CARLSBAD — As part of their Genius Project at Sage Creek High School, then-junior softball players Claire Novak and Torri Ramirez conceptualized a Bobcat girls’ flag football team.
Sitting on the outfield grass at Triton Softball Field, right after a 4-3 loss in the 2023 CIF Division III San Diego Section Championship game to Oceanside, Ramirez and Novak pulled head softball coach Tim Trudeau into the project as the inaugural head flag coach for Sage Creek.
“We were still sitting on the softball field at UC San Diego after the championship game and that’s where it all got started,” Trudeau said.
Now, seniors Ramirez and Novak are impact players on the gridiron much as they are on the softball diamond.
“Claire is a multi-sport athlete, she lives to play sports and Torri is a phenomenal scholar athlete – going to Brown to play softball,” Trudeau said. “They live to compete and that’s the biggest thing they are helping me with, showing other girls to have presence on the field, just be here, enjoy the moment and the process.”
Beyond wins and losses, 1-5 in their first six games, Trudeau’s biggest challenge is managing a team, 50 players deep, with no assistant coaches.
“Asking me to try and memorize 50 players names [has been difficult],” he said with a laugh. “Yesterday I was like ‘ladies you got to put on your name tags so I know who you are. It is very challenging but I also look at is if I wasn’t here nobody would be. Claire and Torri worked their butts off to get this going so I want it to be successful and for them to go out with a bang.”
The turnout also helped establish a junior varsity squad, and Trudeau decided early not to trim the roster down.
“I couldn’t do it as a cut sport this time around,” Trudeau said. “If you are trying to build a program from scratch let’s not cut people, let’s get them invested.”
Twelve miles south down El Camino Real, La Costa Canyon has seen a surge in participation.
“Last year, we had about 70 girls in my classroom showing interest,” LCC head coach John DiGiulio said. “This year, we had 120 registered for tryouts.”
The Mavericks went 7-4 in the flag football’s inaugural CIF season, advancing to the semifinals of the Division II San Diego Section playoffs.
Coming into year two and on the eve of the opening game on Aug. 27, DiGiulio is looking to build on an already strong footing.
“They [the players] came in with a solid football foundation,” DiGiulio said. “Several of them played growing up playing in the local recreational flag football leagues. They knew some of the terminology and basic offensive and defensive sets.”
This hasn’t been the default for every coach in North County.
“Some [players] haven’t played catch with a football a ton in their life,” said San Dieguito Academy head coach Darrin Brown. “Understanding the game – I can’t just say your running a hitch or a go route; It’s trial and error, if you catch better, we move you to offense if you are more athletic, we move you to defense. Our girls come in at lunchtime and we talk through things.”
Brown, the longtime head football coach at La Costa Canyon, was named head man for the SDA flag on Aug. 10. Two days later, he was conducting tryouts.
Last season, SDA went 8-3 and won the San Diego Section playoffs before ending the season with a 27-18 loss to Calexico.
Brown, who coached NFL player David Quessenberry and NFL head coach Kevin O’Connell at LCC, now coaches his daughter, senior wide receiver Joie, the team’s leading touchdown scorer in 2023.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said.
Key players returning this season for the Mustangs include second-team all-leaguers Mia Pullman, Mackenzie Howard, Rowan McFadden and Mally Ott.
“It’s a great sport,” Brown said. “We went from 30 or 40 teams last year to 80 in the county.”
Up north in Solana Beach, Santa Fe Christian is preparing its second season of flag football under second-year head coach Sona Robinson. In addition to implementing more structure and new concepts based on last season, Robinson is receiving additional input from the boys’ varsity football team, namely, head coach Jon Wallace and pass game coordinator Drew Brees.
Team captain and quarterback Haidyn Lorenzen, who returns as the Eagles’ signal caller, will undoubtedly benefit from the brain trust of Wallace and Brees, the latter of whom guided the New Orleans Saints to their first and only Super Bowl victory.
“I’m super excited to see our team compete and have fun,” said Doug Miller, Santa Fe Christian’s athletic director. “The energy is high on the team. The girls have a lot of athletic talent and are all smiles all the time.”
Miller said the Eagles, with a roster of just 22 players, defeated Point Loma in a preseason scrimmage, showing that they can compete with bigger schools.
One of the biggest obstacles for coaches across North County, however, is competing sports and field space.
“A lot of my girls play club soccer,” said Cathedral Catholic head coach Ryan Wiegand. “Depending on the team they play for, they act like they own the girls. ‘You have to come to these practices or you aren’t playing in these tournaments.’ My philosophy is to play as many sports as you possibly can until you can’t play them anymore.”
“We have two football fields and we are practicing on the baseball field right now because we have so many teams: four football teams, three field hockey teams, two flag football teams,” he added.
One hundred nine girls came out this year for the Dons, and with only 44 available jerseys, Wiegand had the unenviable task of making 65 cuts.
“The turn out was amazing I wish we could keep more girls, it’s just a numbers game,” he said. “[tryouts] were three days of multiple hours running around on the field trying to figure out who could do what. In flag football there are three main skills: pulling a flag, being fast and catching a football.”
Coming off a 13-3 season and a deep playoff run, the Dons offensive engine is quarterback Sinalei Talataina. The senior, an Arizona commit, doubles as a corner infielder with a heavy bat on the softball team.
“She showed up late to tryouts last year,” Wiegand said. “Thank God she did because we don’t do as well as we did without her. Our season will go as far as she takes us. She does it for fun but she’s good.”
Torrey Pines, on the heels of a 16-1 season, remains the team to beat in North County. The Falcons opened the season on August 23 with a 12-6 victory over Del Norte.
But with the growth of the sport, the competition is wide open.
“North County was a little slow to the game last year,” Wiegand said. “I sent out an email looking for three JV games last week and within 30 minutes, I filled the schedule. So many schools are looking for games.”
