Varsity flag football suffered a loss 30-12 last Monday against St. Anne-Pacelli, but they quickly brought themselves back the same evening with a 21-0 win against Elite Scholars Academy.
The Panthers played these games after losing two games the week prior. The difficult start to the 2025-2026 season has encouraged the team to work harder, continue improving, and push themselves to keep winning.
“I think we’ve had a little harder start-off this year than we’ve had in the past,” sophomore Andi McQuade said. “I feel like it builds us as a team, and teaches us what we need to work on and the things we have to improve on. I think that’s just going to make us better for the rest of the season.”
In their first game against the St. Anne-Pacelli Vikings, the Panthers held a strong defense, but they did not score enough points to win the game. After two touchdowns made by the Vikings, sophomore AP Heard made a touchdown in the 2nd quarter, bringing the score to 18-6. Senior Ella Campbell scored another touchdown for the Panthers in the third quarter. Campbell was playing on offense in place of senior Anna Bliel, who was out-of-play recovering from a concussion.
“I was really glad I caught it,” Campbell said. “This was a really good team, so it kind of prepares us for the later season, and playing up to other teams levels to get ourselves prepared for the hard season ahead.”
The game wrapped up at 30-12. Strong offensive passes from junior Kayla Peavyhouse to Heard and defensive flag pulls from junior Kinsey McEver kept the Panthers moving forward.
Varsity flag football does not just play one game a night. Each game day consists of three games amongst three different teams. While the double games create a need for endurance, they also give the team more experience and knowledge about the next team they will play against.
“It takes a long time, and it’s on week nights, it’s never on the weekend or Friday night or anything,” Campbell said. “There’s nights where you get done at 9 p.m. It’s a 30-minute drive home, and then you have to do homework, and it’s just hard sometimes.”
In the second game against the Elite Scholars Knights, Starr’s Mill stepped up their game and won 21-0. The Elite Scholars were playing right after a loss against St. Anne-Pacelli in between the first and last game.
“Defense is playing pretty well. Offensively, we’ve got a lot to work on,” head coach Mark Williamson said. “Offense, this is our highest output of the year. We need to be scoring 20 points a game in order to win the bigger games against better teams.”
The team has a lot to live up to as they continue this season. During the 2024-2025 season, the Panthers were undefeated region champions. Williamson would like to follow up last year’s performance with another area championship.
Varsity flag football travels to Newnan on October 28 for a 6 p.m. game.