Originally Published in the November 26th Print Publication
As temperatures slowly drop day by day, festive holidays are beginning to approach. The number of homework assignments are starting to stack up, and numerous tests are guaranteed to increase. As winter starts to approach things are either constantly decreasing or increasing. A number that is increasing here at North Creek is the amount of girls trying flag football this winter season.
Girls flag football had small numbers to begin with. Just fourteen girls wanted to play last season. However this year is a different story, with around 35 girls interested in joining flag football. “Last year we had barely any and now this year we have so many girls interested,” Sofia Gomez-Salas, a junior quaterback, said.
The team started posting on social media with the goal of putting out game updates and trying to spark interest for other girls to join. “All of the photos that have been posted they may have seen,” Gomez-Salas said. One thing is for sure, the presence of their social media worked. Girls around North Creek are now more interested in flag football than before. “Our outreaches happened a lot, now that a lot of people see it’s a fun sport to join,” Alex Barton, junior, who plays center on the team said.
As the sport grows in popularity, many of the team believes that the sport’s lack of WIAA recognition is an error. “We are a sport, we play a sport, the fact they don’t recognize it as a sport makes me mad,” Gomez-Salas said.
Flag football is relatively new here at North Creek, and is not officially considered a sport. Instead it’s considered a club. During games and practices there isn’t even an athletic trainer present to help with injuries. “We should be recognized in case of injuries we don’t have a blanket as other recognized sports,” Barton said.
Numbers are in fact growing for the girls, but there’s speculation it could’ve been even more. “Not being recognized as a sport definitely makes people not join,” said Barton. Nevertheless, not being recognized doesn’t stop girls from playing. “I love playing this sport. I’d keep on playing this sport even though they say it’s not a sport”, Gomez-Salas said.
Girls flag football was almost recognized by the WIAA this year as a sport, falling short by only a small number of votes. Now, with the increase in numbers, it could provide a bigger case on becoming a sport for next season. “I hope next year they officially make it a sanctioned sport,” Barton said.
Although it’s not an official sport, the team is expanding where they will play games. They have multiple games on their schedule outside the district, compared to last season it was strictly district games. Games outside of the district are at Bellevue High School, Newport and Interlake this season. “Being able to go to different schools. It’s exciting,” Gomez-Salas said.
With more girls joining the team it opens the opportunities of improvement. Last season the girls flag football team lost every game. “There is definitely going to be a lot of growing to do this season,” Gomez-Salas said. There is hope around the team that they will improve with lots of hard work and practice. With more girls they have the ability to create more plays and strategies during games.
“It creates new opportunities for us,” Barton said.
