FEATURES

Women’s flag football returns

Sophia Costarella and Taylor Young • November 2, 2024

The Freshman team upsetting the Senior class in 2022.

Jesuit will host the annual Women’s Flag Football game that will take place this Saturday, November 2nd, 2024 at six p.m. and is anticipated to be a highly competitive event between the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes. As seen in 2022 when the freshman class upset the senior class, the unexpected is always possible when it comes to the outcomes of these games.

The night will kickoff with the sophomores competing against the Juniors, followed by the Freshman class battling the Seniors.

“I’ve seen the Sophomore class before, they’ve got some fast athletes. I think we need to get them in space and let them run,” Sophomore student coach Deuce Bechtold said. “And if we do that, motivate them a little bit, we can take down any team.”

The speed of the Sophomore class is a concern for the Junior’s adult coach Ms. Chi who said, “Sophomores are fast.” However, she feels that with the student coaches leadership and organizational skills, the fierce Junior class will come prepared to face the lowerclassmen.

“I think that if the student coaches are organized and they can create a rotation that’s solid, that will lead the Juniors to finding the most success,” said Mrs. Chi

After this intense first matchup, the traditional rivalry game will follow between the Freshman and Senior classes.

As is the case with freshmen, this is the first flag football game for the Freshman class who will be coached by Mr. Hernandez. Having three years of coaching experience, Coach Hernandez will prepare the Freshman team to face off against the returning champs known to be the Seniors.

“It’s a great opportunity to teach some of the young ladies on campus the rules of football,” said Hernandez. “I always want to make sure that the freshman girls have fun doing this. So the big strategy is trying to get everyone to play.”

As previously mentioned before, the class of 2025 has won the past two years, making them an intimidating opponent on the field. With this, the team will still need skillful organization and strategy, provided by their coaches, in order to find the success they’ve found in past years.

Senior student coach Grant Valley has confidence in his defending champs to get the job done once again.

“I think success first comes from within and how you approach it. I’m just gonna try to motivate our players but I think we are athletic enough and strong enough to beat all the underclassmen,” said Valley. “It’s just gonna take some confidence.”

Ms. Lakey, the director of student activities, has arranged Jesuit Women’s Flag Football for many years, bringing empowerment to women’s sports. The event has grown recognition for women’s sports over the years and has brought about new opportunities for female athletes.

“I love offering more opportunities to women, especially in the field of athletics,” said Lakey. “Women’s Flag Football is an emerging OSAA sport, so just giving visibility to the eye has been pretty cool.”

About the Contributors

Sophia Costarella, Staff

Sophia Costarella was born in Portland and is entering her first year in Jesuit Media as a Junior. She attended St. Clare for elementary and middle school where she was introduced to many sports and was challenged in the classroom. She has an older brother who graduated from Jesuit that she looks up to a lot academically and athletically. She has played basketball since she was little and it is still one of her biggest passions to this day as she is on the varsity women’s basketball team. It is a hobby that really excites her and makes her interested in other athletics in the world especially at Jesuit. She also enjoys hanging out with friends and thinks they would describe her as funny, spontaneous, caring and disciplined. She is looking forward to being introduced to a ton of new things in the media department but most specifically, the photography and filming aspect. The media day shoots are something she wants to participate in heavily. She has seen a lot of unique videos produced by the media team that led her to wanting to join this environment. She hopes to carry the skills that she learns from this class into a future career involving things like sports, broadcasting or marketing.

Taylor Young, Staff

Taylor Young is a junior at Jesuit High School and is beginning her first year in media. Taylor has always been interested in various forms of media and learning about the behind the scenes of what goes into Jesuit Media. Taylor is very interested in mainly athletics as she is a member of the Varsity Women’s Lacrosse team. Taylor is also very involved in various mainstream issues specifically with gender equality in athletic teams as she is a member of the “Women in Sports Club”. Taylor has always been a fan of being in front of the camera as growing up she would love to make dance videos with her friends along with music videos. As her mother was a writer, Taylor has learned about different styles of writing over the years and the best ways to create an interesting and meaningful piece. She is also very interested in photography and video work. Taylor is a very active person who loves to exercise in many different forms from training to hiking to cycling, etc. She loves being with her family and friends and making memories with them. Taylor is very excited about what Fundamentals of Media Production has in store for the year and to learn more about media!

Clark Vowels, Executive Director, JCTV

Clark Vowels is a Senior at Jesuit High School and reports for the Jesuit Chronicle. He has been pursuing videography and filmmaking for 6 years. When he was in 6th grade he took a media studies course where he learned the fundamentals of videography and video editing. This sparked a passion for video and he has continued to build his skills by becoming proficient in a plethora of film and photo editing software. Recently, he has taken on the role of Executive Director of JCTV, where he helps produce varsity sports broadcasts for Jesuit. Outside of school, you will usually find Clark camping, mountain biking, skiing, and surfing in the beautiful pacific northwest. This year he is particularly interested in broadening Jesuit Media’s video journalism, offering more ways to access stories from our team of writers. Clark also has played Football for Jesuit through his Junior year, played guitar in the Jazz band for all 4 years of high school, and continues to participate in Tech Theatre for every drama production. Clark hopes to build a solid resume of videos to help him pursue his dream career of becoming a videographer for Red Bull marketing.