There are some moments in sports that become memories. There are others that become history.
For 24 girls at Scottsboro City Schools, this season is both.
For the first time, girls in the Scottsboro school system have a flag football team of their own.
The team brings together athletes from seventh grade through 12th grade, creating an opportunity for girls who have played rec league flag football for years alongside those who have never played a single down.
They came for different reasons. Some came because they already loved football.
Some came because they wanted to try something completely new.
Some came because they loved to compete.
Some came because they loved running, and some simply thought it sounded like fun.
But regardless of why they first walked onto the field, they have all discovered something bigger than a new sport.
They are part of something that has never existed in Scottsboro before.
They are the first; and that is something they will carry with them long after this season is over.
Head coach Ashley Smart and assistant coach Caitlin Terrell Jurcik know just how special it is to build something from the beginning.
Smart is a 2015 graduate of Scottsboro High School. Jurcik is a 2019 graduate of Scottsboro High School.
Both Smart and Jurcik played softball for Scottsboro High School, and they each played at the collegiate level before returning home and accepting jobs with Scottsboro City Schools.
Coaching has been another important part of their lives.
Both began coaching softball before becoming teachers and have continued to pour themselves into their athletes, students and community.
When the opportunity came to help start girls flag football at Scottsboro, it felt like a natural fit.
“I’ve always loved football,” Smart said.
She knew there were girls in the area who were interested in the sport.
She also knew that other high schools and many colleges were beginning to offer girls flag football.
So she and Jurcik began reaching out to see how much interest there would be. The response was overwhelming.
Approximately 70 girls initially expressed interest in playing flag football.
After tryouts, 24 players remained, ranging from seventh grade through 12th grade.
One team. One opportunity to make history.
And now Smart and Jurcik are helping them learn not only how to play the game, but how to build something that can last. One of the most unique things about the new Scottsboro team is the age range.
Seventh-graders are sharing the field with seniors.
At first, that could have been intimidating. Instead, it has become one of the team’s greatest strengths.
The older players are helping the younger girls.
Those who have never played are learning from those with more experience.
And the girls are becoming friends regardless of their age.
For seventh-grader Kyla Bell, flag football was something she had always wanted to try.
“I thought it would be fun, and I always wanted to play football,” Bell said.
Now she gets to learn the sport while standing alongside high school seniors who are experiencing the same historic season.
Riley Chisenall came to the team with one year of recreational flag football experience.
For her, joining the school team means having an opportunity to grow.
“It’s like you can actually learn more stuff and do more stuff,” Chisenall said.
Anna West understands the value of having older players around.
West played on a 6th grade middle school team prior to moving to Scottsboro, and she is excited about the opportunity to learn from the older athletes.
“I’m really excited to get to play with the older people and the seniors and all the high schoolers,” West said. “I think they can teach me a lot.”
It is a relationship that may become one of the lasting legacies of this first team.
The seventh-graders will someday be the upperclassmen.
They will remember the older teammates who helped them, who embraced them and welcomed them.
Years from now, they may be the ones helping another seventh-grader who is stepping onto the field for the first time.
That is how programs are built: one player, one season, one generation at a time.
For the seniors, however, there is a different feeling.
They don’t have years to wait for the program to grow.
This is their senior season – their final year of high school.
This is their only opportunity to say they were part of Scottsboro’s inaugural girls flag football team.
Addyson Crumbly had never played flag football before this season.
She decided to try it simply because it sounded like fun.
Now she gets to graduate knowing she was part of the beginning.
“I think it’s just going to be an overall fun experience,” Crumbly said.
That simple answer says a lot.
The girls aren’t approaching this season with the pressure of having to be perfect.
They are learning. They are laughing. They are competing.
They are making memories. And most importantly, they are enjoying the opportunity they have been given.
Senior Toccara Simpson also had never played before this season. She wanted to be part of something new.
“It’s the first flag football program for Scottsboro, so I felt like it would be fun to join,” Simpson said.
When asked what it meant to be part of that first team, she didn’t hesitate.
“It really is special. I enjoy it a lot.”
For senior Angela Figueroa, football has always been something she loved.
She grew up watching her brother play and dreamed of having the chance to play herself.
Now she has it, and she gets to do it during her senior year.
“I just feel really special since I got the chance to do it,” Figueroa said.
There is something especially meaningful about that.
For years, she watched from the sidelines.
Now she is the one wearing the uniform.
She is the one taking the field, and she is one of the girls who gets to say she helped start it all.
For Turner Kate Suter, joining the team was about stepping outside her comfort zone.
She wanted to try something new.
She had watched football players take the field and thought it was something she could never do herself.
Then she decided to try.
“I’ve always seen people play football, and I was like, ‘I could never do that,’” Suter said.
Now she is doing exactly what she once thought she couldn’t.
That may be one of the most important parts of this team.
It is giving girls permission to try something different.
It is showing them that sports aren’t limited by what they have traditionally seen, and it is teaching them that sometimes the only difference between saying “I could never do that” and “I did it,” is having someone give you the opportunity.
Ella Provens came into the program with approximately three years of recreational flag football experience.
For her, part of the attraction is simple.
She loves running. She loves competing. Now she gets to represent her school doing just that.
“I love it, and I’m having so much fun,” Provens said.
Ava Harbin also came into the program with three years of recreational experience, but even with that experience, stepping onto a team made up of seventh-graders through seniors was initially intimidating.
“It was kind of scary at first,” Harbin said.
Then she started making friends, and suddenly the age difference didn’t seem so important.
That is what happens when a team begins to come together.
The players stop being seventh-graders, eighth-graders, freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. They become teammates.
Autumn Garner, a seventh grader who loves both flag and traditional football, had played recreational flag football for three years, on all-boy teams.
When Garner heard about college scholarships being given and high school teams being formed, she was hopeful that Scottsboro would form a team.
And, they did.
Now she gets to experience the competition at a higher level.
One of the things she enjoys most is competing alongside older girls who she’s looked up to for years, as she watched them play other team sports.
It is another reminder that for these girls, football isn’t just something they are being allowed to participate in.
They genuinely love the game.
For the coaches, watching the girls come together has been one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.
They understand what it means to represent Scottsboro.
They grew up here.
They graduated from Scottsboro High School.
They returned home after college.
They became teachers and coaches, and now they are helping create a program that could impact girls long after the current players have graduated.
The team’s quick growth has also come with challenges.
When the program began, there wasn’t a long history of equipment sitting in a storage room.
There weren’t years of uniforms to reuse.
There wasn’t an established budget built around the needs of the team.
Everything had to be put together quickly.
The community has already helped tremendously, and the coaches are grateful.
But as the program continues to grow, so do the needs.
The team needs better uniforms and additional equipment.
There are game expenses, transportation costs and meals for away games.
Every dollar matters, and every piece of equipment matters, because behind every practice and every game are 24 girls who have committed themselves to 7 a.m. summer practices, evening practices in the sweltering heat and to learning something new.
The good news is that these girls aren’t doing this alone.
The community has already begun stepping forward.
The Scottsboro Quarterback Club is helping the program and plans to provide four game balls.
The organization is also selling raffle tickets for a football signed by Nick Saban, with proceeds going toward the flag football team.
The coaches have also been able to borrow equipment when necessary, helping stretch the money they have already received.
Despite all the help, there is still a need. The team isn’t asking for luxury.
They are only asking for the opportunity to build the program the right way.
They want these girls to have uniforms they can be proud of, and they want them to have the equipment they need.
They want the program to be prepared when transportation and other expenses arise, and they want to make sure the girls know that their community believes in what they are doing.
“We’ve done well,” Smart said of the support the team has received.
“We need to do a little more fundraising.”
That support means something different to every player.
To a seventh-grader, it may mean having equipment that makes learning the game easier.
To a senior, it may mean one more memory in a season she will never get to repeat.
But to all of them, it sends the same message: you matter.
The girls on this team will eventually graduate.
The seniors will walk across the stage and move on to the next chapter of their lives.
The seventh-graders will grow older. New players will eventually take their places.
Someday, the girls who join the Scottsboro flag football team may not even realize how much work went into creating the opportunity they now take for granted.
That’s okay, because that is what pioneers do. They make the road easier for the people who come behind them.
One day, another seventh-grader will put on a Scottsboro flag football uniform.
She won’t have to wonder whether girls can play.
She won’t have to wonder whether there will be a team.
She won’t have to wonder if she belongs on the football field.
She will simply walk onto the field because a group of girls before her already proved that it could be done.
Years from now, the uniforms may be different.
The coaches may be different.
The players will certainly be different.
But these 24 girls will always have something no one else can ever take away from them.
They were there at the beginning.
They were the girls who answered when Scottsboro called.
They were the girls who showed up to tryouts.
They were the girls who learned together.
They were the girls who encouraged one another.
They were the girls who crossed the age gap and became teammates.
They were the girls who took a chance on something new.
They were the girls who turned “I’ve never played football” into “I’m on the team.”
They were the girls who took the field when no Scottsboro girls flag football team had ever existed before.
They were the first. And now, they need their hometown to stand behind them.
Supporting this team isn’t simply about buying footballs or uniforms.
It isn’t simply about paying for a bus ride to an away game or helping cover the cost of equipment.
It is about investing in 24 young women who are showing courage, determination and a willingness to try something new.
It is about giving them the same message every great community gives its young people:
We see you, we believe in you, and we’re proud of you.
These girls have already taken the first step.
They have put on the uniforms.
They have learned the plays.
They have practiced together.
They have made friends.
They have taken the field.
Now it is our turn, because this isn’t just the first season of girls flag football at Scottsboro.
This is the beginning of a legacy, and years from now, when another generation of girls takes the field, there will be 24 women who can look back and say with pride, “We were there when it all began.”
To make a tax deductible donation, please make checks payable to Scottsboro High School Flag Football.
Donations can be mailed to or dropped off to Scottsboro High School, 25053 John T. Reid Parkway, Scottsboro, AL 35768.
by Heather Dohring
