OCEAN CITY — Players and their coaches on the new Ocean City High School girls flag football team are learning quickly.
The girls lost their first outing to Middle Township by a lopsided 44-6 score, but made marked improvement last week. The Red Raiders kept up with Oakcrest High School’s team on the field at Sixth Street and Bay Avenue but fell in a close game, 18-12, after time ran out on their last drive.
The OCHS team may be small, but the players are dedicated, according to coaches Stephanie Hurless and Patti Kelly.
“I think they improved greatly,” Hurless said after the game April 25.
In their first outing, the Red Raiders faced Middle Township, a much bigger team with a high school football coach at the helm.
Hurless and Kelly aren’t football coaches. Kelly coaches cross country, cheerleading and track at the intermediate school level and Hurless has her hands full with five children at home, enough to field a basketball team.
“I coach my kids at home,” Hurless said, laughing.
Asked why they decided to coach the fledging flag football team, Hurless said it was something new.
“We thought it would be interesting for the girls. Both of our daughters are on the team,” she said. “They wanted to play and they were trying to get coaches, so we said, “OK, let’s do it. Let’s give it a shot.”
“We wanted them to have the opportunity,” Kelly added.
She said there was a “decent” turnout of girls. “I feel if we had started a little earlier in the spring season we would have had a better turnout. We’re hoping for a better turnout in the future.”
“I think because it’s the first year and, like Patti said, we started after all the other sports had started, that’s kind of been a battle,” Hurless said. “We’ve been behind on scheduling our practices, coordinating with the other schools, getting a field. It’s been a little tricky, but we’ve made it work.”
The first game against the Panthers was a learning experience for players and coaches.
“We did not win, but we learned a lot,” Hurless said.
“We had fun. We had a lot of laughs,” Kelly added. “We have a lot of kids who don’t play other sports, which is pretty fantastic — a lot of girls who aren’t really athletes in other areas. This is their niche. This gives them their opportunity.”
Hurless pointed out some of the girls also are athletes who play sports in the fall and/or winter but didn’t have a spring sport.
Both coaches said the referees in the first game provided plenty of guidance.
“The officials were fantastic in teaching the girls, going slowly, talking us through every play. It was an amazing experience,” Kelly said.
“I think they learned a lot from their first game. I think they’re getting the hang of it,” Hurless said. “The girls are playing offense and defense and are working hard. I think they’re doing great. They’re very dedicated. They really want to learn.”
“We practiced every day since our last game,” Kelly said. “And they show up every day. And they’re improving.”
Both coaches were absolutely pleased with their girls’ performance and are proud of them.
Morgan Lancaster, the youngest of Hurless’ five children, had played football with her three older brothers, but that didn’t work out so well.
“I did before, but I always ended up getting hurt,” she said, laughing. (Her mother noted Morgan broke her hand during one of those times roughhousing with the boys.)
Morgan, a junior at OCHS, decided to give flag football a try.
“I thought it would be fun running around with girls that I know,” she said. “It’s a fun thing to do.”
Danna Ramirez, a sophomore from Sea Isle City, wanted to give it a try as well.
“Why not? We only have a few years in high school,” she said. “We only have one chance to do something, so why not try it?”
Ramirez also is one of the female members on the OCHS varsity wrestling team and played on the inaugural volleyball team last fall that competed as a junior varsity program.
“I love it,” she said of football. “I’ve grown up with it. I didn’t think I was going to like it this much, but it turns out I do.”
Her favorite part?
“It’s aggressive and you do great bonding with a bunch of other girls and you form great friendships. Mostly it’s tough,” Ramirez said. “I hope this grows. I hope more girls come out and try it.
“It’s a great sport. It’s a lot of fun. I like offense because I like running the ball,” she added. She noted her main sport is wrestling, but she enjoys all the sports she plays.
Senior Jamie Wilkinson of Brigantine, the team’s captain and main quarterback, also was on the new volleyball team and is a Red Raider basketball player.
“I started because of my friend Vanna (Kelly), whose mom is our coach. She asked me to do it and I didn’t have a spring sport for the first time in four years so I thought I might as well,” she said. “I also wanted to play football when I was growing up but I wasn’t allowed because it was all guys in Brig’.”
Wilkinson is similar to Ramirez in why she likes flag football.
“Honestly, being able to get passes off and watch the girls run,” she said. “The second you see someone going off it gives you that adrenaline rush I like from all sports and, like Danna said, I love the aggressive part. I’m an aggressive player.”
There isn’t any contact allowed in flag football, but the aggression comes into play as the athletes go all out on offense and defense, racing for yardage or chasing the ball carrier, trying to grab one of the two flags each girl wears around her waist. Grabbing the flag is like making a tackle. That, or when the ball carrier goes out of bounds, is when the play ends.
“I run quarterback for this team most of the time,” Wilkinson said, switching out for other QBs including Samantha Seligsohn and Ramirez. “Usually they throw me between quarterback and wide receiver. Most of the time I’m the quarterback because I’m the captain of the team.”
Would she recommend other girls come out for the team? “100 percent,” Wilkinson said. “If you love to run and you love doing team sports it’s probably one of the best you could do.”
Sophomore Olivia Rivers of Ocean City is one of those girls who found her niche in flag football.
“Any of the other sports I gave up in the middle of it because I felt it wasn’t for me, but football is really exciting for me,” Rivers said. “I might have little mess-ups and stuff, but I kind of bring myself back most of the time.”
Rivers made some nice defensive plays, stopping Oakcrest runners by grabbing their flags.
“It feels great doing that,” she said. “It’s like soda that just pops.”
A lot of the girls had black paint on their cheeks under their eyes for the game. Rivers had double black lines adorning her face. “I just want to be different, I guess,” she said, smiling.
She, too, would recommend flag football to other girls. “Yes, of course,” she said. “Just no nails. Be careful with the nails.”
Wilkinson broke a fingernail in the game. “They’re not long, but when I got hit the one time I felt it snap. It was a little aggressive today. More than it’s supposed to be,” she noted.
“We experienced a little bit of contact from the opposing team,” Ramirez said.
“We experienced a good amount of contact from the away team,” Wilkinson emphasized.
“Unexpectedly,” Ramirez added.
“We’re glad they came to play us and visited us, but there were a few talks with the ref,” Wilkinson said. “But we played through it and from where we came from our last game, we were within one touchdown. That’s insane and this was the second game of the season for us.”
“And we’re still learning the rules,” Ramirez pointed out.
Photos and story by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
