HELENA, Mont. — In life you only get so many opportunities to be a groundbreaker or a pioneer but the Helena and Capital Flag football teams will have that chance this fall when they take part in the historic debut season of flag football in Montana’s capital city.
“I think we’re all really excited. It’s really groundbreaking. We’re just trying to make a really, like, positive impact and set the way for, like, the future—the future teams for Capital.” Bruins senior Seeley Schwenk said.
“We’re like the foundation of this program. We’re making some really good improvements so far this season. We’ve been working really hard this summer, like showing up to everything. So it’s—it’s really cool that we’re like the first team ever. And that I’m, like, my graduating class is the first one, which is really cool.” said Helena’s Marley Crawford.
The Bengals and Bruins will feature a number of athletes from other sports who were thrilled to have the opportunity to compete in something new like Capital’s Elizabeth Urban.
“I’m a swimmer and a runner. Those are both pretty individual sports, although they have team aspects and I voiced to my mom in the spring, like, man, wouldn’t it be so cool if I could go back and do a team sport? and then flag football came to be, and I was like, man, I’m going to take that, and we’re going to see where it goes.”
Helena’s Aubry Beatty meanwhile served as a manager for the Bengals’ football team, and when she had the chance to compete on the gridiron, she jumped at it.
“The second I heard flag football, I was already talking to the football head coach about switching up because I personally just love the game—regular football and everything about it. It’s just kind of been who I am.”
For Capital head coach Lucas Canney this was an opportunity that was years in the making.
“I got involved with the sport because I have a daughter and when she was a freshman, I looked at this class and I said, man, we’ve got to get flag. We’ve got to get flag. So, three years ago, I was really trying to get it and in the meantime, I didn’t really even know it, but the district ended up voting on it, and I was like, man, I’ve got to be involved in that…This is a good group of girls, and I couldn’t ask for a better class to start this with.”
Across town, Helena’s head coach will be Tom Cohn, who is the president of Helena’s Small Fry Youth Football League.
“We started girls flag football last year before the high schools even had it, so I had an opportunity to kind of help and coach there. You know, got to, you know, get a feel for everything—you know, how fun it was, the speed of the game and, you know, when the opportunity came at high school, I couldn’t hardly pass it up.”
The Bruins kick off their season Thursday, August 27th, at home versus Bozeman, while the Bengals make their debut a few days later versus Glacier on Saturday, August 29th.