By Ed Muniz- Photos by Jenn-Anne Gledhill
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase for 2 weeks at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p414062620 **
Arlington Heights- Homecoming. When attached to a football game, Homecoming traditionally occurs on the team’s return from a series of away games or the first home game of a season that falls after an away game. The game itself will typically feature the home team playing a considerably weaker opponent. The game is supposed to be an “easy win” but that is not always the case.
The tradition dates back to 1911. The first homecoming event included both a parade and a football game. The response was such a success that it became an annual event.
Fast forward to 2024 and the Arlington Dawgs. A program that features Tackle football along with Cheerleading and introduced this year a Girls Flag Football program.
This year’s Homecoming will feature four home games along with a pair of girls flag football games and cheerleaders supporting players and entertaining fans during the 13U game.
As tradition calls, the Dawgs started the day with a parade of cars honking and driving a route with Players aboard whooping and hollering as they drove by making sure you knew they were celebrating the Homecoming event.
First to show their exuberance were the four teams of Girls Flag Football from third to eighth grade, girls donned the flags used to pull off jerseys worn.
Heading the introductory Flag Program Coordinator is Jerry O’Reilly. In his premiere season, Jerry was able to have 67 girls join the program.
“It’s been going fantastic,” said O’Reilly. “Girl’s flag is new for everybody, with the start at the high school level. With that, we partnered with Hersey HS to get our flag program started with the idea of starting with the girls young and be able to develop all their skills so, by the time they get to high school they’ll be at full speed.”
“The interest for us was incredible. We started with the idea to start a girls Flag clinic in the spring. We were hoping to get 30 to 40 girls, we ended up having 135 girls show up from kindergarten to eighth grade. We are thrilled with the girls we have now, they’ve been doing great.”
O’Reilly stated the only difficult part of the start-up was finding folks to play against. There was a ton of interest but many said they weren’t ready to begin. The Dawgs Flag teams did find and joined the Northern Illinois Youth Flag League.
With numerous teams, O’Reilly is quite happy with the league and where it’s heading.
“It’s really great to be part of that league and see teams all around the surrounding suburbs. Pretty soon, Girls Flag is going to be no different than all the other sports out there with lots of participants.”
Scheduling two games to take place at the same time by splitting the field, the Dawgs saw in one game the Fourth graders take on a combo team of Fifth, Sixth and Eighth grader on one team, while the other game was a match of third graders for both teams.
Both games began at the same time on the scorching morning. Splitting the field, teams played on 40-yard fields and alternated directions on scores, turnovers and downs.
The biggest difference between the older girl’s game and the younger ones was the ability to get plays off quicker, it was nearly a four to one difference. With maturity came the ability to recognize different plays called with not as much direction or explanation, still, both games were quite competitive.
In the Fourth/Fifth combo game, the action was quick and flag pulls which stops a play, were vast.
An early touchdown was called back because the runner only had two or the three required flags on
An interception by Delaney Herling stopped the White team’s surge. From there, Quarterbacking the orange team, Rose O’Reilly was a dominant, well-rounded player, who was difficult to tackle while also showed the ability to throw the ball for completions.
“I didn’t think the throws were very good, but the runs were very successful,” said 4th grade team quarterback Rose. “I like to see how the play develops and decide on the moment what to do. I think my speed and juking people out I do very well. Since I have a bunch of friends on my team, it’s fun. When I throw an interception, or things don’t go your way is the worse part of flag football for me. I’m pretty much happy with the game today.”
Flag pulls by Jane Wells, Leighton Mattix, Lena Hindle and three by Haley Kritek limited how much success O’Reilly and her orange team had but a 40-yard run by O’Reilly put the orange 4th graders up after taking a handoff from Delaney Herling.
A pass from Haley Kritek to Reagan Walsh was the big play for the White Fifth grade combo team. Walsh picked up 10 yards after the catch using some shifty moves and speed. Walsh was also quite proficient at pulling flags for stops.
“I like playing with my friends and seeing everyone try their hardest,” said Walsh. “I’m good at catching the ball, but I also like juking a lot of people out. Probably could do better at catching the ball going out deeper. I think I played at a B+ game. Sometimes people don’t stay focused, and it gets a little annoying, but we talk to each other and get through it, make it work.”
Reagan Walsh used to play tackle football with the boys two years prior. “It was fun, I could go back to it but this is fun too.”
Others providing some Homecoming entertainment for the fans and during the rest of the flaf season are Peaches Zuber, Aubree Horwath, Audrey Perkins, Natalia Rodriguez, Ava Durski, Millie LaMonica, Willa Bhansali, Olivia Dames, Macy Laufenberg, Sophia Marino, Morgan Brown, Emma Foster, Maddie Kraft, Samantha Vaskovsky, Katie Neary, Eleanor McCarthy, Izzy Scapin, Avery Gordon, Sloane Gumino, Efthimia Hemmati, Cayley Cacciabor, Olivia Miro, Gretchen Heckard, Giuliana Smith Aubree Bhansali, Marianton Perez, Irie Stocco, Claire Perkins and Nola Prinz.
The third game was a bit slower but big play opportunities were more available.
Coaches for both teams would take their time explaining a play to their players and snaps were also more likely to be drop as these first year girls were still acquiring and learning to catch a snap and hand off.
For some, the agility and eye-hand coordination were already there. They mastered the catch but for others, not many, but for some, it’s still a work in progress.
Four times the teams scored touchdowns in this game and surprisingly one was after hauling in a pass.
Twins Caroline and Annie Long help their teams produce scoring. Caroline put her orange team on the score board taking a handoff and speeding 15-yards for the first touchdown of the game.
The white team counter shortly there after when Reagan Brown scored on her run of 12 yards for the white teams first score.
After a flag pull by Brown on the orange next series, Jaime Pomis completed a toss to Caroline Long and watched her takeoff for the 21-yard touchdown.
With the hot weather, the teams took a lengthy water break and nestled under a grove of trees just west of the field.
After several minutes, the teams returned and restarted their game.
The white team evened the score when Bobbie Lyme raced to the endzone on the 15-yard touchdown run.
Both teams, despite the heat, appeared to really enjoy playing the game. You noticed the effort and the joy of just playing a game with many friends on both sides.
Several girls registered flag pulls during the game. Pomis, Lyme, Leighton LaPorta, Caroline and Annie Long Hallie Herbert, Charley Herbert, Emma Skony all had pulls.
The Long twins, Caroline and Annie were playing opposite of each other. They shared about playing at Homecoming.
“We did some good passes,” said Caroline. “I scored two touchdowns, and I pulled two flags. I like scoring touchdowns, it’s just fun, I don’t know. I got our team going.”
When asked about her twin sister playing on the opposing team, Caroline’s response was “I don’t care.”
Annie Long added, “Its fine that she plays on the other team, I don’t really care either. They just asked us to play on those teams. I got four flags today; I don’t know if I did better than all. Maybe I could score touchdowns, I don’t know, maybe I’d rather score touchdowns, I don’t know.
Not all the following girls played but are also part of the program, they include Lily Buddin, Brynn and Caroline Nelson, Ally Swiatkiewicz, Scarlett Selleck, Elizabeth Sommario, Estelle Shimkus, Vivian Pardun, Vivian Kozak, Veronica Ross, Maggie Miller, Georgia McCarthy, Charlotte Skogland, Ava Marino, Charlotte Marotta, Elianna Chavez, Disa Crandall and Nikoletta Hemmati.
