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The Washington Commanders weren’t the only team preparing for their new season at Northwest Stadium on Monday night. Four high school girls’ flag football teams from Montgomery County, Maryland, scrimmaged on the field during the Commanders’ preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
One team described the experience as “electric.”
“When we got down to the field, we were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we’re actually on NFL soil,’” said Sonia Pegoue, a senior linebacker and captain for the Walter Johnson High School flag football team.
“When I walked out onto the field, I almost blacked out. I can’t describe the feeling. It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,” added fellow captain Evalyn Grocki.
Teams from Seneca Valley High School, Paint Branch High School and Wheaton High School joined them for the scrimmages at halftime.
“Never again are they going to play with that many people, there’s thousands of people out there watching the game. They cheered us on like we were the actual team. And it was just … oh, my gosh,” Walter Johnson head coach Butch Worden said.
It is the team’s second year throwing touchdowns, running jet sweeps and pulling flags. Worden said he has been involved with traditional tackle programs but got involved with the inaugural flag football season last year.
“For over 100 years, the game has been around. They’ve been denied the chance to actually play the game. And so, I felt this is something I want to get myself into,” Worden said about girls getting involved in football.
And over the course of his first season, he saw the ladies on his team grow their love of the game.
“Every single day — and this is what keeps me coming to practice and what keeps me upbeat every single day — these girls love this. I mean, it’s an actual love for the game,” he said.
Grocki decided to leave the volleyball team and get involved in flag football after fondly remembering passing the pigskin in the yard with her dad.
“When you’re out there and the ball is snapped, at least for me, I just really kind of lock in on where the ball is and where the people are, and trying to get the flags, because it all happens so fast,” she said.
Pegoue, meanwhile, had some experience with tackle football before she joined the flag football team.
“I love how fierce we get on the field, even though it’s still no contact, there’s still a lot of energy around the flagpoles and the touchdowns and the interceptions and everything. I love to see it,” she said.
Walter Johnson will kick off its season on Sept. 3 at John F. Kennedy High School.
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