The women flag soccer workforce from Stagg High School in Palos Hills made it to the playoffs in its first yr of competitors.
And a crowd of zero got here to Lake Forest to observe the Chargers quarterfinals sport Oct. 28, which led to a 22-0 loss to Resurrection.
That’s not a misprint. Zero.
The video games have been held within the Walter Payton Center at Halas Hall the place the Chicago Bears apply and no followers have been allowed.
But that didn’t trouble the Chargers. They nonetheless thought-about it a big-time occasion.
“There weren’t fans but there was still that energy and that pressure,” Stagg senior quarterback Eve Tobin mentioned.
The Bears have been championing flag soccer for 3 years with its Illinois Girls Flag Football State Championship, resulting in a lot appreciation among the many athletes and coaches for getting the ball rolling.
But it is likely to be time for the Illinois High School Association to step in and sponsor the game, which might imply a state match with followers.
Stagg coach Saja Alnajjar mentioned that would occur subsequent season.
Girls flag soccer is on the IHSA’s rising sports activities record, with 34 workforce committing to fielding groups together with squads from space excessive faculties Stagg, Sandburg, St. Laurence, De La Salle and Bloom.
But for now, the Chargers are going to benefit from the recollections of their first season, which ended up with a 4-4 document and a visit to the state quarterfinals.
“We had a lot of ups and downs,” Alnajjar mentioned. “We realized from these wins and losses. We took the losses and turned them into studying alternatives, which helped us develop every sport.
“And we were improving each and every week, which helped lead us to state.”
Senior extensive receiver/linebacker Meera Khudeira mentioned it wasn’t till August that she even imagined she can be enjoying on a soccer workforce. She mentioned that she agreed to play as a result of Alnajjar talked her into it and that she thought it could be enjoyable and thrilling.
It was that, and extra.
“We created a lot of bonds with the team,” she mentioned. “We made friendships. We learned a lot.”
Senior extensive receiver Camryn Ratliff mentioned she is graduating early, so flag soccer gave her an opportunity to complete highschool as an athlete.
“It was very memorable and special,” she mentioned. “It opened up a different horizon for me to expand my opportunities.”
It expanded the coach’s alternatives as nicely.
Alnajjar by no means performed or coached soccer earlier than. But she noticed a must champion the game on the Palos Hills college.
“It was time,” she mentioned. “A girls football team was very necessary. The boys have had football their whole lives and the girls deserve that same opportunity.”
She mentioned it wasn’t a tricky promote to get gamers. She had 60 check out for the 20-member squad and she or he is hoping subsequent season the Chargers will area a junior varsity squad as nicely.
Alnajjar mentioned she grew up watching the Bears, and with the ability to take a workforce to the NFL workforce’s apply facility was a thrill.
“That part was great,” she mentioned. “I’m a Bears fan and to play there was a lot of fun. Just going to state and all the hard work that went into it our first year definitely paid off.”
There was a studying curve for each the gamers and the coach.
“They are a great group of girls,” Alnajjar mentioned. “They were very coachable. They were a lot of fun to work with. Just to see how motivated they were made me love coaching.”
Before she took on this job, Alnajjar mentioned she used watch Bears video games and second guess teaching choices.
Now that she’s a coach?
“Yes, I do second guess them,” she mentioned with a smile.
Men and girls’s flag soccer might be a sport within the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games and Bears supervisor of Youth and High School Football Gustavo Silva calls it “historic and monumental.”
College-wise, the game is on the bottom ground with some NAIA faculties and junior schools beginning to award scholarships.
It’s a begin, and Silva predicts large issues for the game.
“We have worked for years to grow the sport in our Chicagoland market and internationally,” he mentioned in a information launch. “We have created a dream for women to play this sport on the collegiate stage and finally the Olympic stage at some point.
“I think about … the thousands of girls in Illinois that have taken flag football on, and it makes me so happy for them.”
Jeff Vorva is a contract reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com