Kelowna's first all-girls flag football team wants you

A girl’s flag football team in Kelowna could finally become a reality.

There’s been a push from the Kelowna Minor Football Association (KMFA) to try and create a girl’s flag football program for the last couple of years and now they’re just a few girls short of the necessary number of participants.

“Dean Kennedy, one of KMFA’s flag directors, along with myself and others have been trying to put together a girls’ flag program for a couple of years now,” explained Trevor Ryder.

Ryder says he’s coached his son’s team for years, but his daughter Lauryn has had to play football, both tackle and flag, on the boys’ team.

“Our sport has been predominately filled with boys, with a handful of girls spread throughout them each season,” said Ryder. “This year we held a few Learn to Play programs and tried to get the word out that we were putting together a full girls team.”

According to Ryder, that resulted in nearly a dozen girls spread across two age groups, which is a reasonable turnout but not quite enough to start a girls only program.

“We’re in a position now where we have one very large team, which hurts their playing time,” Ryder explained. “The hope is that we can get one or two more girls with a birth year of 2006-2009 who are looking to try something new. They would play against boys teams, which are one age group down, as they learn the sport.”

There is a coach in place for one team and if a second team was added, there is already interest from a pair of female coaches.

The season begins in just one week, which means they’re actively looking for a couple of girls to make it all happen.

A couple of teams in the Lower Mainland have managed to put together an all girls flag football team, but this would be a first for Kelowna.

Any interested parties should e-mail Trevor Ryder at tryder@kelowna.ca or kelownafootball@gmail.com to inquire about joining the team.