New East Laurens flag football team starting from first and 10 in prep for inaugural season

What’s it like starting a high school sports program from scratch? 

Monday afternoon offered a glimpse as the new East Laurens flag football team held its first-ever summer workout, and a selection of players (many weren’t able to make it this particular evening with conflicts tied to other sports) joined coaches to begin laying the groundwork for their inaugural season. 

Though a day or two’s worth of tryouts in May served as the actual starting line, this first official session of team training was more or less where the journey begins for this group making the community’s first venture into a sport that’s rapidly growing in popularity and participation around the state. 

When it comes time to spread their wings, the Lady Falcons are expecting to fly high. But there remains a lot to learn as they work to move the ball between now and their first scheduled game in September. 

“It’s going to be new,” said East Laurens head coach Shumara Carswell. “We’re the only ones in Laurens County this year, so we’re hoping to start it out good for our community.”  

As you’d expect, Monday’s opening day was mostly dedicated to some simple, routine tasks like unboxing equipment and getting footballs inflated. 

Carswell and her two assistants spent the few minutes before the start of stretching and warmups sorting through the items – all fittingly pink – as players trickled in and got on their shoes. 

Athletes of most sports are often lucky to see any ball besides a weighted exercise one on the first few days of summer training, which are typically dominated by running, and a whole lot of it.

That was definitely the case this afternoon as, after a quick chat to establish some expectations for the summer and season, everyone hit the track for conditioning work that dominated the 90-minute session. But they did ultimately break out the footballs for a few minutes of throwing and catching toward the end of the evening. 

The rest of the summer’s first week was slated to cover more of the basics, from the technique of flag-pulling, defensive footwork and more work tossing the pink pigskins around. Carswell also planned to spend at least a day inside going over rules and key differences from the versions of flag or touch football players are more familiar with. 

Step 1 of that process actually goes back to a month ago, when everyone first began getting a feel for things during auditions that identified not only the roughly 26 who’d make the roster, but also a few prospective quarterbacks. 

Once everyone gets the hang of the ins and outs of gameplay and technique, the talent that many of these players have put on display in other sports at East Laurens would suggest they’ve got a shot to be pretty good. 

“We definitely have the athletes, it’s just actually learning the game,” Carswell said. “A lot of the girls are just used to playing football outside with their brothers or cousins. A lot of them are playing powder puff, homecoming, and they like that. They’re excited. I think we have the athleticism to go far early on, but we’ve got to put in the work.” 

And make no mistake, success in flag football is just as much about its version of blocking and tackling as that of its full-contact counterpart on Friday nights, when speed and flash also tend to deceive as hallmarks of great teams. 

Here, the name of the game is consistency at grabbing and detaching the vinyl “flags” belted to each player whose removal ends the down. 

As for other key differences, all of a team’s seven players on the field at a time (including the center) are eligible to receive a forward pass; field dimensions (80-yards by 40, between end zones) are smaller, as is the regulation ball; there is no special teams scoring, with points after a touchdown determined by a try of optional length, and punts as the only legal kicks. 

Flag football also deems contact of any kind to be illegal, including up front where “blockers,” like a basketball screener, can only stand and obstruct the path of pass-rushers pursuing the QB. Stiff-arms and “flag-guarding” are similarly forbidden. 

“Flag isn’t a hard sport, it’s just new, it’s different,” Carswell said. “It’s not much that goes into it. Once they learn the game and we get somebody who can throw and catch and pull flags, we’ll be good.” 

Girls flag football has spread like wildfire across Georgia since its inception as a high school sport about eight years ago, when an investment by the Atlanta Falcons (on behalf of the foundation of owner Arthur Blank) helped launch a mini-league with participation from 19 Gwinnett County schools as a pilot project in 2018. 

The GHSA, soon after, announced plans to begin offering it as a sanctioned sport starting with the 2020 season. In the time since, the number of schools competing has grown to over 350, with upwards of 8,500 girls per year involved. 

Dodge County was the Heart of Georgia’s first school to give it a try in 2020, and achieved some immediate success as its team made a deep playoff run in year 1 and won it all in year 2. 

Hawkinsville, Treutlen, Montgomery County, Washington County and Wheeler County, along with a number of others in Houston and Bibb counties, followed suit in the next few years. 

East Laurens is one of about 30 statewide newcomers who are joining the fun this fall. 

Flag’s growth along the way has been spurred on significantly by continued investments from the Blank foundation, which this year offered another in multiple rounds of grants, the latest wave awarding $10,000 to first-year programs (including the Falcons’) and $5,000 to existing ones to help offset cost of equipment (as the state introduces a new rule mandating player headgear for 2026), coaching stipends, transportation and other expenses. 

Interest in bringing the sport to East Laurens goes back to about last summer, and school administrators spent much of the past year getting the pieces in place to give it a go.

Carswell, who’s in her eighth year on the Eastside, has worked previously coaching middle school basketball and high school track and field, with some football ties established recently as an official and clock operator with the local Emerald City association for the last several years. 

She was approached by principal Keldrick Burke about the possibility of leading the startup earlier this year, and after some initial hesitancy, decided the chance to continue working with many athletes she already knew well would be a great fit. 

“I was kind of trying to drop back from coaching, but when the opportunity presented itself, I prayed about it, and after Mr. Burke, he asked me and I said I’d think about it, and then he asked me again, and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,'” she said.  

Starting from square 1 will be a bit intimidating for coaches and players who will have a lot to explore as the season unfolds. But Carswell already has a great grasp on what it will take for the Falcons to hit the ground running this summer and fall from seeking out the counsel of coaches from surrounding programs – Dodge’s Clint Sanders as helpful as any – for pointers to guide the way. 

She and assistant coaches Travis Anderson and Jennifer Wood also attended a scrimmage showcase at Brewton-Parker University to take a few notes earlier this month.

The group will also get some great insight as they travel to Emmanuel University to participate in an Atlanta Falcons-sponsored coaches’ clinic later on in the summer. Multiple players are also set to attend a similar camp, based in Tifton, that’s geared toward athletes in July.

Getting a feel for ways the game is played, and a sense of how to organize things tactically, is an important step in the process. But the rest of the job remains the same as for any coach – managing personalities and motivating players to achieve their best in practice and games. 

As far as those things go, Carswell’s style won’t be much different than what many who’ve already played for her are used to. 

“They kind of understand how I coach,” Carswell said. “They understand that I’m big on discipline, and I wanted some assistant coaches who have that same coaching philosophy as far as discipline.” 

Summertime attendance, which will always be somewhat erratic for the athletes juggling commitments with multiple other sports (a majority on this roster are pulling flag football as their second or third), is understandably flexible. 

It’s the little things like transparency and timeliness – which were hit on right from the start Monday – that she stresses hard, knowing how much a practice of duplicating small details in the everyday routine can translate to perfecting the ones that make a huge difference in competition.

“The kids don’t understand it now, but when they get out in the real world, they’ll understand why we harp so much on discipline, even being prompt to practice and get started, being on the blacktop at a certain time, communicating with me,” she said. “I tell them if you’re not going to be here, to communicate with me, I don’t want to hear it from another child.” 

East Laurens will have plenty of quality competition from the surrounding area lined up to go against when it’s time to take the field this fall, with a schedule featuring a good mix of opponents who already know their way around the sport and others who are likewise comparatively new.

“We’re going to play a lot of teams that have already established a flag football program, but that’s only going to make us better,” Carswell said. 

A minimum of 14 games are required to qualify for the postseason, in which brackets are selected based on school size, though differently from the divisions that exist in other sports due to varying participation.

The GHSA, thanks to the sport’s recent growth, crowns state champions in five different classification tiers. Its flag football championship games are now played just like the tackle ones under the lights at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in December. 

But that’s getting an awful long way ahead of where anyone’s head is at for the moment.

Right now, the Falcons’ target dates are Sept. 7, marking the start of official in-season practices, and Sept. 14, the earliest they can play their first game.

Even Monday, players and coaches were already counting down the days.

“The kids are amazing. The family is amazing,” Carswell said. “I’m just ready to start this program. Hopefully we start it strong and just build on it.”