Morton East won over Morton West in the district’s first flag football club game ever. 

Flag football is a variant sport where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or a flag belt from the ball carrier to end a down. Also, many people think powderpuff and girl’s flag football are the same thing, but powderpuff is a match that happens during homecoming week, the games are all in one day, and based on whichever team wins they move on to the final championship game on the same day. Therefore, girl’s flag football is a new club sport where club members have to try out in order to make the team. Adding on, there is practice twice a week, and games every other Saturday. So far in the season, our girls’ flag football has played 3 games, against 3 separate schools: Morton West, Proviso East, and Oak Park River Forest. The next game will be against Proviso West, Saturday October 1. 

“Nationally, the sport has been gaining popularity and with Morton introducing it in the first year as a club, it’s exciting to see the students want to be part of a movement,” Coach Luis Castanon said.

 Popularity isn’t only the motivation for the team; some are in it to win it.  

“I am most excited about the game, experiencing more about the game, meeting new people, winning, and hopefully bringing the championship of the first flag football season ever,” running back Jazmin Rojas said. 

Another girl’s flag football player, Melissa Rizo agrees with running back Jazmin Rojas. 

“We are going to play West Suburban schools, and hopefully we advance to Chicago conferences and then state,” receiver Melissa Rizo said. 

According to Gobinder Gill’s “Mental toughness in football,” some players becoming mentally tough is an evolving process and to achieve these states the footballer must be capable of reflecting on their performance levels and using practice time to continuously improve skills levels.  

“It feels like a roller coaster of emotions because you have to work hard and have fun at the same time,” receiver Kemberlee Moreno said. 

Furthermore, Complete sports.com mentions that football can make a player’s stress levels go up when working with their teammates. 

“Being a QB (quarterback) is very challenging because the game mostly depends on the QB and the players, it’s like a balance beam for example if the QB isn’t doing good in the passes they don’t get to the players, if the players don’t feel well, then they won’t perform their best,” quarterback Abby Castaneda said.