Last season, the Flag Football team went 10-7 overall, and 8-6 in league, tied for 4th place.

Coach Marisol Rasul expects more from her squad this year. “Our expectation is to take our team to the level where we can compete and then make CCS,” she said. 

The team returns 8 players and adds 10 newcomers. According to Rasul, the team’s key players are freshman quarterback Aubrey Jones, senior Mia Rivera, who plays both safety and wide receiver, and freshman Brooklyn Smith, who plays safety, corner, and wide receiver. 

Rasul believes the team’s strength is that the girls have a good connection between them. “The teams are bonding, and I can feel as a strength, they can play together, they can click together,” Rasul said. 

But like all teams, there is always something that needs improvement.

As for the team goals this year, they are focused on making the playoffs. “This season, I really want to just do my best,” Smith said. “I want to get to CCS this year, and I just want to win most games.”

The team is currently in third place with a 8-6 record, with two games to go, where both of the games are on a Monday, which has been an issue.  “I think our challenges are Monday games,” Rasul said. “I call it ‘Monday Syndrome’ because we don’t have that connection with them over the weekend, we come on Monday and it’s game day, and their minds are still over the weekend.” 

This will be the first year of CCS playoffs and the team already knows they will qualify. In an email from CCS, the PCAL will have 7 automatic qualifiers, and since the team is in the top 3 in the Gabilan, they should be in. 

As for what she wants to see from her team over the last two games, it’s simple. “I want us to keep our composure,” she said. “A lot of teams are being very aggressive and we need to practice good sportsmanship and play disciplined.”