By Mikaela STONE

Since 2021, the La Crescenta-Glendale Chapter of the Friday Night Lights (FNL) Youth Flag Football League grew from 75 kindergarten to eighth grade kids playing contact-free football at the Glendale Sports Complex to 500 kids spread across 58 teams. With a growing number of girls among these players, community members look to Crescenta Valley High School to establish an all-girls flag football team. A petition by local parents has received close to 500 signatures from future players and fans alike, signaling a definite local interest.

If a team is established, female flag football players from Crescenta Valley High School would join the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), facing off against teams such as the La Cañada Spartans and Verdugo Hills Dons.

Fall 2024 marks the second season since CIF officially rolled out all-female flag football teams, partially inspired by the 2028 Olympics, which will feature female and male flag football teams.

FNL Commissioner Brandon Alexander sees Olympic inspiration not only within the elementary and middle school students of his organization, but in his own all-female flag football team as CIF Westlake High School varsity head coach.

Alexander describes both experiences as “amazing.” Regarding his high school team, he said it is “so much fun to see them get better in a short amount of time.”

The Westlake girls celebrated victory last season but Alexander reports that the second time around, competition is stiffer. Working year round, players undergo off-season training and even seek out private coaches.

Alexander believes flag football “teaches sportsmanship, team unity, discipline and hard work … [and how to handle] wear and tear on the body” – important skills for all young people. Alexander tries to keep his K-8 league “focused on family and fun.” Kids enrolled in the FNL have one practice a week and one game – or two! – on Friday.

The FNL Eagles team features Kaia and Charlee, two eighth grade girls who attend Rosemont Middle School. Kaia and Charlee have been friends since they started track at the age of 7 – a sport they are still heavily involved in. During that time they attended two Junior Olympics for track. Kaia joined the FNL four years ago after hearing classmates discuss it, now playing with her father Andrew Villegas as the Eagles’ coach. Charlee “fell in love with football” after watching Kaia play and joined three years ago. The football season does not conflict with the girls’ track season, or Kaia’s lacrosse season.

Kaia reports, “The boys are normally really accommodating and really sweet.”

Kaia currently stands as the only girl on the Rosemont football team – a title that may not last much longer if seventh grade Luna from the FNL Chargers has anything to say about it. Rosemont tryouts open next month, making all three girls “nervous but excited.”

Luna began playing football in fifth grade after watching her brothers play.

Villegas, or Coach Andrew, started coaching track when Kaia was 6. Both of his daughters are now involved in the FNL teams. His youngest, Sienna, is in fifth grade.

Villegas supports students across multiple sports: He coaches the Eagles football team, youth track for the West Valley Eagles and volunteers with the Rosemont team as defensive coach, all while being a middle school social studies teacher at Oak Avenue Intermediate School. He encouraged playing football for track-and-field kids of all genders because he believed it was beneficial for runners to have a fall sport.

To him, the lasting friendships found in flag football and track-and-field are most important.

“It’s great they will get to play together at the next level,” Villegas says.

The Crescenta Valley High School girls’ flag football team petition can be found at https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cvhs-girls-cif-flag-football-team.