Chamblee High School’s Kate Sarago (‘25) and Lara Smith (‘27) helped start a new varsity sport at our school this year: flag football. This sport has drawn the attention of many girls throughout the school, most of whom have never played flag football before. Flag football is a fairly simple sport to play.

“There are two quarters of 20 minutes, making the games 40 minutes in total, so the games don’t take a lot of time. Also, there’s no contact, just pulling the flag, as most people assume. There are seven players on each team, and there are a lot of offensive plays because you can’t really block people. This makes most defensive plays interceptions,” said Sarago, a wide receiver.

Since flag football has become popular for schools throughout Georgia, the introduction of Chamblee’s flag football team was established quickly.

“I saw that a lot of schools around Georgia have programs, and one of my best friends who goes to Milton High School is part of a [flag football] program that made the state championship. Flag football seemed like something I wanted to do. I’ve wanted to play football since I was younger, but my mom was scared that I would get hurt with all the tackling. Flag football seemed like a great opportunity, and a lot of girls here were interested,” said Sarago.

Once the flag football team was initiated by students at the school, Erica Harris, the head coach and a special education teacher at Chamblee High School, formed a team and began preparing them for the season.

“I had an interest meeting, and about 40 to 50 girls from Chamblee Middle School and Chamblee High School tried out. From those 40 [who tried out], we kept about 24 girls for the team. Then, we kicked it off in the summer with a couple of clinics, and we started a little bit of conditioning in August,” said Harris.

This was largely helped by the sponsorship of a professional American football team: the Atlanta Falcons.

“The Falcons gave us a $2,000 grant to start the program, and they have been instrumental in starting flag football programs for girls in the state of Georgia. [They have] recognized flag football as a fast-growing sport, and they do whatever they can do to help grow schools’ flag football teams. I’m on the email list for the Falcons, and Miss Danielle Renner, who’s the community service person and the flag football coordinator, emailed me about bringing our team to participate in the camp and coaching clinic, so we have about 15 girls that are going this weekend [September 8th] to participate [at the camp] in Flowery Branch, Georgia where the Falcons practice. This gives them the opportunity to meet other young ladies and develop skills in their positions,” said Harris.

While attending the Falcons camp will help with the flag football team’s development, they have already been practicing to prepare for the upcoming season.

“We’ve been working on drills for wide receivers, so everyone can learn how to catch. Meanwhile, the quarterbacks have been working on throwing to get prepared for the games that start in September or October,” said Abigail Muller (‘27), a wide receiver and running back.

For these practices, Coach Harris has prepared multiple drills that the girls run regularly to develop certain skills necessary for the season.

“Every day, we do a lot of running slants, running routes, flag pulling, and conditioning. We occasionally do a little scrimmage to get them used to playing in their position, but we haven’t really officially started gametime practices,” said Harris.

The technical skills involved in flag football (catching, flag pulling, and throwing) are only part of the sport, as many of the girls have athletic backgrounds. 

“We’re all really athletic, which will help [with flag football]. We just need to put everything together,” said Sami Yarbrough (‘27), one of the team’s quarterbacks.

In addition, many of the girls on Chamblee’s flag football team have played or are currently playing other sports. These other sports have helped the players develop skills necessary for a flag football game.

“There are a couple of girls that have done track, which has helped them with running, changing directions, and keeping their stamina up,” said Sarago. “Also, I play outfield [in softball], so tracking balls in the air while running is something that I’m accustomed to.”

Since most girls on the team play other sports, the flag football team has to fit many conflicting schedules into one practice plan. To solve this, the team has had to practice in the morning before school.

“We’re a young team. Most of our players are ninth graders, and we have multiple students that are dual athletes. They play softball or cross country, so we haven’t had a full practice with everyone there. However, when they do come out, during our morning practices, I think the camaraderie is pretty good,” said Harris.

This is the first year flag football is a varsity sport at Chamblee High School, so the majority of the team is new to the game.

“Flag football is not a main sport that a lot of females do. It’s normally more of a male sport, so everyone’s kind of in the same boat – It’s not really their main sport, and everyone just comes out to have fun,” said Hannah Sullivan (‘27), a wide receiver.

For those who have played flag football before, it has been a while since they last played, and flag football still poses its challenges.

“It’s the first time I’ve played flag football since I was really little, so we are all still learning. I would say we’ve had this really hot period of time, so making sure that I’m giving 110% effort throughout the entire practice is another challenge,” said Emily Papirio (‘27), a wide receiver.

Despite the team being fairly new to the game, the climate of the team makes learning the game a lot easier.

“[If you want to play flag football], you put yourself out there even if you feel like you’re not as good as this person or that person. This team makes flag football easier because it’s new for mostly everybody, and questions, such as how do I do this, just bring you closer as a team,” said Lulu Piccirillo (‘27), a wide receiver.

This is common throughout the team as the players tend to feel welcomed by each other.

“It is a sport where you can come, be supported, try something new, and not feel judged if you don’t know how to do something,” said Muller.

The team also wants to extend this community to new girls hoping to try out for the flag football team in the future.

“Since it’s our first year playing flag football, we know how nervous we were to begin with. We can help the girls who want to join next year be less afraid by trying to build new friendships,” 

said Aislin Beretta-Meier (‘27), a wide receiver. 

Overall, the flag football team is a community trying to break comfort zones and include everybody.

“We make an effort to talk with everyone in the locker rooms when we’re getting ready for practice. I think everyone’s open to not just sticking with their niche groups but working towards engaging with everybody. That’s really important for new teams because some people want to stick to where they think they fit in, so what Coach Harris has been stressing and what we’re all doing a pretty good job of is not shying away from talking to other people,” said Papirio. “We are a team and a community – working together and talking together.”