On Aug. 24, Gustine High School girls' flag football team had their first scrimmage at the Orestimba tournament. They have been working hard to learn the rules and practice the different plays since it is many of the team players’ first time competing in this sport.
The first game was against Hilmar and it was great to see the girls finally be able to play in the sport they have been practicing so hard in. Every team's first time playing something they are new to is always going to be a challenge because there are different rules that you are learning about and hearing all the noise from the crowd makes it a whole new experience for a team that is used to being just 13 players at practice. As the coach, I think the game went well for our first time. I noticed that the girls were nervous, so of course that was going to play a role in it but for the first time they were able to keep up on defense and were very accurate when it came to pulling their opponent's flags.
The second game was against Sierra. They are a bigger school and have been playing for a couple of years already so they were going to be a more experienced team. We were using both of these games as a practice to just show the team how the game work, and how to run the plays accurately. Sierra was a rougher team than we were expecting. They had played two games before us so they were very warmed up and on a winning streak and their girls were still pushing their way through even if it was a noncontact sport. As the coach, I saw the girls’ very competitive side really come out at this game because they could see how tough those girls were. My team wasn't going to give up. We accomplished first downs, stopped their touchdowns, and extra points, and forced them to give up the ball on fourth downs. We kept up with both teams for the most part despite both teams having prior experience playing.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season. Now that I know what we need to work on, practices will be focused on skills, perfecting plays, and the game overall so then when it gets to our next game we have everything covered.
The next game is on Sept. 4 at Orestimba. Then, the Reds will make history with the first-ever girls' flag football game at GHS on Sept.5 at 5 pm against East Union.
