CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – It was two years ago when Charlottesville High School sophomore Caroline Blank, then a middle school student, first emailed Student Activities Director Andy Jones about starting a girls flag football team at CHS.
Now, Blank is the quarterback of CHS’s new team, which is preparing to host Western Albemarle and Fluvanna’s teams for its first-ever girls flag football jamboree.
“I’m so excited,” Blank told Cville Right Now. “I’ve been telling all my friends about it, and I think that it’s not only an amazing opportunity for CHS, but also for the whole community to come and see what flag football is really about, and hopefully inspire other girls to come join.”
The event will take place Saturday at the Curtis Elder Track and Field Complex, with Charlottesville set to take on Fluvanna in the first game at 3 p.m. Fluvanna and Western Albemarle will then face off at 4 p.m. before the event will be capped off by Charlottesville and Western Albemarle at 5 p.m.
The jamboree will be the first, and currently only, opportunity for CHS’s new team to face another school, as flag football is not an officially state-sanctioned high school sport in Virginia.
“I’ve talked to a couple different coaches trying to get interest from enough schools to really have an official season,” CHS head coach Kelcei Edmonds-Tindal told Cville Right Now. “Even if that is one day a week where all the schools come and we play a couple hours worth of games, however we can do it, I think we just got to get the word out, because the girls will show up. I think that is that has already been shown across the country.”
Edmonds-Tindal is a first-year English teacher at CHS who previously coached flag football in the Pittsburgh-area at a program set up and supported by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pennsylvania is one of 25 states that has officially sanctioned the sport, according to NFL Flag.
While Edmonds-Tindal never played flag football herself, she does have a strong athletic background that includes experience playing women’s tackle football for the Women’s Football Alliance. Her father also coached football, and she has always held an interest in the sport.
Edmonds-Tindal is no stranger to tackling, with experience in both the WFA and in women’s rugby, but she said that is not often the case for most girls. The 7-on-7 nature of women’s flag football helps provide girls with a different style of play.
“These girls, they want to do the skill positions, right? And that’s what I am all about,” she said. “I played defensive line, so I was just like, ‘See ball, hit ball.’ They want to catch the ball. They want to run. They want to do the routes. They want to do all the fun stuff.
“So, I think that has been the biggest thing for our girls is this idea that, ‘We can play football. It’s not all about tackling.'”
Even before playing a game, the program has already attracted more than 20 players.
“It’s been really fun,” freshman Jayla Dudley told Cville Right Now. “It’s a huge community. Like, everyone supports each other, and uplifts each other, and I feel like I can always run to my coach or my other teammates on the team. So I really like it.”
Fellow freshman Ella Campbell agreed and added that flag football gives her a unique experience compared to her other sport, track & field.
“Track is a very independent sport,” she said. “So it’s nice when I have a team with me.”
The Black Knights hope this Saturday will be just the beginning, with the hope that CHS can not only play a full season in the future, but that the sport itself can become officially sanctioned in Virginia.
For Blank, who also plays basketball and runs cross county and track & field, seeing the sport she loves becoming officially sanctioned would be “really amazing,” and she personally hopes to be able to play Division I flag football in college, as well.
“It’s an amazing team sport that combines all the stuff I love about running and basketball, and all these other team sports that are really fun,” she said. “And also, I think it’s like, there’s not a lot of places where girls who might not be the best at basketball or track can go, and I think this is an upcoming sport that is for everyone.”
