Girls flag football takes off as the latest varsity sport

Left to right, Fox Lane’s Piper Ackner carries in a scrimmage against John Jay.  Berrit Rose will be a big part of Fox Lane’s offense at quarterback. Jaime Bartley-Cohen is a returning starter at quarterback for John Jay. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

By JIM MACLEAN

All around the country, no sport is growing faster on the varsity level than girls flag football.

In just a few short years, the number of girls participating continues to grow at an amazing rate. The sport was introduced in Section 1 just four years ago and just about every school now has a varsity team or a program in the works. That first season there were only eight teams, now there are 34 varsity teams in action for Section 1.

Last year John Jay launched its program and the Wolves are back for their second year of varsity flag football.

This year Fox Lane joins the party with its inaugural season.

Jimmy Clark will be taking over as head coach at John Jay this spring. He was the varsity boys’ coach for 20 years at John Jay. Rylan Borror will be the head coach at Fox Lane. He is an assistant coach for the Fox Lane boys’ varsity football team, and he once served as an assistant at John Jay for Clark. Both coaches are in it for the same reason, a love of the sport of football, and they think it has been a great experience to get the girls out on the field playing football.

Top, former John Jay boys varsity coach Jimmy Clark takes over the girls varsity flag football program this year. Bottom, Rylan Borror is the head coach for the inaugural season of Fox Lane varsity flag football. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

“The sport is growing like crazy, all around the section, all around the state, all around the country, the numbers are exploding, this took off like bitcoin,” Clark said. “It’s been a lot of fun trying to come up with schemes and put them in position to make plays. A lot of people say it’s a different sport, but I’m not seeing that. To me it’s still X’s and O’s, trying to out-leverage people and get the numbers, it’s still football.”

Borror agrees, saying the same thing as Clark, just trying to teach the girls how to play a new sport.

“I’ve been part of football my entire life and you don’t know what to expect, but it feels very similar, it’s still football,” said Borror. “It’s really exciting to see how fast the sport is growing. They’ve been working really hard and I’m shocked at how quickly they pick things up. Day one some of them didn’t know what the line of scrimmage was or how many players were on the field, things like that, but every day you see the growth, incremental improvements. They’re learning how to play football.”

John Jay fielded a varsity team for the first time last spring and the Wolves suffered growing pains as expected, winning just two games. This year Clark has several veterans returning with a year of experience hoping to take the next step to help the program grow.

One positive sign for John Jay was the turnout in terms of numbers with more than 40 girls showing up, forcing Clark to have to make cuts.

“The sport is growing so fast, our numbers are amazing, so many tried out that we had to make cuts unfortunately, that was awful,” Clark admitted. “A lot of girls are very dedicated to the sport and really into playing, but with only seven on the field at once we couldn’t keep them all. Hopefully, we’ll get a J.V. next year so we can get more girls involved.”

Just like any football team, the quarterback is a key position and John Jay has senior Jaime Bartley-Cohen back as a returning starter to lead the way for the Wolves. 

Maya Koronowski is another key returning starter for the Wolves as the senior earned All-Section honors last year as a quarterback and running back.

Other returning starters include Sadie Walworth at wide receiver, Nonie Whelan at center, junior Kathryn Becker and sophomore Gianna Pelosi.

“Jaime is very into it, a returning starter, a three-sport athlete. We’re expecting her to make some big plays,” Clark said of Bartley-Cohen. “Maya’s an All-Section player, so we look to her for leadership as well. We’ve got a good group of returners who started the program, and a good group of newcomers who look to contribute.”

At Fox Lane it is all a new learning experience for coach Borror and the girls as they launch the program this season. The Foxes had their first taste of action on Monday, in a three-team scrimmage hosted by John Jay between the Foxes, Byram Hills and the Wolves.

Borror credited two seniors for leading the way to launch the program at Fox Lane, along with physical education teacher Melissa Ponzio. Senior Berit Rose will be a key contributor as the quarterback for the Foxes. Unfortunately, Cara Drapala suffered an ACL injury in her final basketball game and will be unable to take part in the program she helped launch.

Other key contributors leading the way are senior running back Piper Ackner, along with Lily Rosenthal and Morgan Clinton.

“Definitely something new for them, our first year as a varsity; last year we had intramurals on campus learning skills, but this was our first experience playing against other teams from other schools,” Borror said after the scrimmage. “Two girls really spearheaded the effort to get it started and that’s Berrit Rose and Cara Drapala. We’ve got so many young girls, most of the team is freshmen and sophomores. Hopefully, they stick with it and help grow the program. They’re learning and getting so much better every day, the future looks bright.”