Most girls dream of winning Metro Conference and district titles in sports they’ve spent most of their lives competing in. But for girls basketball, volleyball and soccer players at Timber Creek High School, among others, it was flag football that made them champions this spring.
The Wolves ran through their regular-season schedule to a perfect 11-0 mark, which was good enough to capture the conference crown under the guidance of coaches Jimmy Buckridge, Mike Weems and Marc Jackson.
Earlier this week Timber Creek advanced to yesterday’s District 7 finals at Oak Ridge High School with a win over University and were scheduled to play Winter Park with the hopes of moving closer to the state finals in Boca Raton May 2-3.
This past season, by all measures, has been the most accomplished for the program and nobody knows that more than four-year varsity quarterback Cheyenne “Rabbit” Jennings. She picked up the sport at the urging of teammates on the Wolves’ basketball team following her freshman year. Not that it took much convincing by her peers, as she grew up playing tackle football with her boy cousins and their neighborhood friends.
“I played football in my backyard all the time so I thought I might as well give it a shot,” said Jennings. Since then she has adjusted to the nuances of the game after taking over the offense as a ninth-grader and is now reaping the rewards of her hard work. “We’ve been getting better and better as a team over the last four years,” she said.
Part of that is due to the addition of a number of seniors who are playing flag football for the first time after already being active in other sports through the years. And it’s apparent that the transition has not been a problem.
“Having those athletes that play more than one sport definitely helps because of their coordination, but everybody that’s come out are good additions to the team,” said Jennings. This season there have been many new faces in the huddle after several girls from a year ago opted not to return to the football field.
That caused opponents to mistake a lack of experience for a team whose future has yet to arrive. But teams throughout Orange County weren’t the only ones caught by surprise. “We actually surprised ourselves, winning all these games,” said Jennings.
“And hopefully we won’t stop now.” Senior Nikki Bucher has been on the team for the past three years, long enough to notice how the mentality on the sideline has matured. She believes that this season the girls have been treating flag football in much the same way as their respective sports of choice.
“We work better together as a team,” she said of the difference between now and in years past. “This year we really take every little thing that we do seriously.” Bucher plays defense, where she chases after the quarterback on game days, saying she has always been a fan of watching the Friday, Saturday and Sunday versions of the game.
After years of swimming competitively she was talked into joining the team by some of her best friends who had already taken up the sport. They’ve since found out how much fun it could be, especially while blowing out teams and winning close games this season.
“We do really good under pressure,” said Bucher. But still, who would have thought that long after graduation they would be linked to a banner soon to hang in the gymnasium proclaiming a championship in girls flag football? “This is not the sport that I expected to do so well in,” said Caitlin DeGel, who played soccer at TCHS before having a teammate encourage her to participate in flag football.
“It’s so much different,” she said of the two sports. “It’s much more laid back and we all just kind of want to have fun. “I don’t think we expected to do this well, but now that we are doing this well we’re getting pretty excited about it.”
Tiara Jackson, who played organized tackle football in South Florida as a kid over seven years ago, echoes the same sentiment. She never imagined an undefeated championship season would ever be accomplished anywhere outside of basketball, which she will continue to play in college after graduation. But the right combination of classmates, who have different interests athletically, have helped to make that a reality.
“Most of us were friends even before this,” said Jackson of the team chemistry entering the season. “Everybody knows each other and we’ve all been having fun.” Which is easy to do when you’ve had so much to smile about week in and week out.
