PREP PRESEASON: Catholic flag football starts preparations for state title defense

Hayden Fitts takes off for a big gain during the Catholic Knights’ title game last December. The Knights began pre-season practice last week. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE
Catholic’s flag football team completed its mission last year, claiming a state championship a year after reaching the finals, only to lose in overtime. But as preseason practice rolls on, the Knights seem just as determined to reach the finals again.

“It’s definitely a lot different, especially losing key players like Jamie (McGuire) and Haylei Mason,” junior Haley Ishman said. “But, also, we’re more motivated and more into it because of us winning a state championship and that’s our mindset for this season.”

The bad news is McGuire, perhaps the state’s top rusher a year ago, and Mason, maybe the team’s top athlete, are difficult to replace, along with a couple of receivers that were among the six seniors on last year’s Class 1A-5A state championship team.

The good news is the rest of the sophomore-laden team returns this fall as more experienced juniors.

“We have a lot to build off of, but we’re also filling some key spots, key players that left,” Catholic coach Whitney Toole said. “We’re trying to integrate some young ones. We have a lot of young talent. They don’t have any experience, they’ve never played before. But we have some key players back that are helping to direct traffic.”

A quality rusher is key to a successful flag football defense and there’s no one on Catholic’s team that can duplicate McGuire’s ability to disrupt the opposing offense. Toole’s challenge is to decide between older players who understand what to do and younger players who are still learning the sport but have the raw athletic ability to develop into a quality rusher.

“We have tried a little bit of both,” Toole said. “We’re trying to mix in some young ones with that. We have a lot of speed with our young girls.”

Junior Hayden Fitts returns at quarterback and said a lot of the preseason drills have worked on the little things teams need to refine to be one of the state’s elite.

“We just want to get better at flag pulling, running routes full speed, 100 percent, giving it our all,” she said. “Each day, we have a plan and there are times we do specific drills and routes and one-on-ones to help each other get better. If we mess up, we’ll do it again.”

Having a returning quarterback -- along with Avery Sadler, who lines up in the backfield as a running back or secondary passer -- gives the Knights some opportunities to expand their playcalling.

“We’ll have some stuff that looks the same but we also are going to be trying a lot of new stuff this year,” Toole said. “We’re trying to build on what we have but we’re also trying to integrate some different ideas.”

Junior Frances Rogers will be entering her fourth year as a flag football player, but only her second as a receiver as she tries to develop her receiving skills in practice.

“We’re doing our drills, we’re doing our scrimmages,” she said, “but we’re really taking the time to look and say, ‘Hey, you have a question? Let’s learn. If you’re confused, let’s fix it.’ We have a lot of new people that have come out this year. We have a JV team this year, so a lot of them need our guidance.

“We’ve had a lot of good people step up to take places. Both of our rushers are new and they’re amazing. We have a brand new receiver that is amazing. We’ve been working more on one-on-ones and getting around the defense. We’re working on running our routes faster and getting around (defenders).”

Senior Maggie McNeely, now in her third year on the team as a defensive back, added the Knights “have been focusing more on some of the mistakes we made last year, fixing where people need to go and who’s going to play what position.”

The Knights open the 2025 season at defending 6A-7A state champion Central-Phenix City on Thursday, playing a tri-match against Vestavia Hills and the Red Devils.

“I feel good about where we’re at,” Toole said. “Obviously, we still have a long way to go and a lot to work on before the first game. But with those two, we’ll see what we need to work on against two good teams.”