The Class of 2026 is leaving the building, but for the flag football team, they are also leaving the turf. Last year, three current seniors worked to create a flag football program at Westford Academy. This year, they made it their goal to expand the program by creating a junior varsity team.
During the 2024-2025 school year, the Westford Academy Flag Football team was created by the efforts of senior captain Brooke Nielson and the athletic department at WA. Initially, the team did not have high expectations due to the lack of MIAA support for the sport being played at the high school level. However, the increased participation made it necessary for the creation of an additional team.
In order to bring their dreams to fruition, the team reached out to the Patriots League, separate from the MIAA, and worked with them to implement and create a schedule for JV. Since flag football only has five players on the field at a time, many players noticed an issue with a lack of playing time. The creation of the JV team made it possible for each player to get more time on the field.
“It came down to participation and the need that the flag football players wanted to have more players participate, and unfortunately there’s only a small number of players on the field at one time, so it’s difficult to get everybody into games,” athletic director Jeff Bunyon said. “We knew we had a numbers problem, but we did not want to cut people from the program.”
The two teams practice together at the same time and on the same turf. However, according to Nielson, the teams play in different games due to not only playing time, but also experience, for players to go on college radars, and to encourage more players to join.
According to the captains, with the addition of a new team, younger and newer players get more playing time. This gives them in-game experience that can help them play better further down the road.
Furthermore, according to senior captain Ella Doran, even with joint practices, the distinction between the two teams can help with practices being focused on specific skill sets.
“It’s definitely helpful to work on multiple things,” Doran said. “One team can work on something and the other team [can] work on something [else] to save [time].”
Another goal with the creation of JV is to encourage more players to join since a large proportion of the team consists of seniors that will be leaving after this season. However, unlike other sports, many of the players only started competing recently and have similar amounts of experience, so the captains encourage everyone to give the sport a chance.
“This is a newer sport to a lot of us, so getting as many people playing and learning the game was very big,” senior captain Maddie Smith said.
Since the state itself doesn’t sanction flag football, the WA Flag Football team is spreading recognition for the sports inclusivity. Regardless of the lack of opportunity provided by the Dual County League of Massachusetts, the school went out of their way to create this program with assistance from the Patriots League, further increasing the participation of young women in the sport.
“[Flag Football should] definitely be a sanctioned sport. There’s really no reason not to. It’s a very inclusive sport, and it’s just fun,” Nielson said.
Flag football, even if not officially popularized by MIAA, is played at the collegiate and professional levels. However, without playing in high school, it can be incredibly difficult for students to be recruited to college teams. With the creation of a JV team, more students are put on the radar for colleges and future opportunities regarding the sport.
“It’s harder to get seen because no one’s really watching you unless you’re playing outside of high school,” Nielson said.
Overall, the addition of the new team was deemed a success by the players and athletic department, with both teams doing well throughout this season. As of May 13, varsity has a record of 9-1 and JV has a record of 5-2-1.
“I’m very excited that we were able to do this. [The] overwhelming response from all the players [was] that they wanted this,” Bunyon said. “They’re doing a fantastic job. They’re having a fantastic season, both varsity and JV, and it’s really nice to see additional participation in athletics.”