It’s not an everyday occurrence for a new sport to be introduced at Emmaus High School, which is why many EHS students were thrilled to hear that girls flag football was added to the arsenal of spring sports.

While the idea of a girls flag football team has been in the works for a while, the plan was officially sparked by the Powderpuff competitions that take place in October, giving the girls of EHS exposure to flag football.

Junior Annabelle Gavin has been playing flag football for two and a half years and is excited about the creation and possibility of playing for an EHS team.

“I heard Morgan [Fletes] and a couple other people talking about it [the girls flag football team] for a while,” Gavin said.

Gavin previously played with several different flag football teams, including Powderpuff and the Lower Macungie Youth Association [LMYA] which administers many sports for young athletes in the Macungie area. Before the girls flag football season kicks off, try-outs will take place March 3-4, to pick the teams for the inaugural season.

Another interested flag football athlete, sophomore Julianna Montero, who is relatively new to the sport, expresses her happiness about the addition of flag football.

“It’s always been a boys football team…so it’ll be nice to have a girls [team] in a male-dominated sport,” Montero said.

Head coach James Pletz addressed the students trying out for the team during a meeting on Feb. 11. Pletz emphasized his expectations for the student-athletes on the team.

“It’s important that when you come to practice, you give 110 percent, 100 percent hard work, and 10 percent fight,” Pletz said.

EHS isn’t the only school with girls flag football. Other nearby schools with teams such as Parkland High School, Quakertown Community High School, and Palisades High School have all added teams to their spring sports line-up. In addition to playing nearby high schools, the team is branching out, with a game scheduled against LMYA co-ed flag foot- ball teams during the season.