Downey quarterback Madeline Garcia (32) throws a pass as they play Millikan in their girls varsity flag football game at Millikan High School in Long Beach on Wednesday, Aug. 28. Downey defeated Millikan, 19-12. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)

DOWNEY — A phenomenon that is currently sweeping the country at the high school level – known as flag football for girls – has been taking on a life of its own and that sport has found its way to the Downey area.

In particular, Downey and Warren high schools.

In fact, with flag football growing in popularity, it actually is considered to be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

With Warren having a successful first season in 2023 and Downey off to a good start in its first season, things are looking up for both schools.

Last Wednesday, August 28, the Downey Vikings played their sixth game of the season and defeated host Millikan, 19-12, in a nonleague contest.

The Vikings started the season with a 20-12 loss to Jordan before reeling off three consecutive wins over Bell Gardens (19-6), Westminster (19-18) and Lakewood (13-6).

Flag football plays many more games than its counterpart – the boys - with nearly a 20-game schedule for the Vikings and 18 for Warren plus playoffs for both teams.

The game on Wednesday for Downey (4-2) against Millikan was a one-sided affair in the first half as the Vikings built up a 19-0 lead.

On its first possession, Downey, led by freshman quarterback Madeline Garcia, marched right down the field on four of five passing and ran in for the score and 7-0 lead.

After a good defensive stop, especially by senior defender Cassidy Lewis sending the Millikan quarterback for a big loss on third down, the Vikings took a 13-0 lead on a 40-yard TD pass by Garcia to junior wide receiver Chloe Cotton.

On the ensuing possession, sophomore linebacker Gianna Castillo-Flores intercepted a Millikan pass and on its next possession the Vikings scored again with only 1:23 left in the half. They led 19-0 at the half.

The Vikings didn’t score in the second half, as the Rams creeped close, scoring twice.

Prior to Wednesday’s game, the Vikings played perhaps their best game of the season against St. Joseph. Although they lost, 31-20, co-coach Chuck Lozano said of the game, “It was perhaps our best game of the season, but we came up short.

“For our game against St. Joseph, we knew it was going to be a really tough game across the board for all three levels. They are a great program with great coaching and players.

“Our girls battled all 48 minutes, and we walked off that field giving our all. We are excited to see where we are headed as a program. They have standards of practice that are expected to be met every day in the classroom and on the field. We expect them to be leaders.

“When we created our schedule, we wanted to seek out the best to see what we needed to do to get where we want to get to.

Some of the rule differences of the boys’ game are: 24-minute halves which are running time, followed by stop time in the last two minutes of the half; a varied amounts of field measurements, such as 40 x 80 yards, 20 yards for a first down and a one-spin rule for a runner.

**Downey’s Amanda Velasquez (31) grabs the flag of a Millikan player in their girls varsity flag football game at Millikan High School in Long Beach on Wednesday. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)**

Instead of tackle of course for the boys, the girls have two flags – one on each hip which are mounted on a belt. The pulling of flags, instead of tackling, is the major difference.

Downey Co-coach Bonnie Nishioka said of the first-year team, “It feels good to be a female in a predominately male sport and to create a foundation for something that when I retire it will still be here.

“It’s a lot of work, a lot of time and energy, but it’s re-energized me and I’m glad to be a part of the legacy.”

The Vikings are also assisted by Jesse Ferguson, Dominick Cortez and Yazmin Mendoza.

Lozano said of the forming of the team this past year: “Starting the team has been a great learning process. It has been a good stressful if that even makes any type of sense. When Bonnie (Nishioka) and I got the job together, everything started to go so fast. We have had great administrative, parents, player, and school support. The type of energy we are getting from our student-athletes, their families, and the school is helping our program gain excitement on campus.”

A big help in the formation of flag football for the Vikings was the annual Powder Puff football game. Most schools have played that annual game for years in Southern California.

“The timing of our start could not have been any better,” Lozano said. “Powder Puff practices were set to begin two weeks after we got the job. This gave us a huge boost in terms of seeing what girls are interested in playing football and a chance to talk to them individually. We are blessed to have hired hard working and knowledgeable assistants who have the same vision of our program as Bonnie and I do.

With that said, at first, we felt like we were playing catch up due to being a new program and other schools having a year up on us. There is never enough time in the day to get everything you want to get done. That’s the first thing we learned. However, after going through the process we are just focused on developing the identity of our team and the culture we want to instill.

“We have great support here at Downey starting with a long-time mentor of mine Jack Williams (Downey head coach). We received a lot of help during the try-out process from Williams and his varsity assistants, as well as some school faculty members. We had 130 girls try out. That was awesome and challenging.

Lozano, who is considered a legend in the sport of Flag Football, as he had played the game for years and travelled extensively said of the summer camps.

“Summer was a grind for sure,” he said. “Our girls went through camp for six weeks during the hottest parts of the day with zero complaints. Camp was electric. The girls competed hard, which is what we echo every day. It was a very successful learning process for both players and coaches.

“Each game so far has looked different for us. We are trying to find out our best line ups, what we do well, and how we can go about getting better. Each day is a chance for us to learn and more importantly compete at the highest level. As a program we want to challenge ourselves with quality opponents and test our skill level. But it starts with having highly competitive practices and having high practice standards.”

“Offensive players to watch: WR – Chloe Cotton (Jr.), QB – Madeline Garcia (Fr), WR / QB – Alana Espe (Jr), WR – Jisel Rodriguez (Sr). Defensive players to watch: Safety – Delilah Navarro (Jr), Linebacker – Giana Castillo-Flores (So), Linebacker – Hazel Contreras (Jr).

WHAT THEY SAID:

Delilah Navarro, Junior Safety/Wide Receiver: “I’m excited because I got to make history, and I was on the first flag football team for my high school.

Coach has taught me a lot over the summer on how to play better to make me who I am today.

I was never interested in flag football until I tried it out and now I love this sport.”

Cassidy Lewis, Senior Linebacker: “I feel like it’s really good. Girls have never had flag football, so this is the first time that we’ve had something like this. I’m just excited to be a part of something like this because we are the first team.

I expect to have a very good season. This (year) is the first time it’s considered a CIF sport, so I do want to go to CIF with this. So, with the way we’re going I think that we will.”

Madeline Garcia, Freshman Quarterback: “It makes us feel good, knowing that we’re the first girls for Downey to play flag football and I just hope we can have a great season.

It’s stressful (being a quarterback), but once I warm up and we begin to play, I just log in and focus on myself.

I’m very excited, especially starting as a freshman. I feel really good and just want to learn and be better.”

WARREN HIGHLIGHTS:

The Bears are currently at the .500 mark with a 3-3 record.

They won their first two games – 20-7 over Millikan and blanked Foothill, 19-0. They lost three and won one in the Chargers Tournament last Friday and Saturday – 34-20 loss to Esperanza and a 20-6 loss to Edison. Their win in the tourney came against Mira Costa, 14-10, and a loss to Corona del Mar, 34-14 on Saturday.

“This past weekend we were invited by the Chargers to compete in their invitational that included some of the top teams in Southern California,” said Warren coach Felipe Aguilar, who was a coach on the boys football team as quarterbacks coach working with current University of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava. “We went 1-3 dropping games to Esperanza, Edison and Corona del Mar, while beating Mira costa.

“Some of our top performers from this weekend included Samantha Tinoco, a two-way player. Genesis Morales, Katelyn Barron and Isabella Ponce defensively kept us in games by making big plays. Offensively running back Sofia Aceves and Anahi Morales made some big plays for us.

“It would have been easy to hang our heads, but I know as a coach that games and days like this will make us better in the future,” said Aguilar of the tournament. “This experience is something that we can never gain in practice. We have to experience things like this.”

The team trailed 12-0 at one point but battled back to take the lead. “We could have easily hung our heads and imploded, however, what happened next is what made me the proudest. We revealed who we were going to be as a team,” said Aguilar.

“We battled back series after series. We took the lead behind the stellar play of our defense and Garcia grew up a little bit. Our offense began to click. All the wide receivers made plays. We connected on a deep ball to Delilah Navarro and put ourselves in favorable downs. Alana Espe gave us a little change of pace that added to everything. Our defense kept making play after play.”

Double headers are common for flag football in tournaments.

“Last season, we had the opportunity to get our team up and running thanks to the young ladies that took a chance in playing a new sport to themselves and the school,” Aguilar said.

Aguilar is assisted by Mary Starksen, Michael Hernandez and Yvette Bravo.

“I think this is something special for everybody involved,” Aguilar said. “Just getting this game to grow now and with the Olympics coming. These girls are the trailblazers for all the girls coming in behind them. This is great for women’s sports and continues to grow in the college ranks.

“It’s so exciting to see this for all of the young ladies wanting to play the sport and you even can see it at the youth level.”

Right from the start last season Warren had a large turnout for tryouts.

“(The girls) became trailblazers of not only our school, but to the sport of flag football,” Aguilar said. “At the start we had 50 girls come out and play and this past off season going into our second season, we had 110 girls try out. “We now have a varsity and Junior Varsity team with some amazing young ladies who many are multi-sport athletes and are juggling playing this new sport they love with the past sports they have always known. We look forward to continue where we left off with some talented returners and the addition of new players.”

Warren won the inaugural season in the Gateway League with a 7-1 record and were 15-4 overall.

In addition to senior quarterback Anahi Morales, who threw 38 TDs (1,677 yards) last season, and sophomore quarterback Isabelle Gonzalez (19 TDs, 953 yards), they are joined by senior wide receiver/defensive back Alyssa Bueno, who led the team with 63 receptions (732 yards). Sophomore WR/DB Samantha Tinoco led the team in flag pulls last year and is expected to make a significant impact of offense this season.

Samantha Tinoco: “It was exciting to try out last year and I never really heard of (flag football). I was interested and came to tryouts.

“It’s kind of exciting because we’re competing against a lot of good schools now.”

Top returners: Natalie Campos (Sr.), Lyrik Parham (Sr.) Emma Montes (Jr.) and Ava Vallez (Sr.). Top newcomers: Stephanie Hernandez (Sr,), Ayanna Finn (Sr.), Genesis Morales (Sr.) and Isabella Ponce (Sr.).

In that tournament over the weekend, quarterback Anahi Morales ended her season as she could no longer play as she had a torn ACL. Unfortunately, her season ended but still has interest in recruiting for college with some offers and has verbally committed to Graceland University in Iowa.

Anahi Morales: “We did win league last year and it was our first year. It just all clicked last season.

As for this year, I really do believe in this team, and I really do think that they can actually advance to CIF and possibly win the championship. I’ll just be rooting for them.”

Calvary Chapel Downey Football Preview

“We are really excited for this season,” said third-year coach Ennis Lennear. “We will be led by our senior quarterback Joshua Lennear and we’re looking for him to have a great season.”

Calvary Chapel, which plays 8-man football, will open at home (Downey HS) against Blair.

“We have a great offensive line led by our center: Christian Craver, guards: Jacob Martinez, Joseph Corpuz and tight end Elijah Reyes. They’ve been working hard, getting strong and ready to play. We have our amazing running back Jose Peraza who’s a junior that’s going to run for a lot of yards.”

Defense: “We’re young, fast and explosive looking to disrupt a lot of plays. This team is a young sophomore dominant team, with the leadership experience of three seniors Joshua Lennear, Jacob Martinez, Elijah Reyes and Junior Robert Maradiaga, who’s looking to make a mark.

“My staff and I are excited for this season,” Lennear added. “God is going to do some amazing things and we’re ready for the ride.”

Girls flag football takes off at Downey high schools