For the first time in Arroyo history, girls’ flag football has been added as an official sport. With new sports come new experiences.

Coach Armando Santoyo is the coach for flag football. He has been a coach for other sports such as softball.

“Flag football was awesome for it being our first season,” Santoyo said.

Coach Santoyo was inspired to become a coach by “my own coaches growing up, and I took it from there for 36 years.”

Ruby Morales, a senior, is the captain of girls’ flag football.

“Flag football was a very new experience since it was the first time brought into this program, since there has never been a flag football team. It was a very eye-opening experience. Especially because I felt like many people think that football is mostly for boys, but I think girls could keep up as well, and I think it was a very fun experience,” Morales said.

Being the captain also comes with its own responsibilities. Ruby talks about her experience when it comes to being the captain of the girls’ flag football team. 

“I felt like it was very fun being the captain because I felt like everybody looked up to me, so I felt like I had to not be perfect, but what I liked about the team was that they let me be myself. So it was like natural becoming a captain.”

Sunny Chang is also a junior and the captain of girls’ flag football.

“ It was pretty fun, and it was pretty new, cause I never played flag, and it was new to the school, and so it was something I wanted to experience.”

Being a new sport, being a captain can also be challenging. Sunny Chang talks about her own experience and the ways she overcame the challenges. 

“My experience was pretty cool. I don’t really know flag, so I wasn’t really confident at first, but then I decided, ‘oh, I’m the captain, I’m going to take the lead and try my best to help out the team and be the best I could’.”

As flag football season has come to an end, their overall record is 6-11, having played 3 rounds in the Mission Valley League.