will pay off by the end of the season.”
Girls Golf
Flag football is not the only new JV sport on campus this year, as the girl golf program also is fielding a JV team for the first time.
Head coaches Mike Pottinger and Brian Barr added a JV team to help build the program and increase interest in the sport.
Pottinger said he hopes the addition of a JV team encourages more female athletes to play competitive golf while strengthening and expanding the women’s program. The varsity team is 4-4 this season, while the JV team has gone 2-0.
In previous years, the program featured a developmental squad known as the Grizzly Team, which helped girls learn the game and prepare them for playing the sport at a competitive level.
This season, the golf team fields 12 players, four of whom are freshmen.
For competitions, the top six players are in varsity matches while the other six play in JV contests. This is similar to how the boys’ program runs.
All girls work together when they practice four days a week at The Bridges Golf Course in San Ramon.
With the JV players practicing with the varsity players, this is a great learning experience for them to work on their skills and develop as players. This also allows the coaches to determine if any JV players should be moved up into varsity matches.
So far this season, eight of the 12 girls have played in a varsity match, including two freshmen.
When the varsity girls have their home matches, the JV girls play behind for a few holes to gain more on-course experience.
Freshman Kayla Minor has played golf since she was six years old and is experiencing the sport at the high school level for the first time this season. Recently, Minor was pulled up to play in a varsity match.
“It was very scary,” Minor said. “I didn’t play very well, so it was a new experience for me.”
With the ability to move players between JV and varsity, the team gives young players the chance to get valuable experience at a higher level.
Cal is one of four EBAL schools to introduce a JV team this season. The others include Monte Vista, Dublin, and Amador Valley.
While a few schools in the North Coast Section have introduced JV teams, girls golf remains a small sport because many school programs have issues with participation numbers, financial budgets, and golf course availability.
– Carson Pfotenhauer, assistant sports editor
