Imperial Valley Girls Let Their Flags Fly

CALEXICO — As the Calexico High girls flag football squad maintains its spot as the team to beat in the Imperial Valley, the Bulldogs’ mix of on-field experience and players new to the sport partly tells the story of this inaugural season.

Calexico’s No. 1 ranking in the Imperial Valley League and its rising rank in the CIF-San Diego Section has everything to do with a team stacked with players from a middle-school-aged, championship-winning travel team called the Bad Rabbits, which has other members sprinkled among Valley high school squads.

“It feels great (to play at this level) because it’s a sport I’ve played all my life and I never thought I could play it in high school,” 16-year-old Calexico junior Paula Nicole Cruz said in Spanish. Paula has played in New York, Texas, Mexicali and Calexico.

When 44 high schools in the CIF-San Diego Section debuted girls flag football team’s this season — including seven in the Imperial Valley — it followed a nationwide surge seen in the sport in recent years.

Some 15,716 girls played varsity high school flag football in 2021-22 in the United States, according to the NFL, which is a 40 percent increase over a three-year period.

Arguably one the most talked about commercials of the 2023 Super Bowl was for the NFL’s “Run with It” campaign in which Mexican Women’s National Flag Football team quarterback Diana Flores sprinted through and juked past various celebrity obstacles, protecting her flag and football en route to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

“I mean, it’s a new game here for” the girls, said Alejandra Ducman, a female referee and 15-year flag football player herself working a game between the Southwest High Eagles and the Calexico Bulldogs recently. “Understanding the rules of a new game is difficult.” The 37-year-old got her start playing in Mexico and is excited to be refereeing more and more games as popularity grows in the states.

Jasmine Alanis and Leilani Mayne, both 16-year-old juniors, are the segment of the squad new to the sport, those learning from the experienced Bad Rabbits teammates and coaches (the coaching staff includes members of the Bad Rabbits as well).

The girls put varying degrees of importance on what it means to be the first squad to take the field, yet Leilani embraces the responsibility.

“Honestly, since it’s the first year, I feel like it’s an accomplishment that you could tell your kids and stuff like that, since it’s the first year that it started,” she said. “Honestly, as a kid, I always wanted to play a masculine sport like this, but they didn’t really accept women into masculine sports, so knowing that they have a masculine sport to play now is a good thing.”

Jasmine said she feels like she is making a positive impact for other girls “because most people would be like, ‘Oh, no. Why are you playing that sport if it’s not really for girls?’ While other people really want to try it, but they’re scared of what people are going to think.

“Just do it, because at the end of the day, you’re the one who’s going to have fun,” she said.

Fifteen-year-old junior Joana Brambilla was quite a bit more direct in not seeing herself and her teammates as pioneers for the sport but as inspirations for younger generations.

Joana is coming from youth league background, and to see this become a CIF-sanctioned sport gives it legitimacy on a larger stage: “It feels good because you get to carry on that title as you continue on. You get to say that you were one of the teammates who started first to be in the flag football girls team, for other girls to feel motivated as well as to just grow (yourself).

“We are making an impact because some girls sometimes feel afraid of what people are going to say to their decisions on joining a team,” Joana said, “but I feel like they can feel motivated and see what accomplishments and achievements we have done, so they can want to join, too.”

With a sport and league in its infancy, so too will be a system of rules and how to manage games, players, and more. That is what local referees, coaches and other school officials are finding in this period of adjustment.

Referee Fred Ramsy said the biggest challenge now is getting coaches, athletes, and referees on the same page in terms of the rulebook. “It’s a learning experience for all of us, but we really are enjoying it,” he said. There are significant differences between boys football and girls flag football besides the obvious lack of tackling, he said, and almost everyone involved agrees.

“The rules are changing everyday,” junior varsity head coach for Southwest High School, Sebastian Duenas, said. “But everybody’s just trying to work together, trying to talk to the rest of the coaches, and make sure that they’re seeing what we’re seeing.”

There is also that imbalance of talent present between the girls who have never played and those who have vast experience. Most high school athletes in the major sports have had some level of experience coming in.

Referee Ducman said that some of the girls picked up some serious skills playing for competition leagues across the border.

“The girls are just getting to know about this game, but you can still see the difference between some teams,” she said. Specifically, the teams with players who have trained together and competed internationally. Again the Calexico team is referenced, which has several members from the Bad Rabbits, which managed to take its talent all the way to nationals.

“They went to Miami, LA, other far away cities from here, and they came back with a championship,” Ducman said. Since then, about six standout players have been spread between high schools in the El Centro and Calexico high school districts.

Brawley Union High School Athletic Director Billy Brewer acknowledges that Calexico is the team to beat. “They’re very precise,” he said after a 20-0 Bulldog win over the Wildcats a few weeks ago. “You could tell those kids were prepared and that they followed through.”

After the match-up at Southwest recently, supporters from Calexico descended from the stands to congratulate their daughters, sisters, and friends. The Montes family, complete with supportive t-shirts and signage, took a moment to take photos with Madeline Montes, Calexico freshman and former star player for Bad Rabbits.

Her parents and older sister said she has been playing flag football since the age of 10, and they are proud of the young athlete’s early successes.

The Bad Rabbits program seems to be a perennial powerhouse. A few weeks ago, certificates of recognition were presented to Calexico’s Bad Rabbits 12U team for winning the USA Flag Football National Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina in July.

“You actually get to see them develop their skills and run the plays and the positions,” said Madeline’s mother, Lorena Minor-Montes. Watching from the stands, the family is constantly impressed by the natural talent Madeline has shown.

“She’s really fast. I’ve seen her go across the field and hunt down a flag and get it, and she doesn’t give up,” said father, Rudy Montes.

For new fans of the sport, like Madeline’s older sister, something about a girls’ league has opened up new avenues of understanding for unlikely participants.

“It’s really cool to see how the plays are (visually),” she said, adding that the tackle element of boys football makes it difficult to see why players move the way that they do. “But with the flags … you can really see how everything really happens.”

Madeline said that her perspective while on the field gives her “a first-person experience” that so many girls have not been afforded before. “Being out there, you’re able to see everything that’s going on. You’re able to see how the quarterback throws, how they run, what they do, what their plays are, how your team works, how they play, how they guard, how they throw,” she said.

Officials agree that even only one season in, it’s evident that there is untapped talent all around. “It’s been a great season,” referee Ramsy said.

Most importantly, said Ducman, “It’s really cool seeing women everywhere.”