OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City High School girls flag football team has nearly doubled its numbers from last year’s inaugural season. With a roster of underclassmen — only four juniors and the rest freshmen and sophomores — things should keep looking up.
After last week’s 21-6 win over visiting Pleasantville, the Raiders are 2-1 in the West Jersey Football League American Division.
The girls lost their season opener to Egg Harbor Township 31-8, but rebounded the next week with a 30-6 win at Delsea.
“It’s looking much brighter. More girls came out. Better attitude. We’re having a better season so far,” coach Patti Kelly said. “Our core came back from last year and I say we’re about double (in numbers). Last year we barely had 10 to 11 players.”
Girls flag football is a zero-contact sport and blocking can be done only with players’ hands behind their back.
“We’re just trying to have fun,” Kelly said, laughing as she said the team goals include “working together.”
The coach said returning player Kaia Ray is taking over as captain this year and a “promising freshman,” Savanna Rolls, has taken over as quarterback. “We’re in good shape.”
“I just hope we have a lot of fun and win a few,” Kelly said.
Tara MacDonald is coaching with Kelly this season.
“She said it was a lot of fun last year so I thought I’d help her out,” MacDonald said.
She is an English teacher and Kelly a special education teacher who supports the English Department.
“We teach together,” Kelly said, noting the English skill that translates to the flag football field at Sixth Street and Bay Avenue is “communication.”
“Perseverance, pushing past your struggles and challenges,” MacDonald added. She said she is enjoying coaching. “It’s great. The girls are really nice. It seems like they’re having a lot of fun.”
“And they support each other,” Kelly added.
Both coaches were happy to have a splash of warm sunshine for their game against Pleasantville on May 1 after having to “wear their waders” and “splash around with the ducks” in the rain that marked the start of the spring season.
“We’ll take the sun for the last two games,” MacDonald said.
“We have a whole team full of underclassmen so they’ll all be returning,” both coaches noted.
There are four juniors on the team, including new transfer student Jessica Hume, who came in from Florida. She came out because she had played flag football in middle school and at OCHS, “all of my friends are on the team. I like the practices and it gives me something to do after school.”
Ray, a quarterback and wide receiver, said she originally came out last year because she thought flag football would be more fun than playing lacrosse. “It ended up being really fun and I had a good time. We did pretty bad but that’s OK. We’re going to get it back,” she said.
Ray enjoys playing quarterback because she gets to be in control of the plays, telling the other players where to go and what to do. When it comes to quarterbacking, she prefers running the ball.
“We have a lot more girls and we’re more of a team this year,” Ray said. “We had a team dinner, which was a good bonding thing.” (The coaches revealed a secret ingredient in their winning strategy was promising the girls a pasta dinner if they won. They beat Delsea. Pasta was served.)
Junior Sherlyn Rodriguez, the team’s other captain, came out for the team last year because she wanted to try something different. Her favorite aspect “is how they support each other.” She enjoys being a wide receiver because she “gets to run through the whole field and make touchdowns.”
Junior Danna Ramirez also came come out for the second year to ensure there is a future for flag football at OCHS. She wants to be part of that. “I am so, so happy that so many girls are motivated to come out and try it even though they didn’t know what it was,” Ramirez said. “I’m really happy they did because it’s a growing sport and we can help it grow in Ocean City.”
She plans to be back next year as well when it is an official sport. Ramirez is the center and plays offense and defense. “I like being on offense because I get to help score.” On defense, she noted, “I tend to put my hands out a lot so it gets me in trouble.”
The girls are at Hammonton on Wednesday and their final regular season game is May 16 at Mainland Regional. Game time is 4 p.m.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
