Quarterback for the Seahawks, Macie Curtis runs down the field with the ball, as the Bulldogs’ Kamryn Ridge (17) and Lyla Campbell (5) attempt to pull a flag.
photo by Joy Fisk
Flag football is no longer merely a stepping-stone for younger kids who eventually want to play tackle football; it is now a full-fledged high school sport sanctioned by the TSSAA. Considered an “emerging sport,” it is one of the fastest growing sports nationally. To understand its popularity, especially with girls’ teams, you only need to watch a game. They are fast-paced with two halves instead of four quarters and a running clock for most of that time; each half is twenty minutes long: eighteen minutes with a running clock, and then two minutes that mirror traditional football with the clock stopping between plays. The impact of the running clock is that there is barely any space between plays, creating a sense of momentum.
The rules for play this year may change somewhat next year as the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations) has been tasked with creating national rules that will go into effect next year for the 2025-2026 school year. In the Chattanooga area, only Silverdale Baptist Academy launched a team this year, with three teams in nearby Cleveland and all the other teams much further out including Samuel Everett Learning Center in Maryville, Rhea County, Van Buren County High School, and Bledsoe County. Because so many of the schools need to travel to play other teams and the games are relatively short, they most often play double headers.
Thursday night, Silverdale played Samuel Everett in their first home game of the season. The weather was iffy near game time with dark clouds threatening rain, but after a delay of more than half an hour, they played the first game under a blue sky. Silverdale came out strong and fast, winning the game 33 to 0. This was a marked improvement from their first game of the season against Bledsoe County which the Seahawks lost 0-18. After that game, Head Coach Jake Ledbetter lit a fire under his players, telling them that if they wanted to win, they had to commit to being at practice and being “all in.”
“This is not Powder Puff” is a phrase you will hear the coaches uttering with some frequency, referring to the yearly ritual of the girls playing one another in games of flag football while the boys learn cheers. This sentiment was echoed by SBA quarterback Macie Curtis who said Powder Puff was what inspired her to join the team, but she realized quickly that it was quite different. “There's a lot more to the game than I expected there was going to be.” Curtis has emerged as a leader on the team, often running the ball herself and just as strong on defense.
Another key player on the team is Anna Claire (AC) Connor, the youngest daughter of Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Mike Connor. In tonight’s first game, Connor was responsible for two of the Seahawks’ five touchdowns. Curtis had two, and another star player, Poppy Thomas, had one. Connor is the running back on offense and a rusher on defense, and tied for the most tackles in the first game of the night with Addie Connell, the tallest member of the Seahawks’ team.
Connel says she has always loved football and watching her brothers play. “I was always kind of jealous that I wasn't a guy so that I couldn't play, and then I was approached by a coach and he was like, you should so do flag football and I was like, you know what? I'd so be there. And I ended up showing up, it became a thing, and I've grown to love it. I love blocking. I love being aggressive. It's like, I'm not very an aggressive person in nature, but when I'm out there, I feel different and I love it. It's like my way to get anger out and it's great…I'm really proud of our team and our juice and I just love the connection with these girls.”
Samuel Everett struggled to match Silverdale’s energy in the first game of the night, rarely making it down the field before the ball turned over. There were some bright moments in the first game for the team, however, such as when Lyla Campbell intercepted the ball in the last thirty seconds of the first half, though with not enough time left on the clock for a touchdown. Then the Bulldogs seemed to find their footing in the second game, which remained scoreless on both sides through the first half; the second game had to be suspended due to lightning in the area and will be continued later in April.
Riley Lively, quarterback and running back for the Bulldogs, was up against a very tough Seahawks defense; Lively is the only senior on a team that she describes as “very diverse” with players as young as thirteen and as old as eighteen. When asked what drew her to the sport, she said, “I've always wanted to play flag football. I thought it was really cool and I never knew that my school would, you know, have the opportunity to do that, so I was thinking about maybe doing club one day, but, then I heard about this and I was like, I have to do it.”
The coach for the Bulldogs, Lacie Hatcher, is new to coaching and new to the sport. She praised their principal Justin Ridge for having the vision to bring a new sport to their school and commented that she appreciated how “different sports come together. We've got girls that are in the band, that are in track, that are competitive cheerleaders, that do soccer, softball…everybody took off a season of what they were doing to check us out.”
That is a similar story for the Seahawks who have a mix of girls who either don’t play a sport at all or who play sports such as volleyball or soccer. Quarterback Curtis plays volleyball for the Seahawks while Connor, Thomas, and several other strong players on the team, Sara Jansezian and Mary Claire (MC) Winters all play soccer in the fall. Amare Starling played on last year’s state champion softball team for the Seahawks but this year decided to give flag football a try.
Athletic Director Mike Connor was beaming as he walked the sidelines during the game updating the score for social media. His sons were standout players on the football team and now his daughter AC seems to be following in their footsteps. “They are just blossoming and that's another thing that we love is giving kids an opportunity to shine and grow and discover themselves a little bit in something new. It's been great. Where they started to where they are now is incredible.”
The Seahawks’ Coach Ledbetter, who is an offensive coordinator and quarterback coach during football season in the fall, says that coaching girls in this sport isn’t all that different. “We coach people, and so after building some of the basics and the fundamentals, it's not a whole lot different. These girls have really caught on pretty fast…people are people, and so it's learning how to connect with them, learning how to teach them certain things, deliver things that they're gonna receive.”
Athletic Director Connor was enthusiastic about this new sport and about the reasons Silverdale decided to take it on this year. “You know, when we've been watching Alabama and Georgia do flag football for the last two or three years, we knew it was gonna happen here in Tennessee, and then we as a football staff, we saw an opportunity to be able to share the experience that's been happening with our football guys with girls. So to me, I'm overjoyed to watch these girls get to participate in football. Coach Ledbetter is doing a lot of the same things that we do with the boys. So there's now a new shared experience and I really get fired up about that. My daughter's on the team and I get to hear about what he's doing and practices and some of the things he's doing outside of football just to…help them to understand their value. And so I get I get really pumped about that.”
Flag football’s combination of a fast-paced, high-energy, strategic game with the opportunity for girls to play a sport that has traditionally been reserved for boys bodes well for its future as a sport. Flag football may be an emerging sport, but it is clear it is a sport that is here to stay.
(Contact Joy Fisk at jfisk@silverdaleba.com)