A year ago, there was only one Central Coast Athletic Association school with a girls' flag football program. Fast forward to this year and there are now four.
It’s the first season for Santa Maria, Cabrillo and Pioneer Valley high schools.
Last week marked Santa Maria’s first game on their home field and the first game ever for Cabrillo.
“I'm really excited. A little bit nervous, but I just gotta have confidence," Cabrillo senior Giselle Najera explained.
“We're all just starting," Santa Maria sophomore Sophie Juarez added. "It's a brand new sport for these girls and including myself.”
For Juarez, she and her teammates are part of history.
While she was playing the first girls' flag football game on Dave Boyd Field, her great grandfather, Dick Flory, was watching from the sidelines as a former member of the football team that played the second-ever game on that same field.
He described the experience as "emotional.”
A CIF-sanctioned sport as of two years ago, Lompoc blazed the trail last year but this year, there are not only more teams but more girls interested.
First-year Cabrillo girls' flag football head coach Cole Osborne said that almost 30 girls showed up for tryouts. Over in Santa Maria, almost 100 girls were at tryouts much to the surprise of Juarez.
“We were all like talking about like how kind of nervous we are and not really stressed out, but a little bit on making the team,” Juarez recalled.
For some, it’s a sport they’ve never thought about playing or knew much about. For others, they were excited to finally have a football outlet for girls.
“Me and my sister, we just love football and we didn't really want to play tackle, we wanted to play flag, but we couldn't find any girls' teams,” Najera said.
“I'm a football fan," Cabrillo junior Ashlie Wallace said. "My family's big fans and my brother plays too.”
But for everyone, including the coaches, it’s a learning curve.
“I've learned so much about coaching, about building a program," Osborne admitted. "I've learned a lot about how to communicate with young adults, especially with females.”
With the new teams and great participation numbers so far, the girls are excited and hopeful for the future ahead.
“I'm hoping the sport can grow more, even though a lot of people already showed up. But I think in the future we'll have more girls come out. I think we'll grow bigger as a community.”
