In the past, football at Dos Pueblos High School has been very male-led. However, this upcoming 2023-24 season Girl’s Flag Football will join the variety of fall sports offered at DP.

Their first official game will be at home on Thursday, August 24th, at 4 pm against Bishop Diego. There is also an upcoming away scrimmage on August 17 at 6:30 against San Marcos.

The girls have been practicing since June 30th from 10-12 Monday-Thursday. Incoming DP senior and quarterback Gianna Nichols expects some challenges with starting a new team.

“I think our biggest challenge will be that CIF is still finalizing rules and figuring out how things are going to work. We’re all, the refs, the teams, we’re all figuring it out together.” Except for one player, none of the girls on the team have played flag football before.

Along with the girls being new to the sport, the coaches Doug Caines, George Hedricks, and Ryan Joy are as well. Besides Coach Caines, none of the coaches have ever coached any kind of football before.

Coach Caines who is also the broadcast journalism teacher at DP started coaching flag football this year for many reasons.

“I’m a father of two girls and I just saw this as a really cool opportunity on the ground floor of something that is new and exciting, and still one of my biggest passions is coaching football. Being able to do that in a new way, I couldn’t pass it.”

The new coaches have received very high praise from the team. Samatha Salcido, an incoming DP senior and wide receiver sees the qualities of a good coach in them.

“I look for someone who uses their past experience to lift up the players instead of rubbing it in their face of how good their past players were versus how we are now. Which I think our current coaches do a great job with.”

The girl’s flag football season lasts until October 26th with the last home game being October 12th against San Marcos at 6:30.