This year Castaic will be among four schools in the Santa Clarita Valley that will be competing in their inaugural year of girls flag football.
When the CIF Southern Section announced in fall 2023 that girls flag football would be a sanctioned sport, the Coyotes athletics department began seeking a coach who was well-versed in the how to play and win.
That’s when the school brought in head coach William Jones to lead the program.
Jones, who was hired after spending the last season with Valencia as the assistant head coach, now takes the main role at Castaic looking to start a new team from scratch.
One of the main difficulties that Jones found out about starting a new program was the funding aspect.
“You have to really dedicated to wanting to do this and wanting to be a part of starting a new program,” Jones said. “We’re 100% donation-based, fundraise funded. So that means for anything from uniforms to our referees to transportation to and from our away games, all of that is funded by our fundraisers.”
Despite the financial need of having to raise funds to operate the program, one positive Jones has noted is how supportive the Castaic administration has been throughout this process.
“We’ve worked very closely with our administration and I’m sure the other schools have, too, but we’ve been able to get field time,” Jones said. “We get field time on the turf football field, which we share with football, soccer, band and other sports, so we have that. Then we also have time in the weight room for workouts and conditioning. And then we have time in the classroom where we do we can do film study and chalk talk.”
Part of starting a team from scratch is also recruiting players who want to be part of the program and be what Jones wants from a player in a new team’s first years.
Shortly after getting hired, Jones began to hold tryouts for his new team at the end of last semester, throughout May, giving the opportunity for current enrolled students to try out for the team and see who’s interested.
“We had like a spring training for any interested athlete, student athlete that wanted to come out and kind of train and try out to see if it’s something they were interested in,” Jones said. “And then that last week of May, we actually had an initial tryout and we had about 30 girls from all age grade ranges, from 9 through 12, come out and try out. So we end up keeping about 18 girls out for that that initial tryout, and we take those girls into our summer camp.”
Going into this season, Jones has a lot of players he’s expecting will have great first years for the program and set the team up for the future.
Expect to see junior Larkin Smith vying for the quarterback spot.
“She’s very athletic. She’s very cerebral. She’s a student of the game,” Jones said. “She definitely has a thirst for knowledge and learning this new sport. I think she’s gonna be big for us this year.”
Another key piece expected to be big for Castaic this year will be junior Pyper Ormes. The multi-sport athlete is coming from a soccer and track background and will be taking her talents to flag football, primarily playing as receiver.
“She’s lightning fast. She’s got that speed you can’t teach,” Jones said. “She’s got a gift. So we’re hoping she makes a big plays for us as well.”
Morgan Griffy will also be playing alongside Ormes as receiver and will be joined by junior Hailey Parkes.
Parkes will also get some playing time at center this season along with catching passes from Smith at quarterback, showing off her versatility in her first year with the program.
“She’s that player every coach wishes they had,” Jones said. “She wants to make plays. She wants to get better. I see her out there before practice, throwing with her dad. She’s got a younger sister who’s like 6 or 7 that she’s throwing with. So she’s definitely got her eye on the prize and’s gonna definitely make some big plays for us.”
Slotting in at running back and expected to be a two-way player this season is sophomore Sarah Khalil. She’ll be in the backfield and defensive back on defense but also expect her to be a weapon catching passes as wide receiver.
With hungry players who are eager to dominate the sport for their school, Jones is ready to lead the team while also balancing first-year expectations. But most importunately, he just wants the sport to grow and highlight the kids who help along the way to grow the sport.
“Getting the parents and the athletes to know that this is serious and that there is opportunities for scholarships and so on is you can get that true community backing,” Jones said. “I found it was a challenge last year, getting that community back in. But the girls were excited and now that it’s the first season at Castaic, the girls really pushed for this sport. They went to the athletic director and lobbied for this sport, and now we’re bringing it to full fruition.”
Castaic opens up the season on Saturday at home against San Fernando to begin their inaugural year of flag football.
