Fryer: Flag football continues to grow, with first CIF championships on the way
Flag football was played by 120 high school teams in the CIF Southern Section last school year.
This year 270 CIF-SS member schools have flag football teams, enough for the section to have its first playoffs and championship games in the sport.
The playoff brackets for girls flag football will be released Saturday at 9 a.m.
Flag football is no picnic sport. It's not touch football at the beach.
"There's a reason we wear mouthguards," Orange Lutheran's Makena Cook said.
Cook, a sophomore, is the quarterback for Orange Lutheran, which is the CIF-Southern Section's No. 1 team according to the Massey Ratings that will be used to place teams in the playoff divisions.
Orange Lutheran finished the regular season 19-2 overall and is No. 2 in the Maxpreps state and national rankings that have Newport Harbor at No. 1. Newport Harbor is No. 2 in the Massey Ratings that have Huntington Beach at No. 3 and Santa Margarita at No. 4.
Cook has completed 73 percent of her passes for an average of 274 passing yards a game with 80 touchdown passes. She is a multisport athlete, excellent in soccer and track and field. This past track and field season she finished second in the shot put in the CIF-SS finals and qualified for the finals in the high jump.
Orange Lutheran got off to a relatively late start in flag football, starting the program last year whereas many schools already had club flag football for a couple of seasons.
"I was so excited when I heard about it," Cook said. "That meant I could play flag for all four of my high school years."
Kristen Sherman is the Orange Lutheran flag football coach. Her husband is Orange Lutheran varsity football head coach Rod Sherman.
"He helps me a lot," Kristen Sherman said of her husband. "He was instrumental in getting the program started last year. He designed some offensive schemes and he helps me keep things in the right perspective because I'm more anxious of a coach than he is and I take things harder than he does."
Kristen Sherman has watched plenty of high school boys football, so what she has to say about Cook's quarterbacking skills must be taken seriously.
"Makena throws as well as most high school boys and she's grown a lot over the last year as a quarterback," Kristen Sherman said. "Now she's learned to take what the defense gives her. Last year she just relied on throwing the ball downfield, but now she can make all throws and she's making better decisions."
Orange Lutheran's excellent corps of receivers is led by sophomore Josie Anderson and junior Julia Oberholtzer. Anderson also is a standout cornerback. Capriana Cuneo shines at receiver and recently added cornerback to her duties.
There will be five playoff divisions. CIF-SS assistant commissioner Kristine Palle, in charge of the Southern Section's management of the flag football playoffs, said Divisions 2-5 will have 32-team brackets for certain with Division 1 probably a 16-team group. Championship games will be played Nov. 9 at El Modena High.
• The Orange County Championships in boys and girls cross country are Friday and Saturday at Oak Canyon Park, which is near Irvine Lake. Competition will be in three divisions organized by school enrollment. The boys and girls sweepstakes races for the top runners are Saturday at 8:55 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., respectively. ...
• Dana Hills senior Evan Noonan , last year's CIF State boys cross country champion, will not compete in the Orange County Championships on Saturday according to Dana Hills coach Craig Dunn who said that Saturday's meet has not been on Noonan's schedule of competitions. ...
• JSerra's girls cross country team will run in the O.C. meet Saturday, coming off of its second-place team finish at this past weekend's Clovis Invitational at Fresno's Woodward Park, site of the CIF State championships. ...
• Beckman won the boys team championship at the Clovis Invitational. The Patriots were led by Mason Nguyen's 11th-place finish with a time of 15 minutes and 5 seconds. Tesoro's Griffin Kushen was second at 14:43.8. Summer Wilson of Irvine was third in the girls race at 17:08.8 in an elite field that had Ventura's Sadie Englehardt and Rylee Blade of Santiago of Corona finishing 1-2. Santa Ana's Adamara Esparza won the girls varsity extra large school yellow division race in 18:33.2. ...
• Laguna Beach beat Northwood on Wednesday in a Pacific Coast League girls volleyball playoff game for third place, the league's final guaranteed playoff berth. Thus, Laguna Beach, 6-25 overall, will be included when the CIF-SS girls volleyball playoff pairings are released Saturday at 10 a.m. That's no knock on Laguna Beach, which won the match it had to win. ...
• These are among what could be big games in Orange County football next week, Friday, Oct. 25, for league championships and playoff qualification: Alpha League, Edison at Mission Viejo; Delta League, Capistrano Valley at El Modena; Kappa League, Brea Olinda at Segerstrom; Trinity League, Servite vs. Orange Lutheran at Orange Coast College; and, yes, Trinity League, St. John Bosco vs. Mater Dei at Santa Ana Stadium.
This story was originally published October 17, 2024, 4:09 PM.
