Homewood girls’ flag football triumphed over Oak Mountain in the first round of playoffs Nov. 5 after winning the region championship. With a score of 21-6, the win brings the team one step closer to the program’s first state championship.
The majority of the game was a defensive battle with minimal scoring. Oak Mountain scored 6-0 in the first quarter, and no team scored until the second half.
The second half was all Homewood’s. In the third quarter, Catherine Lard came down with an interception to shift the momentum. Homewood would then score in the third to go up 7-6. Then in the 4th quarter, Homewood would blow the door open with a win of 21-6.
The team’s success is no accident. Head coach and assistant principal Latta Johnston attributes their wins to the hard work achieved in the offseason.
“[The team] was very excited, and they work hard,” Johnston said. “It really started in the spring. Then, they worked through the summer at workouts, and they put in the work during the week, too.”
A key leader of the team is senior Lauren Smith. She views the first-round matchup against Oak Mountain as a way to prove their skill.
“I’m really excited to see all the hard work come out,” Smith said. “We took a loss to [Oak Mountain] early in the season, but we’ve gone a lot better since then. I feel our skills have improved a lot.”
The flag football team prioritizes building chemistry with one another, a crucial aspect of what makes the team great. Smith believes working together as a team has been and will continue to be a major factor in the team’s success.
“It can be hard to feel like a team because you’re so separated and not on the field together at the same time,” Smith said. “But our sideline chemistry and cheering for each other have been really important.”
Johnston explains his offensive philosophy requires having an effective game plan.
“We’ve got a lot of good athletes, so that makes us more difficult to prepare for, and we get a lot of different people involved,” Johnston said. “We have things that we do well that we continue to do. A lot of it is seeing what the opponent gives us and adjusting to that, as well as our strength in rushing.”
Flag football is a fast–paced sport. Each defense has a rusher who puts pressure on the quarterback, and in high school, the second the ball is snapped, the rusher can make a move on the opposing team’s quarterback. Johnston’s goal is to take full advantage of the game’s fast pace from the defensive perspective.
“Defensively, we like to be super aggressive towards the opposing quarterback and make her have to make quick decisions and be uncomfortable,” Johnston said. “We also try to play good coverage behind that.”
Junior Kloeanne Smith is the flag football team’s biggest weapon as she plays both offense and defense. With that, she sees many important moments during a game. Because she plays flag football for fun, she feels less pressure.
“Not having pressure on me helps me do better, and I have a lot of freedom,” Smith said. “I don’t have to worry about anything.”
Overcoming obstacles has been a big part of flag football’s season, mainly because they do not have a dedicated practice space.
“Because of field space, we have practice at different times of day,” Johnston said. “We’ll practice sometimes on the turf field, sometimes up on the band field, sometimes on the softball field, and we usually hold one practice a week.”
The playoff format is 5 rounds, with both 6A and 7A high schools playing against each other. The second round will be played against Decatur, with the date TBD.
