Girls Excited for New Flag Football Season

Flag football is a fairly new sport at Nutley High, and many efforts have been made to increase participation and interest in the sport. This is many of these girls' first introduction to this sport and it gives something new for everyone in the school to enjoy as a player or a spectator. History Teacher and Coach Robert Porrino is trying his best to make all the veteran and new members of the team comfortable and capable of growing in a safe learning environment.

Porrino is making sure the team members have a great year. He shared vital information that the girls should know before they begin to play: “Some of the things that I continue to get out to the new girls who have never played before is that this is a new and growing sport for our female athletes. It could seem intimidating and appear that many of the veteran girls on our team and on other teams are light years ahead of them. That is just not their case.” He is very passionate about the fact that if this is new to some girls, that everyone is moving at their own pace, so all levels of skill are welcome.

When it comes to the actual aspect of coaching and holding practices, Porrino is very diligent in making sure that no athlete on his team, especially the ones doing multiple sports, are overworked or burnt out. He said “Most of our athletes are also on the track team and I am also a track coach so we have to navigate around our track schedule, available field time, and make sure we are not overworking our athletes that are doing multiple sports. We usually have practice 2-3 times per week at 5:45 PM on the oval with one game per week starting the first week of April.”

Since the season hasn’t officially started yet, there is still an opportunity to pursue the sport if students are interested, and Porrino encourages any girl who wants to play to participate. “Right now we are accepting all girls who would like to play flag football and are not making cuts. It is difficult not making cuts because we have seven starting spots, but I want every girl to come out and have the opportunity to try something they never did and have the possibility of growing and getting better as the sport grows.” Porrino is trying to get team members and spectators excited and engaged this season: “I hope our team environment and culture is creating an atmosphere where girls know we take the sport seriously and really care about growing the sport.”

This is Senior Skye Stoeckel’s first official year as a part of the team. Stoeckel is no stranger to the spring sports here at Nutley, as she used to play for the Girls Softball team but decided to take a different route this year. She said that she heard about the sport through some of her friends and Coach Porrino, who suggested to her to try out and see if she would like to play. Stoeckel was looking to fill in the time that she gained from leaving softball:  “I had just quit the sport that I have been playing in the spring for the past three years and overheard my friends talking about it and thought it might be a good idea.” She had also expressed her excitement about joining the team: “I am really looking forward to experiencing a new sport with my friends and being able to try something new and different my senior year.” Stoeckel will be starting this year as the team’s wide receiver.

The first game for these girls will begin on April 2nd 2025 at 7 pm at the Oval.