P-CEP Prowlers are bringing girls flag football to the Park
· Yahoo Sports
Quarterback Charlie Lindstrom called a play in the huddle, then reiterated the snap count.
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“OK, ready, BREAK!” the Salem senior shouted during a March 18 practice.
She and her six teammates then clapped in perfect unison, the noise carrying throughout the North Turf Stadium at Canton High School.
“Whoa!” she said, laughing. “That one was pretty good. Did you hear that echo?”
That’s right, even breaking the huddle is brand new for the P-CEP Prowlers — the co-op team between Plymouth-Canton Educational Park rivals Canton, Plymouth and Salem — as they gear up for their inaugural season in the Michigan Girls High School Flag Football League, hosted by the Detroit Lions each spring since 2022.
On their best days, about 70 players attend practice.
On busier days, when some students-athletes are helping other spring sports teams or involved in other extracurricular activities, about 35 students show up.
But since preseason practices began Jan. 7, they’ve consistently had around 60 players give it their all to help the program get off the ground, from participating in an NFL-style combine (more on that in a minute) to attending five classroom sessions to watch film and work on the white board, and getting in the gymnasium for four walkthroughs.
Yeah, those numbers are staggering. When P-CEP applied to join the league before the Dec. 1 deadline, it didn’t know interest in the sport would be this big, which is why it doesn’t have three individual teams at the three high schools.
“With it being Year 1, we had the opportunity to be unified and wanted to do everything we could to keep it that way because we want this to be a boom here,” said co-coach Derek Hoffman, an offensive line coach on Plymouth’s football team in the fall, who also has three years of experience coaching the Wildcats’ powder puff program. “If we were at all three schools, I don’t know what the numbers would’ve looked like, but it would not have been evenly split. But now we know we have some of the best numbers in the state, so we’re looking forward to making the most out of it with the games we’ve scheduled.”
And the Prowlers will be playing a lot over the next two months.
In addition to four divisional games in the All Grit League against Northville, Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard, Saline and Ypsilanti Lincoln, they’ve also scheduled four scrimmage dates to prepare for the season and give JV players an opportunity to see the field.
They’ll visit North Farmington, Farmington, Birmingham Groves and Brighton, with some dates expected to include scrimmages against two or more schools. They’ve got their eye on the matchup against Kensington Lakes Activities Association rival Brighton, as the Bulldogs have a varsity and JV A and B squads.
“Everyone is going to get reps,” Hoffman added.
Deciding which players will see the field the most hasn’t been easy, but hosting a combine gave the coaches an early idea of what to expect from each girl.
They ran each player through a battery of drills and tests, charting results, success rates and times on a spreadsheet. After the combine, they ran an algorithm to determine where everyone ranked in each drill, which helped decide who would be the best fit for offensive and defensive roles.
“It was a pretty standard combine,” said co-coach Eric Newton, who’s also Canton’s head football coach. “We didn’t have them do a 40-yard dash, but they got tested in the 20, a shuttle run, a vertical jump and different agility drills to kind of show them the different movements, getting them all familiar with what football is like, especially those who weren’t currently playing other sports.”
The girls come from all kinds of athletic backgrounds, many with no experience playing or even watching football.
Running back Evelyn Stiglish admitted she was clueless about the game until she signed up to be Plymouth’s team manager last fall.
“I learned a lot, like how all the plays work and all the roles involved,” the senior said.
That brief exposure to football, plus her experience as one of the Wildcats’ most athletic basketball players the past three seasons, makes her one of P-CEP’s top players this spring. So much so that Hoffman called Stiglish’s math teacher to make sure she didn’t skip the Prowlers’ first informational session before tryouts.
“It’s the inaugural season, so it’s cool being part of something so new,” Stiglish said. “I’ve been friends with a lot of these girls for a long time, but I’ve never played on the same sports teams as them.”
Linebacker Natalie Jordan is another player poised for a big season.
Before trying out, the Salem junior had no experience with the sport, outside of watching her brother play two seasons of flag football when she was younger. She’s actually a star hockey player, starting in goal for Belle Tire 16U AAA the past two seasons.
Her quick-twitch reactions make flag pulling a breeze, plus her on-field awareness gives an advantage most players don’t have.
“Being a goalie, I’m basically the quarterback of the ice,” Jordan said. “I see how everything develops. I see how plays develop, and it translates out here. Being able to see the whole ice as a goalie makes it so much easier to read the plays.”
Jordan has played hockey since she was 4 years old and has been a goalie for the past 11 seasons, focused on getting to the next level and playing in college. That hasn’t allowed her much time to play other sports at Salem.
She once tried playing basketball for the Rocks, but missed three practices a week because of hockey. So playing flag football helps scratch an itch she’s always had. The Prowlers practice twice a week, and neither conflicts with her hockey schedule. She’s excited to finally play with friends and classmates.
“That’s definitely made it easier to come out here,” she said.
Many challenges are ahead, especially with this being the Prowlers’ first go-around.
Some are learning the ins and outs of the sport for the first time. Others are learning new plays, formations and schemes, with an expectation to perform when they line up for their first scrimmage on April 12 at North Farmington.
“The girls are picking it up,” Newton said. “We’re not throwing a ton at them, but at the same time, we’re getting them prepared for anything they might see when they’re playing, helping them know where they should be on the field at all times.”
Regardless, the Prowlers are eager to get the season going. It’s been more than three months of preparation. They’re ready to make their debut. They’re excited to celebrate something other than successfully breaking a huddle.
“Coaching powder puff, it’s just three practices and one game, and you’re always itching for more,” Hoffman said. “Out here, right now, this is our life, man. We’ve been at this since the creation of it in November. Since mid-November, it has been on our minds every single day in some capacity. We can’t wait to play.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: P-CEP Prowlers are bringing girls flag football to the Park