Wilcox Flag Football Cruises Past Mustangs

After a tough first season, the Wilcox Chargers flag football team has made massive strides this season reaching an 11-4 mark in league.

A year after their inaugural season saw them finish with a sub-500 league record at 3-4, the Wilcox Chargers varsity flag football team didn’t simply take a small step for Wilcox, they took a giant leap for Chargers-kind with an incredible 11-4 mark in league.

The Chargers ended the season on a three-game winning streak, knocking off rival Palo Alto twice (19-7 and 14-12). Those two wins sandwiched a blowout win over the Homestead Mustangs, 48-12. The Voice was in attendance for the Mustang mow down. Leading the way with multiple touchdowns, both rushing and receiving, was freshman Jalisse Padilla. Whenever the Chargers needed a big play, No. 21 was the team’s go-to playmaker. Arguably, Padilla’s biggest highlight was a deep, 40-yard touchdown catch on a perfectly thrown ball in stride from quarterback Jesika Souza.

“My original route wasn’t what I was running, so I just played it off what I was reading from their corner,” admitted Padilla. “Once I saw her come up and press, I was like ‘ok, let me see if I can go long,’ so I went long, and [Jesika] looked at me, and then she looked away, so I thought I wasn’t going to get it. But then she looked back, and I saw the ball coming, and I managed to catch it.”

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For the outside observer, it’s really fantastic to see how the Wilcox flag football program is catching on. This year’s team features girls from various varsity teams in other sports, including softball, wrestling, soccer and track and field. For some, this is a new group of friends that otherwise might never have come together. With the new program, though, has come strong bonds with the new friendships.

“I had no idea flag football was even a thing,” joked senior Nathalie Gonzalez on joining the team for last year’s inaugural season. “A friend kind of dragged me from track training to join. I didn’t think I was going to like it, but turns out there is nowhere else I would rather be. Flag football is definitely my sport. I’m really happy with the friends that I have met and the environment that this sport brings. There are some girls I probably wouldn’t have ever talked to until we started flag football. With that, I know have more people to say hi to in the halls. It creates so much bigger of a community than I would have had without it.”

Speaking of growing a tight-knit community, Chargers Head Coach Christina Watkins could not have been more complimentary of the support from the boys’ football program. Joining her on the sidelines for the win over Homestead was Emmit Palacios, the Chargers’ Defensive Ends coach for the boys’ varsity football team.

“I love having the guys’ football coaches out here,” beamed Watkins after the win over Homestead. “It is amazing to have that support, the boys’ football, the whole program in general has been really supportive of us.”