In their first year on the field, the undefeated Alexandria City High School Girls Flag Football team is tearing it up.
The Titans have shut out each of their last five opponents since the season started Sept. 30, allowing zero scores and accumulating 162 points scored. Many players on the team credit the wins to grueling workouts and hours of studying the game.
Until this year, junior Ryleigh Barnes-Thomas played soccer and ran track. As a wide receiver on the flag football team, she’s scored eight touchdowns.
“It’s so satisfying when I run my route and I can see that the place I’m supposed to be going is wide open, and then I can see the ball coming towards me,” Barnes-Thomas told ALXnow. “As soon as I catch the ball, I just know I’m going to be out of there, basically. Most times that results in a touchdown.”
The 25 girls on the team will play 10 games this season in their conference, and the top teams will head to the playoffs on Nov. 11 and 14.
Quarterback and team captain Ambika Varma said that 90% of the girls on the team never played football before this year and that practices start in the classroom.
“We spend about 30 minutes to an hour in the classroom, just learning what we need to do on the field,” Varma said. “Then we go practice, warm up, do some sprints, lots of sprints. Then we go into drills with receivers doing warm-up catching, QBs will warm up throwing, and the other positions will also warm up specific things that are crucial to their job. The rest of the practice is working on either the offense or the defense, or both, or just scrimmaging, so we know what a real game feels like.”
Coach Calvin Davis coached flag football for local community organizations for several years before applying at ACPS.
“I think we are at the beginning of something very special, which is why I wanted to get involved with this,” Davis said. “Many of these young ladies are some of the best athletes I’ve ever seen. They’re great athletes, and that’s gonna now be showcased on a national level, whether they be in college or eventually if they come up with professional leagues as well.”
The profile of women playing football is on the rise. The NCAA added women’s flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program earlier this year. Next year, the National Football League will launch its pro women’s and men’s flag football league, and flag football will be a sport in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Davis is backed up by coaches Lacretia Lane and Natina Talbert. Lane is on active duty with the U.S. Army and is a running back with the D.C. Divas.
“Their heart and intensity and will to learn and execute is the pivotal reason of why we are the way that we are,” Lane said.
Varma, a senior, has committed to play Division III soccer at Occidental College next year. She said she’d like to play flag football if they introduce it at Occidental, and that overall it’s helped her as a goalie on the soccer field.
“If you spend two hours a day on something that intense, there’s no way you can’t get better,” Varma said.
Receiver Naomi Temprosa is a senior and has played soccer at ACHS since the eighth grade.
“I’ve never felt so connected and welcomed into a team,” Temprosa said. “We’ve been worked as much as we can. We’ve been pushed to our limit, so anything else is like easy.”
The Titans’ regular season schedule is below.
- Tuesday, Oct. 20 — At home against Wakefield High School at 7 p.m., and Annandale High School at 8 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 28 — Away at Annandale High School against Falls Church High School at 7 p.m.
- Tuesday, Nov. 3 — At and against Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology at 6 p.m., and Annandale High School at 7 p.m.
