This semester marks the inaugural season for St. Joe’s new women’s club flag football team.
The club, which was started by Campus Recreation and began meeting in the beginning of September, has garnered 35 players. Potential players filled out an interest form sent out by Alexandra Kissinger, assistant athletics director for Campus Recreation.
Avri Bain ’27, the team’s president, was sent the form by a friend who thought the sport would be something they would both be interested in. Bain decided to take on the president role because it would be a new experience for her.
“[It’s] something I’ve never done before and something that will be really fun that I’ll remember for a very long time,” Bain said.
Practices are currently focused on learning the fundamentals of the game, and the team will start playing games in the spring. Unlike tackle football, which has 11 players per team on the field at a time, flag football plays with between five and seven players.
Ella Cocuzza ’29 joined a flag football league in fourth grade and has been playing the sport since. As a more experienced player, she is helping those new to the sport learn the game.
“A lot of girls were really interested in it and don’t really know what flag football [is] or how it’s expanded in the past couple years,” Cocuzza said. “It’s just getting routes down and throwing around the ball and getting used to what flag football is.”
Paige Foley ’27 decided to join the team after playing powder puff games in high school and college.
“I wanted to get involved in a more organized team, and this gave me the opportunity to do that,”
Foley said.
Foley said she hopes to meet more people on campus through playing and to branch out into an organized sport she considers new to her.
“[I hope to] just get more girls out to advocate for the sport,” Foley said.
Bain said she wants the club to grow into a “team that [has] been around” for a long time and something that convinces people to come to St. Joe’s.
“I just hope it’s something for girls who were too afraid to play in high school to finally be able to play here in college and feel safe and welcomed into the club,” Bain said.
Cocuzza said the team will be a good opportunity for girls who played in high school to continue their flag football career.
“It’s a no-brainer to just keep expanding [the team] and just getting better and better,” Cocuzza said.