By Jessica Taylor

The Herricks Board of Education held a meeting on Thursday night to further
discuss the potential of a girls’ flag football team.

Director of Athletics Jim Petricca presented a PowerPoint to answer some of the
questions and comments from the last board meeting.

He began by saying that a number of students reached out to him regarding a girls’ flag football team, which prompted him to send out a survey to further assess the students’ interest. The results were extremely positive.

“In the spring of 2022 Nassau County, held a pilot program following
Bellmore-Merrick, Freeport, Hempstead, Locust Valley, Long Beach, Lynbrook, Massapequa, Plainview-Old Bethpage and West Hempstead to add girls’ flag football this current year,” Petricca said.

More schools interested in adding this sport are Bethpage, East Rockaway, Rivertown district, Plainedge, Roslyn, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Valley Stream districts and Westbury.

The New York Jets funded the program and are offering 25 sets of home and away
uniforms, footballs, flags and belts to the new participating schools. They are also
giving $4,400 dollars to each school to offset costs.

Additional costs would come to roughly around $1,900, not including transportation or
coaches.

Petricca also made it a point to emphasize that if the students had known about this
new sport, they would have presented their interest during the last budget
meetings.

He gave Ashlee Katz, the captain of the girls’ soccer team at Herricks HS, the floor to advocate for the addition of a girls’ flag football team. She said that flag football causes
“leadership and develops teamwork.”

Katz added, “We want the opportunity to connect and bring the community together just like the boys do during football season.”

She called it a “symbol of equality and opportunity”.