The Mycenaean

Leesville High School introduced women’s flag football as a varsity sport during the 2024-25 sports season. Two days of tryouts were held on October 1 and 2 — one round of cuts were made. Coach Hamilton is the head coach and he receives help from a few of the Leesville football players as well.

Wendi Watkins, sophomore, wide receiver and linebacker, said, “Coach Hamilton came in with all new players. We’ve never had a flag football team before, so he built it from the ground up. He has helped us improve every game and become a good team throughout the season. Now we are able to compete on the same levels as other teams, comparing the beginning of the season to now we have made a lot of improvements with his guidance.”

Once the team was formed the team had practices in which the rules were learned, positions were assigned, and plays were introduced. Flag football has a lot of weird rules that the team had to become familiar with, some of which are no-run zones, announcing blitzes, flag-guarding, and extra-point conversions. 

Athens Drive hosted preseason scrimmages where Leesville’s first ever (scrimmage) game was against Willow Springs High School, who was dominant in last year’s flag football season. Leesville conceded 30-0, which was expected, but the game served as a great learning experience for the team. 

Their second game was against Holly Springs High School, which was also a loss, but Elania Johnson, linebacker, made school history with the school’s first touchdown off of a pick-six. Thankfully, the scrimmages did not count against the team’s records because they weren’t official conference games.

Leesville is part of the Cap-6 conference. The schools included Athens Drive, Broughton, Cardinal Gibbons, Enloe, Leesville, and Sanderson. The flag football season is structured to where each school hosts once, and Cardinal Gibbons holds the Cap-6 tournament at the end of the season. Teams play each team twice throughout the season, and each gameday teams play in doubleheaders.

Corrie Moore, sophomore wide receiver, said, “From the start,I thought we were going to be shaky and coming in as the new team put a lot of pressure on us to perform. We’ve really been able to prove that we can be a good team and win games. All of our girls are athletic and have come together well and grown as a team.”

Leesville’s record on the season was 5-5, tying them with Broughton and Athens Drive. The only team ahead of them was Cardinal Gibbons with a record of 9-1. Their single loss came from Leesville who beat them by six points, resulting in a 12 to 6 loss.

The first round of the Cap-6 tournament was held on November 12 at Broughton High School. Leesville beat Enloe to move onto the second round held at Cardinal Gibbons High School. They played Gibbons and lost 14-9 taking them out of the tournament. Cardinal Gibbons went on to beat Sanderson making them the first ever Cap-6 conference champions. 

Both Leesville and Gibbons advanced on to the state playoffs. Ironically, they were matched against each other for the first round. On Thursday, November 22, Leesville and Gibbons traveled to Willow Springs High School. 

Unfortunately, Leesville was missing a handful of players — most of which are vital for the team’s plays and success. Leesville ended up losing 25-6, but the defense played impressively. They only gave up six points, all other Gibbon’s points came from three pick-sixes and one extra point. 

This loss sadly ended Leesville’s first flag football season. For a new program, Leesville built a team from nothing that was able to compete at other established teams levels and grow as the season progressed.