QBs in spotlight in Colorado girls flag football’s brave new world

Girls flag football is about to get real. Real fast. Especially for the quarterbacks.

“Your QB is basically going to have about a second to get the ball out,” Chatfield coach Alexis Rosholt said Tuesday at CHSAA’s fall media day.

It’s a brave new world for flag football, which has exploded onto the Colorado prep sports scene. After a two-year pilot program, CHSAA is sanctioning the sport for the first time this fall, and the turnout has been huge.

And the changes are dramatic.

The field size will differ from the pilot — 80-by-40 yards as opposed to 60-by-30 yards — although the smaller fields will still be permitted for sub-varsity games and jamboree tournaments.

The bigger field will mean more open passing lanes and chances for big plays. But the heat will be on the quarterbacks because pass rushers no longer have to begin their race for the quarterback from 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Any one of the seven players on defense can rush the passer, which is enough to make a quarterback’s head spin. Will they blitz? Will they fall back? Are they waiting to jump the route?

“The key to being a quarterback in this sport, to me, and I’m very new at it, is keeping an open head because there are so many things you have to focus on,” Mountain View senior QB Mason Premer said. “There is so much happening, and it’s all happening at once. So you have to make those decisions fast — pretty much as soon as the ball is snapped.”

Arvada West senior QB Saylor Swanson, who was named MVP at last year’s championship tournament at Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse, is excited about the changes, which also include the ability for players to stay in and “block.”

“For me, having a blocker in there makes it feel more like an NFL quarterback where you have to decide whether to step up in the pocket or escape the pocket,” Swanson said. “So, I’m excited for the new rules.”

Flag football remains a “noncontact sport,” much like basketball, which is a noncontact sport despite the pushes, nudges and shoves. And some pretty stout picks.

“Blocking is more like getting in the way,” explained Rosholt. “But there will be a pocket for the quarterback. Think of a blocker more like a cone, or a pylon. They are not extending their arms. The blockers can move but they can’t make any initial contact.”

Rosholt’s Chargers beat A-West in the finals in 2022, the pilot program’s first year. She said Chatfield has one of the best quarterbacks in the state in senior Alexis McClellan.

“She’s been working all summer on memorizing our plays,” Rosholt said. “Alexis is going to have a lot of targets available to her. So, we have been working on her footwork and looking downfield and following where her blockers are.

“I would argue that her ability to scramble and still see downfield is one of the top I have ever seen. We took club teams to other states this past summer. Seeing what she could do across the country was pretty awesome.”

CHSAA associate commissioner Justin Saylor, who will oversee the sport, expects a more dynamic form of football this fall.

“Anybody can rush, any place on the field, so that will change defensive strategy,” Saylor said. “So it brings in a different element.  You’re going to see a lot of screen passes, slants, things like that. It will speed up the game.

“Defensively, teams are going to have to be more strategic. If you just run an all-out bull rush, you could get burned. Or the (opposition) is going to dink and dunk you all over the field.”

But in Colorado’s new-look flag football, QBs are more important than ever.

“There is a reason why, in the NFL, quarterbacks get paid the most,” Valor Christian coach Bronson Stewart said. “But I will say that with only seven players on the field and everybody eligible to catch passes, every single player is going to play a very big role. But quarterbacks are going to play a very important role and they’ll be the difference maker.”

Last year, in the second year of the pilot program, more than 1,300 players across 52 schools played flag football. The roster numbers aren’t in yet, but interest in the sports has only increased.