SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The May 19 announcement of flag football at St. Francis certainly drew eager interest from the community, mostly because the sport has already thrived throughout the Parochial Athletic League schools that feed into the Troubadour student body. PAL middle schoolers had enjoyed the game for years, only to find that flag football is not offered at the area's lone all-girls Catholic high school.

A gust of change blew in on February 4, 2023, days after the 37th National Girls and Women in Sports Day, when the California Interscholastic Federation officially announced that it would begin sponsoring the sport. This came some five months after the Southern Section, the CIF's largest area, had already approved girls' flag football as a new fall offering. Backing from the NFL itself, plus the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, helped further the cause of the already-thriving sport.

Naturally, the various announcement sent districts, leagues, schools and each of the CIF sections into a two-minute drill to work out rules, governance, facility impacts with existing tackle football programs. At St. Francis, director of athletics Ryan Chisolm quickly released a survey to gauge interest in flag football and e-sports. Nearly 60 percent of the 136 Troubie respondents declared they would sign up for the sport if offered this fall. 

SF president Fadia Desmond, already a proponent of adding flag football, received the thumbs up from the Board of Trustees at the end of the 2022-23 academic year, and the school announced its launch soon after the excitement of graduation ceremonies. At the Sac-Joaquin Section level, 70 teams organized nine leagues, with St. Francis joining the tough Sierra Foothill League with Davis, Del Oro, Folsom, Granite Bay, Oak Ridge, Rocklin and Whitney. 

Positive response for the sport travels well beyond school administrators and district board rooms. Corporate entities have also stepped in for assists. Nike and Gatorade helped the New York Jets launch a flag football league in 2021, with that humble eight-school league becoming an affiliation of more than 100 teams in the tri-state area. More locally, St. Francis assistant athletics director Kelly Ketcham persuaded Adidas, the school's athletics apparel brand, to provide a set of Troubadour jerseys for the new program. With the rulebook allowing for a variety of field sizes, the SF campus soccer field offers more than sufficient space to hold practices and games.

For those not familiar with the game, here are the basics for CIF flag football:

• Games consist of two 20-minute halves, with a running clock.
• Play consists of 7-on-7 action, with all offensive players being eligible receivers.
• The quarterback may run the ball only once per series, unless the defense blitzes – that is, rushes multiple defenders at the quarterback. 
• Flag football is almost completely non-contact. "De-flagging" replaces tackling, but there is also no blocking, screening or chucking allowed. Offensive players may not stiff-arm defensive players, nor may they jump over an opponent, spin to avoid de-flagging, nor dive to advance the ball – all measures to reduce incidental contact.
• Despite the name "football," there is no actual kicking – kickoffs, punts or tries. Instead of kickoffs, teams start on the 20-yard line. A team electing to "punt" simply means granting the opponent possession on its 20. And replacing the PAT is the one-point conversion (from five yards) or a two-point conversion (from the 10).

On Monday, Chisolm officially named Melissa Triebwasser as the inaugural SFHS flag football head coach. Already a popular member of the faculty and staff after just two full years at the school – especially among the Troubie students who will populate her 2023 roster – "Coach Trieb" sat down with GoTroubies.com for a quick Q&A about the launch of her program:

Q:  The first question is the obvious one – how excited are you to take over this new position?

A: I could not be more excited. When Mr. Chisolm told me they were offering me the job, I literally jumped up and fist-pumped. That is the level of enthusiasm I have for this. You don't get a lot of opportunities to do something that has never been done before. To get to be part of starting the flag football program at St. Francis feels really significant and certainly has me fired up for the season.

Q: Tell me about your immediate goals for the program. What are you hoping to create in this first season?

A:  From the moment that I first thought about applying for this position, the sentence that kept running through my head was 'we want to be first at something that lasts.' There is such a tradition and rich history of athletics at St. Francis High School, and having the opportunity to add something to a portfolio of programs that have been so successful for so long is both exciting and a little bit intimidating. Obviously, we compete to win, to hang banners, to win championships, but I also want to set the foundation for a program that can be a part of the culture of St. Francis, that can bring all of the things that our athletics programs do as far as a the camaraderie, the teamwork, the dealing with adversity, the collaboration, the time management skills that our students have to have. I think adding a program to these other programs give you an expectation that you're going to win and you're going to be successful, because that's what we do here. But then also building something that fits within the culture of our campus as an additive to our students' experiences and our community's experiences is really important to me as well.

Q. You've been around coaching for a long time, mostly as a basketball coach. What kind of athletes are you looking for to fill your program?

A. Thankfully, it's a lot of what I see everyday being on this campus. It's that kind of kid. It's the kid who wants to be all-in, who wants to jump in with both feet, who is going to work hard, who is going to hold a commitment level not just for themselves but for the team and their teammates. It's the kind of kid who is happy to be the star or the one at the end of the bench, cheering everyone on. We're starting something brand-new. We want to build a team that people are really, really excited about, excited about being a part of, excited about cheering for, excited about bringing enthusiasm on and off the field. So I'm looking for student-athletes that want to contribute no matter what that contribution looks like. They're going to be committed to this sport, they are going to take it seriously but also want to make it a place where people feel welcome, where they feel encouraged, where they feel supported and pushed on. I want a lot of accountability. We're going to need a lot of leadership for this first year. I anticipate we're going to have a lot of girls that want to be a part of this program, so I'm going to be looking for mature leaders who want to keep us organized, keep us on track. And I want to have a lot of fun. This is football. We're playing 7-on-7 flag football at St. Francis. It should be a blast, and I want to kids who are going to bring the energy to help contribute to that positive environment. 

Q. A lot of the schools that feed into St. Francis, members of the PAL, already play flag football. You will have a lot of kids who have been playing the sport for three, four, maybe five years. What does that bring to this first season of the program, but also down the road, to the long-term success of the program?

A. A little extra pressure, right? We're not starting from ground zero, we have some foundational building blocks. I think it helps. I don't want to give away all of my secrets, but I think when we look at designing an offense, a lot of it is going to be feel. I think we're going to see a lot of zone defenses early. So just the feel between the quarterback and wide receivers will be a big difference-maker, especially in the first handful of games. You hope that level of experience brings a deeper level of understanding, and maybe we'll get out of the gates a little bit faster than some other programs. But I also look at our schedule. Since we get to pilot an SFL [Sierra Foothill League], we're going to be playing teams with rich traditions of athletics as well, programs with great football programs and great football facilities. I know that I won't be able to roll out the ball against teams like Granite Bay or Del Oro or any of these great SFL schools, and just Day 1 be better than them. We're going to have to work just as hard as everybody else. The only difference is that we may have kids who come in with a little more experience, who understand a route tree, who understand a little bit more about the quarterback position, understanding a little more about what playing a zone defense at this level means. I think it will initially be a positive. I don't anticipate that it will take very long for everybody else to catch up, but we will certainly take the early advantage where we can get it.

Q. Anyone on this campus who doesn't know your alma mater just isn't paying attention, plus you just got back from the football media day. Talk about your football background, and some of the expertise you get to draw from.

A. I didn't apply to become the flag football coach because I don't love the game of football. It's one of my absolute favorite sports, and has been since I was a four- or five-year-old kid. When all of my friends talked about the cartoons they watched on Saturday morning, I had been tuned into NBC to watch Notre Dame play. That's what I love. I can't tell you where it came from. My parents aren't big football fans. The game drew me in early. I was such a fan from the very first time I watched what I used to call 'go-go ball,' as my parents love to tell me. I went to TCU, which obviously came off one of the most magical college football runs in history. I've been around a lot of college football coaches. I've talked a lot about offensive and defensive strategy. It's a sport that I consumed even before I looked at having an opportunity to be a coach, and wanted to understand it on a deeper, more molecular level. I've been covering TCU for more than a decade, and I've spent a lot of time having those X's and O's conversations with position coaches and coordinators. When I was at the Big XII media day, I was asking all of the coaches and players what are the difference-makers, what makes a program successful, how do you bring that to other places in life. I think they were getting a little bit sick of me. Obviously, it's a very different game, but it was pretty cool to be able to be on that level playing field and say, 'you've been doing this for a long time, what do you know that I can take back to my program as I embark on this journey?' Everybody was really encouraging. They still wanted to make sure I'd make it to some TCU games in the fall. I think I can make it work.

Q. You talked about loving football as a girl, and now here you are, getting to be the coach. At what point will there be a twinge of envy that these girls get to play a sport that you wish you got to play at their age?

A. So, so much. My high school football team was really bad, so maybe I could have suited up. When I sat down in my first interview for this position, I told the group that I had waited my entire life for my four years of undefeated flag football, playing for my sorority, to actually matter on a résumé. For this to be that moment feels like I've finally come full circle. I think it's awesome. Sports in general bring so much positive to young people's lives. All of the things I talked about: the spirit of collaboration, the teamwork, the accountability, having to work in difficult circumstances, overcoming adversity, having to get along with people you might not choose to spend time with, the leadership – there are so many positives that come from being a part of a sport. Football is unique in how team-oriented it is. You hear football coaches talk all the time about 'doing your one of eleven.' All 11 people have to be on the same page, or an assignment gets blown or a run doesn't break or the quarterback gets sacked. It's so evident in that game. It is the ultimate team sport, and I think we're going to see that bear out this fall. 

I would have loved to be a high school quarterback, more than anything in the world. I don't think I can throw a football as far as I used to, but I can't wait to throw a couple of routes every now and again this fall. To see these girls have that opportunity, and to see where this sport will go from here, I'm certainly envious but also so happy that they will get to experience something that I could have only dreamed of when I was their age. 

St. Francis flag football will hold an informational meeting on the first day of school (August 14) with tryouts running throughout that week. Any interested students should first register on FinalForms ASAP, as all details to athletes and families will be disseminated through there. The 2023 schedule is now available on https://gotroubies.com/sports/flagfball/2023-24/schedule.