A league of their own
Kennady Forster was in her happy place Tuesday afternoon on the Denis Morris field.
The Grade 12 student at Denis Morris was taking part in the first-ever week of action of the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association’s girls flag football league.
Forster has a history of playing tackle football but had to give up the sport because of concussion issues. Instead of suiting up for the Denis Morris boys team, she is now helping out with the team.
“It’s not what I would like to do. I would like to be playing but this is my home too. Flag is my home.”
Forster has played travel flag football for a number of years and she’s thrilled it is now being offered at her school.
“It has never happened before and it is really cool. It is exciting to get the girls involved in it too, especially with it becoming an Olympic sport. More people need to know that this is a real sport and more people need to get involved in it.”
She hasn’t been surprised with how many girls wanted to play,
“We have had a couple of alright (tournament) seasons and I think a lot of the girls saw that and wanted to come out, especially because half of our team is Grade 12s. That makes a huge difference because it is their last year and they want to make a difference.”
Forster is a big fan of flag football.
“It’s a big girl family and it is nothing like you will see anywhere else. It’s one of those things where it is not contact but there is still force. It makes a big difference for these girls and lets them be a little rough around the edges. It’s a fun time.”
She urges everyone to try the sport.
“You only have so many years of being young so you might as well go out and try something.”
Convening the league and coaching Denis Morris is Denis Morris religion head Erin Clark, who is also the travel director for Niagara Youth Flag Football. Her daughters, Teagan and Charlotte, have played flag football for the past five years.
“They loved the sport, are part of the travel program and when they came to high school they were disappointed that it was not a sport for girls to play,” she said. “I did not feel comfortable with them playing tackle with the boys so we started an endeavour to try and make a home for girls to play football in Niagara Catholic.”
The NCAA started with cross-board tournaments and individual tournaments during the last few years and this year the league was created.
“We put it to a vote and thankfully the heads of phys-ed and extracurriculars were willing to see the value in this growing sport because it is going to be an Olympic sport in 2028 in LA and that we would play a full season,” Clark said.
She was excited when the league became a reality.
“I was absolutely thrilled and it feels like the culmination of years of work. I am so excited to know that girls have a place on the field. They have been making those strides outside of school and it’s great and very validating that all my peers and the other coaches see the value in having girls playing flag football and having flag football grow as a sport,” Clark said. “You can see on the field that we have more than 100 girls involved and when we had tryouts, 48 girls showed up for a team of 12. That’s incredible and other schools are reporting the same thing; 50, 48 kids at various buildings.”
The league will play a five-week schedule with each team playing two games a week at different locations. It will conclude with semifinals and finals at Denis Morris on Oct. 29. The loop features eight teams, including two entries from Saint Michael and single squads from Denis Morris, Lakeshore Catholic, Blessed Trinity, Saint Paul, Holy Cross and Saint Francis.
“It is a varsity program and next year we are hoping to develop it into junior and senior leagues. We are just growing and growing and growing and the hope is that this spring we will have a boys season because it will be opposite tackle for them.”
Clark wasn’t surprised at the response.
“I know that the girls are out there and I know that they want their place on the field. It reinforces the truth that we have 1,200 kids playing flag football on Friday nights in house league and 16 travel teams with Niagara Youth Flag Football. When they come to school, that doesn’t change.”
Niagara minor football also runs a successful flag football program.
She has high hopes for the future of high school flag football.
“Moving forward, we are hoping one day that this will become an OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) sport.”
The NCAA will be hosting a flag football festival for teams from across Ontario on Nov. 1 at Young Sportsplex in Welland.
“We are hoping to continue to build it,” Clark said.
At Holy Cross, Erin Gauthier has switched over to coaching flag football after years of coaching the Raiders varsity girls basketball team.
“I am absolutely pumped. We started last year with a couple of tournaments. I had couple of girls who play for the (NYFF) Nitros who asked me to throw a team together,” she said. “We did it and we had a lot of fun last year. We had a conversation with Jen Benoit (NCAA athletic convenor) and we decided to push to make it a league this year.”
Gauthier had 22-24 girls try out for the team.
“That is still a good number but not quite as large as some of the other schools. But we are happy with who came out and we are happy to get going this season.”
Her players love the sport.
“It is something different. We have some high-level athletes who play other sports and they are excited to venture out of the sport that they train in all year round. It gives them another outlet and they are really enjoying themselves.”
