“Twenty,” a voice from the senior crowd rang out. The rest of the seniors roared their response: “26!”
The class of 2026 had done it. After a narrow loss in the finals last year, this year’s seniors had won the annual Flag Football Tournament, 28–7, against the juniors.
On Thursday and Friday of last week, the tournament began. In accordance with tradition, non-male students played, and male students coached.
The tournament consisted of two rounds. On Thursday, the first round was played. The freshmen played the juniors and the sophomores played the seniors.
The sophomores went into their first game with optimism, even though they were eliminated in the first round the year before. “We lost to the same team last year, but we’re bigger, we’re stronger and we’re gonna win this time,” sophomore coach Alex Price said. The game was close throughout, with strong defense from both sides. However, senior Corina Bellermann penetrated the sophomores’ defense with multiple strong running plays, and the sophomore offense was not able to convert on any of their chances.
The sophomore fans’ frustration was evident, as shouts of “fire the coaches” and “sell the team” could be heard over the exuberant shouts of the seniors. The game ended 21–7, sending the seniors to the championship game.
It seems there was a certain theme among the underclassmen—the freshmen also lost 21–7, against the juniors. “We threw a lot of interceptions, so we just gave the other team the ball a lot,” freshman coach Sam Boland said.
So, to almost no surprise to anyone, the juniors and seniors geared up to face each other in the finals on Friday.
The juniors went in feeling confident after a strong win against the freshmen. “Everyone’s looking great going into this game, and we’re a really well rounded team,” junior coach Lawson Massey said. “We won our first game pretty easily and had a lot of fun while doing it.”
For much of the first half, the juniors appeared strong against the formidable class of 2026. But in the second half, they started to break down and eventually lost 28-7.
Besides the fun atmosphere, Bellermann pointed to the effect the event has on the school community. “I love flag football,” she said. “It’s great to see everyone out here supporting us play, and I think it’s just a great way for the school to come together.”