Ramona girls flag football teams adapting to new rules in second season

In the second year of girls’ high school flag football, the two major developments have been the drastic increase in the number of teams and everyone adjusting to 15 new rule changes.

As far as dramatic game-changing actions go, though, it could be just the beginning, according to Ramona coach Robert Bash.

First, the number of teams has exploded so that now there are 79 programs countywide and virtually every one has varsity and junior varsity programs.

Second, when the CIF-San Diego Section fully embraced the rule changes adopted by the National Federation of State High School Associations, it forced many coaches to adjust their philosophies.

But it may be just the beginning.

“Everyone is trying to get everyone else to use the same rules, from high school to college to the Olympic Games,” said Bash, whose Bulldogs opened the season with an 18-6 setback to Steele Canyon.

“The problem is high school and college play 7-on-7 while the Olympic Games will be 5-on-5. We’re still working to have one game but I believe after the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, the sport will become so popular, the answer may be different seasons offering both 7-on-7 and 5-on-5.

“It would be really easy to add 5-on-5 because the field is smaller and the games are just 40 minutes long, so you can play a lot of games quickly,” he said.. I do believe the Olympics will have a massive impact on a sport that is already very popular.”

The Bulldogs are one of the few high school programs in the county that saw the number of players drop from the high 30s a year ago to 27 this season.

Bash is not concerned because the vast majority of the junior varsity team is comprised of freshmen.

“We have 12 freshmen this year and we had two or three a year ago,” said Bash, who noted that one of the ninth-graders is his daughter, Annie. “We wanted to keep them together and it works because we returned most of our players off last year’s team.

“We still haven’t added flag football to the middle schools like most programs in the county, but that’s next.”

Bash did say some of the last year’s players decided to focus on other school activities and that the controversial rule changes had no impact.

About those changes.

“I’m really undecided after just one game about the new rules, especially how it applies to safety,” he said. “The major change is allowing the defense to line up a yard off the ball instead of seven yards back like last year. To counter that, the quarterback now has unlimited time to get rid of the ball (instead of seven seconds) and this year they can run.

“The thing that most coaches are concerned about are the blocking rules. You still can’t block like they do in football, but you can establish position to set up screens. Think basketball, because it’s fast like that, so I call it basketball on grass.

“But the officials now have to try to make sure that the blockers have established their position and I think the sport, which was pretty physical last year, is much more so this year.

“Adding punting this year is just asking for more collisions and potentially more injuries.”

Most schools so far are charging hard from both defensive end positions and as a result, the quarterbacks have to get rid of the ball sooner. Bash says he uses his receivers to set legal screens before going out to catch a pass.

“The first game I thought I had a pretty good handle on most of the rule changes, but the officials didn’t always agree,” he said. “We will get on the same page as the season progresses.

“The new rule I don’t like is last year the quarterback couldn’t run inside the opponents’ 5-yard line but now they can. It’s very difficult to defend. I liked it better when the quarterback had to throw the ball — I think allowing the quarterback to run down there makes it a much more physical game. They should just go back.”

Mind you, the Bulldogs returned their quarterback, Holly Hoffman, and Bash says although she has a very strong arm, she is also a good runner, which is a plus. He’d still like to go back for safety-sake.

“Things like more colleges offering flag football and it being in the Olympic Games are just going to make an already popular, fun sport, even more so,” he said.