'Let's do it': Greater Spokane League kicks off trial flag football season; organizers hope to adopt varsity schedule next school year

Wednesday evening’s weather wasn’t so bad as far as winter in Spokane goes – upper 30s, foggy, no precipitation. But you might not want to spend an hour and a half out in it.

Yet, that’s exactly what a couple dozen girls high school athletes – along with coaches, referees, a handful of parents and onlookers – did to participate in and witness the first flag football game in what Greater Spokane League officials are calling a “trial period” leading up to potentially adopting it as a varsity sport next year.

Six of the seventeen GSL schools are fielding teams this year as everyone tries to navigate the myriad issues involved in getting a new sport off the ground.

But why flag football? And why in the dead of winter?

“Because it’s getting pushed by the NFL. Because it’s a great opportunity for girls to be involved in a sport that they want to be involved in,” East Valley athletic director Alec Vermaire said.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association last year approved flag football as a varsity sport, and schools on the West Side – where temperatures are usually warmer with less frozen precipitation to worry about – jumped at the opportunity to start official programs, funded in part by grants from the NFL.

State organizers decided upon the winter season to play flag football so as not to pull female athletes away from the existing sports in the fall and winter seasons. The whole reason to adopt flag football is to encourage more participation and add new participants – not pillage the rosters of more traditional sports.

As soon as flag football was approved by the WIAA last year, Vermaire had students reaching out to him about fielding a team. He, in turn, went to the league with a mandate.

“I kept saying, ‘We can do this.’ “

The primary and obvious obstacle to playing an outdoor sport in the winter is the weather. When the pandemic canceled the fall football season in 2020, the league pushed it back until February and March, so there was a precedent.

“When we were in COVID, we played football in February. We were moving snow off of our field with snow blowers so we could practice,” Vermaire said. “They play soccer year round. We have access to turf fields, so we have the ability to do it. It’s kind of proof of concept. (Athletic director) Paul Manfred from Gonzaga Prep kind of got behind that as well. And so we finally got to the point where we had six schools that said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and we’re doing it.”

The six schools participating in the trial period are East Valley, Gonzaga Prep, Central Valley, Ferris, Mead and Mt. Spokane. It’s a wide variety of school sizes and districts that make up the league.

A couple of the bigger schools are planning to field two teams this season to make sure everyone has a chance to play under game situations. If the sport goes varsity next year, each school will have one varsity team with the hope of having a JV season as well.

The players are a mix of varsity athletes from other sports and many with no varsity or high school sports experience at all.

“We’re trying to figure it out as we go. There could be a couple schools that might even field three teams,” Vermaire said. “The idea is to try to come up with equal teams. So we’re trying to build the sport so the girls aren’t getting demoralized by going up against teams that might be way better than them, and they’re having the opportunity to get their friends out here and play. We don’t want anyone to get discouraged as we go through growing pains.”

Central Valley athletic director Robin Barnhart said its program has 32 girls on the team, and half have never played a varsity sport before.

“We kind of jumped on it before Christmas, just as a straw poll. You know, do we even have enough interest to pursue this?” she said. “We had like 18 kids and we were like, that’s enough to have one big team. So we decided to move forward with it and then, you know, they went out and got their friends and it kind of just kept growing.”

Wednesday’s first game between EV and G-Prep was a trial of sorts for the larger trial. The league hopes to play on Thursdays to avoid most basketball and wrestling dates. Officials and coaches were working together to figuring out some of the finer details of the rules even as the game was going on. For this trial season, coaches are allowed to huddle with their offense before each play.

“None of us are quite sure how to set up the field, and you know, what exactly you can wear. There’s restrictions and stuff,” Barnhart said. “We’re just trying to really make it fun and interesting, and we want to build the program so more girls keep coming out and we can really build the sport.”

Most of the schools have leaned upon tackle football coaches to lead the programs. Ross Brunelle is the defensive coordinator for East Valley in the fall and an English teacher at the high school.

“Some of the girls approached me about wanting to coach because they were excited when they heard that we were going to do it,” he said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s go do something in the winter, and let’s be the first to do something.’ And I’m having an absolute blast with them.”

The players that took the field on Wednesday were chilly, but otherwise completely enthused about being a part of history as a new sport blooms in Spokane.

Junior Ivy Sullivan, a softball player at East Valley, doesn’t consider herself a fan of NFL or college football but was persuaded by her younger sister, freshman Sage Sullivan, to come out for it.

“She loved it in middle school when she played, so I thought I’d give it a shot to play with her,” Ivy Sullivan said. “It’s a lot of learning but it’s been a good environment and it’s been fun to be around. … Honestly, I knew nothing about football before this. We’re just slowly learning along the way.”

She admitted to “jumping around” to stay warm when she wasn’t in the game, but that it didn’t detract from her having fun.

“It’s really nice that they have it in the winter, for the fact that girls who play other sports can play,” she said. “It was a honor to be part of something new.”

Her teammate, freshman Kenzie McCormick, has never played a varsity sport, but has participated in BMX (bicycle motocross) since she was nine years old. She has enjoyed the team atmosphere and learning more about the sport.

“We all make sure that we’re part of the team, support each other and do all that team stuff,” she said. “We always work with each other and help each other if we make a mistake and try and fix it. It’s definitely very intense to learn all of it.”

“The best part about it is, they are sponges,” Brunelle said. “The difference between them and the guys is, some of the guys have bad habits already. The girls are just there to learn, and they’re having so much fun with it, and so they actually pick it up faster than some of the guys do.”