The girl’s flag football team, coached by Mr. Geoffrey Wickersham, has come a long way. They are currently 4-0, after winning two games over the weekend. On Saturday, Groves won 19-0 against Rochester, followed by another win against Battle Creek Central, where they led the score by 18-12.
The flag football team has excelled, having an undefeated season. All good teams come with good coaching and team ethic, so I talked with Coach Wickersham about how he prepares the flag football team, along with how this new sport has been introduced to groves.
As I talked to Coach Wickersham, I asked him what routines or workouts they run through practice, to which he responded:
“We do basic tackling, passing, and running drills to make sure we’re teaching the fundamentals, along with agility drills that I would like to incorporate more, [and] scrimmages, preferably a 7v7. When preparing for the tournament, we did 5v5,” Wickersham said. It isn’t news to anybody that hard work leads to amazing outcomes, which explains the undefeated season they currently have. Although, I was curious as to how Wickersham was going to prepare the girls for their two games this coming weekend
“The assistant coach and I went to go to watch Rochester play at Ford Field. I brought my notebook and sketched their plays and defenses. I watched a film for their second game against Clawson. This past Monday we came in and watched the film, and showed them stuff we need to work on,” Wickersham said. As I listened to him, I understood why the girls have been doing so well this season.
“ I want this to be regular football, where we can put our girls in a position for scouting, as well as scouting opponents. I’ve been coaching Powderpuff since 2002, but after 22 years, this is the first official flag football. Ella Kecskemeti is the reason we are doing all of this,” Wickersham said.
Ella Kecskemeti is a sophomore at Groves. “I wanted to start the team so that girls at Groves could have the opportunity to play, since it’s not something that many schools have yet. Knowing I’m part of the first team makes me proud; especially knowing that for years to come, people can always know that we went undefeated our first season,” Kecskemeti says. When the lions launched their teams, Kecskemti talked to Mrs. Flynn and Dr. Smith, and she brought back kids’ names who were interested. They started advertising in January. They had a parent and interested student meeting, then hosted tryouts in March. They had about 30 girls try out, ending up with 23 players. Nike paid for their uniforms, and the Lions sent merchandise such as cones, agility tools, and wristbands to put plays on: everything you need to start a program.
“ I am very happy we’re getting a lot of publicity,” Wickersham said. “A lot of other teams and the OAA are interested in what we’re doing, so hopefully next year, there will be a lot of more teams to come.”
