Taylor Van Dijk | Editor-in-Chief & Michelle Monier | Editor-in-Chief
September 4, 2024
For a majority of San Clemente High School students, a new school year brings forth a tradition of new things: new grades, new classes, new teachers, and, perhaps the most exciting of all, a new football season. Fresh off of summer, students look forward to getting dressed up with friends and congregating every Friday night, uniting as one community to cheer on the varsity football team.
Each year, this cycle of new things and new excitement begins again, but the question stands: with every cycle of renewed traditions, when is the year to break them and modernize?
This question has finally been answered.
With the addition of the Tritons Girls’ Flag Football program for the 2024-2025 school year, San Clemente High School has begun a new tradition within this repeating cycle.
Set as a fall sport, the program is spearheaded by Head Coach Marc Popovich and Kristen Dimperio. They have put together two teams, varsity and junior varsity, that compete in the Southern Section Flag Football League against other teams in the area like El Toro and San Juan Hills.
Coach Popovich is looking forward to growing the program this year and moving forward, regarding that he “always enjoyed coaching, and [he] really wanted to create a space for all the girls to succeed and progress as players and a team.”
The flag football team is special because most sports on campus are highly competitive, requiring years of private club training, but on the Flag team, most girls have never played the sport before. The group of girls was selected for their attitude, commitment, and willingness to get out on the field and try something new. Senior Kiana Breshears, is an example of this dedication, regarding that she “joined the Flag Football team because [she] thought it was so cool that there was a team full of supportive and tight-knit individuals.” However, flag football became more than a team for Breshears, it represented “being a part of a historic program in women empowerment where both students and faculty know no bounds in inclusivity.”
For many women on campus, the addition of a Triton Girls’ Flag Football program is not just adding a new sport, but rather a symbol embodying the movement towards female involvement in spaces that hold prominence in our community, spaces that have been previously inaccessible. With its planned emergence in the 2028 Olympics, flag football is a sport of the future for all competition levels, which is why this forward change within our own community is imperative.
Our flag football season has just begun, and the next game is on September 10th versus Capo Valley High School (9/10). So let’s show up once again as a community, and head on down to Thalassa Stadium to support our amazing new players!
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