LEOMINSTER — Fitchburg. Leominster. Football.
Enough said.
The ancient rivalry between the Blue Devils and Red Raiders has a new chapter to add to its thick tome — one with a fresh twist — following their meeting Thursday evening at Doyle Field. This time it was flag rather than tackle football with girls on the field playing and boys in the crowd watching.
The Blue Devils got an early touchdown run from senior Madison Paine and a late dash to the end zone by classmate Madison Paine following a fourth-down, goal-line stop to come away with a 12-0, season-opening victory in the newly formed New England Patriots-sponsored girls’ flag football league.
“I feel ecstatic to beat Fitchburg right now,” senior Kali Reed said after she and her smiling teammates celebrated with hugs and high-fives. “There is so much history between Leominster and Fitchburg and it’s really exciting to be there, first game, first win of the season.”
It’s a season for this eight-team league, which also includes Ayer-Shirley, Chelsea, Needham, Peabody, St. Mary’s (Lynn), and Woburn, that will conclude with a state championship tournament June 16 at Gillette Stadium.
How did this all come about?
Look at it as two streams merging into a river.
Among the NFL’s many initiatives is to grow the sport of football and one it does that is through starting and supporting girls’ flag football leagues. Roughly 10 of the NFL’s 32 teams have done just that, with the Patriots among the latest.
“It’s just something the league is really pushing forward, and the Kraft family and the Patriots organization are super excited to open up other opportunities for girls in sports,” Patriots community relations supervisor Dani Callahan said.
To jump-start the process, Callahan reached out to Jack Reed of the Leominster Flag Football League and Jeff Johnson of the Seacoast Youth Flag Football League to gain a better understanding of what the sport entailed and where it stood in Massachusetts.
Reed was trying to get the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to add girls’ flag football as a varsity sport, and to that end, he enlisted Ayer-Shirley athletic director Steve Kendall, a Leominster native, to write and submit a 2023-25 rule change proposal. It did not pass late last year.
Reed then saw partnering with the Patriots and going the club route as the way to go.
“We kind of merged our efforts in promoting the sport,” said Reed, who departed Friday for England to coach the Great Britian women’s national flag football team in a club competition.
Each of the eight schools that signed on received a $5,000 grant from the Patriots Foundation, custom uniforms from Nike and equipment from USA Football.
What has been the response?
Sticking with the local angle, interest among the league’s three Central Mass. schools is terrific.
Leominster has 20 players, while Ayer-Shirley and Fitchburg both have 13, which is a plenty deep enough roster for the five-on-five sport.
“It’s giving young ladies an opportunity to play football,” Leominster AD Dave Palazzi said. “I see a lot of them supporting the (boys) football players on Friday night, and they want to play themselves.”
To that end, five players on Ayer-Shirley had previously never participated in a sport in high school, while three others had never gone out for a spring sport before signing on for flag football.
And while sophomore Maleah Figueroa plays basketball and lacrosse for the Panthers, she had zero football experience prior to coming out, but is now the starting quarterback.
“I wanted to try it, I wanted to, like, feel around it and see if I could get good at it,” said Figueroa, who listed her strength as throwing. “And I think it’s been pretty good for me and for the team as well.”
Only two Fitchburg players had playing experience, but the other 11 were willing to give it a go.
“We’re doing well, and if we keep practicing, we’re going to be good,” said coach Anthony Oquendo, a 2022 FHS grad who starred in the backfield for the Red Raiders.
What are the games like?
As previously mentioned, play is five-on-five.
It’s seven-on-seven in some states, but Massachusetts went with the format that will be used when flag football is expected to be approved in October as an Olympic sport — yes, the Olympics — and make its debut at the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
There are two 20-minute halves, each running time, so the pace is fast, and play is conducted on a shortened field — 70 yards long, including the end zones, and 25 yards wide — allowing three games to be played simultaneously.
(Teams will play two games each night once a week during the regular season, which reduces travel.)
Equipment is nominal: belts with two flags, pocketless shorts to help limit finger injuries and penalties, mouthguards, cleats or turf shoes, and while gloves are not required, they are encouraged.
The many fans in attendance at opening night, including one waving a sign in support of Leominster senior Kay’Don Austin, and a trio of Patriots in Quandre Mosely, Brenden Schooler and Raleigh Webb were engaged and excited.
The emotion, intensity and will to win among the players and coaches was abundant. Just as one would expect.
“Girls got game, too, and I’m big on that,” said Oquendo, whose squad got some big plays from freshman Angie Alvarez and junior Gia Santiago.
“When I travel, we go to tournaments, and they usually have the same teams,” said Kali Reed, who began playing flag football in third grade. “So I’m excited to see the new competition, and I’m also excited for the newer girls to learn about flag football.”
And, who knows, maybe earn a scholarship to play in college as Tori Salmon, a 2022 graduate of Ayer-Shirley and Leominster Flag Football League alum, did to Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia.
What’s next for this pilot program?
The goals are to see the game grow and for the MIAA to approve girls’ flag football as a varsity sport.
The Patriots provided the seed money, and they’re hoping the sport takes hold, not only in Massachusetts, but throughout New England, the way it did for the Jets in New York and New Jersey. That league started with eight teams in 2021 and now numbers more than 100.
“We’re still in the beginning stages of figuring out from the Patriots’ side what’s next,” Callahan said. “Ideally in a perfect world, we’d have every school in Massachusetts on board.
“I’d love to see it become sanctioned by the MIAA and become a varsity sport and have the schools adopt it, but we’re taking it as it comes. We’ll see who’s interested, and we’re hoping this first league will just explode like it has in other states.”
Kendall termed the MIAA’s rule change process “challenging” because of all the sports committees that have a say in what does and does not get approved.
One thing the Ayer-Shirley AD knows is when the time comes to reapply, the rule change proposal will have girls’ flag football played in the spring — when field space is more readily available — than in the fall, which is what was initially submitted.
Girls’ flag football is a varsity sport in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, and Nevada, with at least 15 states ranging from California to Montana to North Carolina in the process of seeking to attain that status.
“I think moving forward it gets through,” Kendall said. “Especially with the Patriots behind it; it’s a lot of money and influence. And there are a lot of states that already have it.”
—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichGarvenTG.
Draft Blog: The final day
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
