This year, McIntosh introduced a new girls flag football team to the list of athletics the school offers.

Not only is flag football new to McIntosh, but it is also relatively new to Georgia. According to Score Atlanta, flag football started to gain more popularity due to the restrictions COVID-19 brought along with it. Flag football is a no-contact sport. This means you are not allowed to tackle, shove, grab, or dive. A team wins one point if a player from their team manages to pull off a flag from the other team’s belt. 

One of the players on the team is senior Taegan Reiter, who also plays soccer for McIntosh. Reiter joined the soccer team in her sophomore year of high school. Not only does Reiter play on the McIntosh team, but she has been playing soccer for years.

Trust is essential in team sports. Although the team was recently established, they have been breaking the ice and getting to know each other.

“I feel like we’ve all gotten to know each other pretty well,” Reiter said.

The majority of the girls on the flag football team have already been playing on other sports teams, meaning they have experience with practice schedules, homework loads, team expectations, etc.

“I play soccer too, so my schedule isn’t very different from that… It’s easy for me to get my homework done along with doing two sports,” Reiter said.

Although the majority of them play two sports, they are still seniors. They need to start deciding what they are going to do after graduation.

“I don’t know which sport I am going to pursue in college yet. I’m waiting to see how flag football goes, but the difference between soccer and flag football is pretty big so it’s a tough decision,” Reiter said.

So far the team has played two games and two scrimmages. In their first two scrimmages on September 24, they won against Luella (29-0) and Sandy Creek (18-0). They lost to Villa Rica (0-14) and won Carrollton (13-0) on October second.

The Chief’s next game is a double-header on Wed, Oct. 9 against Bowdon and Chapel Hill.