With conference play now half over and no win yet under their belt, you might expect the coach and members of this East Aurora High School team to be at least a little demoralized.
Not even close.
That’s because this is the first season for Tomcat flag football, and the 19 girls on the roster know they are going up against athletes who have been playing this girls sport – sanctioned in 2024 by the IHSA – for a whole year.
In fact, there wasn’t even a sign-up for an East team until a couple weeks before school started. And Coach Roderick Whyte was not offered the job until around the same time practice started Aug. 11.
But none of this seems to have deterred this determined group of girls, who know they are making history at East Aurora High School. Besides, “each game shows so much improvement,” says Whyte, who has coached plenty of football and other sports in his 25 years as an educator, but never a girls varsity team.
“Last week (against Glenbard South) was our most competitive game,” he says. “Looking at the film and seeing how we played compared to the first game … they are definitely showing improvement.”
Senior linebacker Gracie Groner sees those positives as well. But what also brings out that Tomcat pride is how the group has jelled as a team.
“We can’t ever be mad at each other, we are all still learning,” she says, adding that, while there are days “we don’t feel we are performing that well, we all talk to each other … motivate each other.”
And, Groner adds, Whyte “is the perfect coach” for this first season because “he puts no pressure on us” yet encourages “us to perform at our full potential.”
Monday’s game against crosstown rival West Aurora High School went much as expected. The Tomcats got crushed by the more experienced Blackhawks squad, who jumped into the sport last year when the IHSA sanctioned girls flag football, as did a few other local schools including Yorkville and St. Charles North.
This year nearly every Fox Valley high school has added the sport, says West Aurora Coach Jordyn McFarlane, with Batavia and Kaneland expected to join this ever-growing list in 2026.
Flag football “has exploded onto the scene,” she notes, pointing to the increase in West Aurora participants from around 45 last year to over 60 this season.
The players, especially those in multiple sports as many are, benefit from the “agility, speed, cardiovascular endurance, strength and hand-eye coordination it brings to the table,” McFarlane adds.
For West Aurora junior quarterback and defensive back Sarahi Carlos, it’s all about adapting and staying flexible, because “you never know when things might suddenly shift, especially when you’re up against different teams with all sorts of competition levels,” she tells me.
“It’s like one minute you’re cruising and the next you’re figuring out a whole new strategy,” says Carlos, who loved playing on the homecoming powderpuff team and decided to go out for football last year to try something new and “play a fall sport” to keep in shape for spring soccer.
“It’s teaching me to think on my feet and stay ready for anything,” she continued, “which I think will be super useful, no matter what I’m doing.”
For East Aurora High School player Ninel Alvarez, the chance to play football has revealed a talent she didn’t even know she had.
Because she’s always been “quick on my feet,” the senior had planned to go out as a receiver. But she soon discovered newfound abilities to “throw the ball around” and was named quarterback, which quickly “made me a student of the game.”
In fact, the senior has become such a football aficionado, Alvarez would like to play after graduation, as would West Aurora QB Carlos, which is a distinct possibility because more colleges are adding the sport to their athletic programs as they watch it grow at the prep level.
Girls are not only playing, they are excelling at the game. Indeed, one of the big surprises for Coach McFarlane was when last year’s captain Claire Anderson was chosen as a 2025 Chicago Bears Community All-Star winner, in large part for her leadership on West’s inaugural team, which posted a record of 13-4, won the school’s first regional championship and finished 16th in state rankings.
The West Aurora squad is on a roll this season as well, undefeated so far in conference play with a 10-2 overall record.
“For me as a kid, I always loved sports and football,” McFarlane says. “I even tried to convince my parents to let me play. So the fact we now have this opportunity to give to young female athletes is amazing. And I am honored to bring that passion to these students.”
Whyte too is having a ball.
“Each week I am learning as well,” says the East High coach, who has “read maybe 10 to 15 times” the official rules for flag football from the National Federation of State High School Associations, along with IHSA regulations “to make sure we’re doing it right.”
“These girls are phenomenal,” praises Whyte. “No matter how much we are down, we are still in the game.”
And when they scored their one and only touchdown in that second game against South Elgin, “you would have thought we won.”
This week’s lopsided score against West’s more experienced squad likely did little to change that can-do attitude.
“You would think it would be demoralizing, but they just keep plugging away,” Whyte says. “I always tell the girls we are going to have fun, no matter what … and we do.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
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