Aliso Niguel Girls Flag Football started off strong on Wednesday, Aug. 13 with a 50-0 win against Corona. The team is yet to start league and currently has a record of 7-7. The Wolverines are ranked 50 in California and 75 nationally.
Their current team captains are Sloan Lorenzo (12) and Paige Balducci (12), both strong players that have helped the program the last three years.
In order to grow the relatively new program, Head Coach Randie Baldwin has been hosting many free camps in the winter and spring in order to encourage as many athletes to join up.
The team began preparations only two weeks after the last school year ended. The team practiced every day over the summer before their games started in early August.
They played five games before school had even started. The Wolverines had a losing record of 2-3 going into the school year, but they quickly bounced back with a win on Aug. 19 against Fountain Valley High School, beating them 45-12. The team also won their next game against Corona del Mar High School.
Despite having a “strong group of freshmen,” as Coach Baldwin describes them, the team is mostly reliant on strong leaders like Kailiey King (12) and Addi Rudel (11), along with other returning players. King leads the team in receiving yards per game, with an average of 43.3 yards per game. Rudel averages 39.6 yards per game, right behind King.
Every year the flag football program has “impactful seniors,” but despite this Coach Baldwin believes that the team “didn’t skip a beat, just because of the great leadership [they] have.”
On Aug. 25, the team played St. Joseph High School, where they had a close game, losing 25-26. Coach Baldwin sees this as a learning opportunity, while the team didn’t play their best, “they came back with a good practice,” and won their next game against Santiago, 34-14.
Aliso Niguel Flag Football is a winning program, having won back-to-back league titles. Last year they won eight straight league games, only losing five times the entire year.
Coach Baldwin hopes to win yet another league title and make a deep run into CIF. Coach Baldwin stated, “that’s the goal, and we’ve got some great athletes.”
The Wolverines then played Sunny Hills High School on Sept. 2 where they won 33-7. They then lost the next two games against Canyon and Santa Margarita with scores of 28-14 and 14-7, respectively.
Aliso Niguel Flag Football opened up league games Sept. 10 against El Toro High School with a 33-7 win. The next league game will be against Trabuco Hills High School on Sept. 16.
