The first generation of San Diego County girls flag football players is reaching the finish line.
At La Costa Canyon, wide receiver/linebacker Bailey Miller, running back Mia Oh and wide receiver/linebacker Ava Kenny have been in the program since their freshman years. The three senior captains have watched the sport and their team grow through four seasons, a milestone reached by only a handful of county programs.
“Ava’s the heartbeat, and Mia’s the intensity, and Bailey embodies both,” La Costa Canyon head coach Ryan Gold said.
The difference in LCC’s approach from Year 1 to Year 4 is reflected in the complexity of its offense and the players’ understanding of the game.
“Year one, it was, ‘What are the rules? Let’s stretch those rules to the maximum,’” Gold said. “Now, girls are running good combination routes. The game of football has really evolved for these girls.”
The growth goes beyond the playbook.
“The athleticism has always been there, but I would say just the reps, the intensity of the training sessions and practices, the complexity of both the offensive side and the defensive side,” Gold said. “The improvement is just off the charts. It is insane.”
Senior wide receiver Ava Stafford is one example.
“She came off the bench, and she had three touchdowns in a week,” Gold said. “She’s a senior who’s never played the game before.”
The Mavericks enter the final stretch of the regular season 10-3, with their sights still set on the Avocado League title.
“Our goal coming into the season was simple, and it was to win League, and that’s still our focus,” Gold said.
Roster development has allowed Gold to shuffle the depth chart.
Sophomore quarterback Lily Lejeune split time as a freshman before winning the starting job this season. Through 13 games, she has completed 268 of 386 passes for 2,420 yards and 32 touchdowns while adding 479 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns.
“Lily’s been massive for our success this year, no doubt about it,” Gold said.
Junior Juliana Pederson also began as a quarterback before moving to linebacker, where she has become a defensive playmaker.
“Lily won the job on offense, and Juliana moved over to the defensive side and has played a solid linebacker and made big play after big play for us on defense,” Gold said. “That makes us better, right? Because if she was playing quarterback, she wouldn’t have played defense.”
The changes aren’t limited to where players line up. They extend to how they think through a play.
“Our girls have increased their football IQ tremendously from year one to year four, but also from day one to midseason where we’re at right now,” Gold said.
That understanding has been tested this season.
LCC opened with eight straight wins before losing three consecutive games to Scripps Ranch, Carlsbad and Mission Hills. Gold said mistakes that had rarely appeared during the winning streak began to surface.
“In games one through eight, we caught everything, and it was almost contagious,” Gold said. “In games nine and 10, we dropped some balls.”
The response has been to return to the details.
At 6:30 a.m. practices, the Mavericks have emphasized catching, faster-paced team periods and situations designed to force players to execute while uncomfortable.
“You’ve got to make the play, make the catch first before you go make the miss,” Gold said.
For Miller, Oh and Kenny, that kind of preparation is a long way from where the program started.
The three senior captains have not simply played four seasons. They have helped establish what LCC girls flag football looks like.
Gold said their influence extends beyond the varsity team and into the junior varsity program.
“Our senior captains have just come out of the gate as strong as ever, and I mean, we would be nowhere near where we were at today had we not had those three girls, Mia, Ava and Bailey,” Gold said. “They have just been huge for us.”
Their leadership became particularly evident during the three-game losing streak.
The captains sat behind Gold on the bus and asked what came next.
“Hey, where do we go from here?” Gold recalled them asking. “We were on a two-game slide here. What we’ve done is not good enough.”
Four years ago, Gold said, flag football was something many of the players did alongside everything else. Now, the seniors have spent four years building their identity around it.
“Four years ago, I think they were playing something else, and flag football was just something that was on the side,” Gold said. “And now they are pouring their heart and soul into what we are doing as a flag football team.”
Even the equipment has changed.
In Year 1, the program had a couple of plastic footballs and the same type of flags used in physical education classes. Now, the Mavericks have flags with their logo, “shroom poppers,” team shorts, backpacks and actual football jerseys.
“We built it together,” Gold said.
