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The Lancers have formed four lines, 10-12 players in each. They run and they catch. Over and over.

Many are wearing gloves. Some have mouthguards. Most are donning maroon “SC FLAG FOOTBALL” practice shirts. All are equipped with belts and yellow flags.

Girls flag football is a go at Salpointe. The Lancers are a little late to the party. But the expectation is that, like most other Salpointe programs, the girls flag football team will be good right away. Like competing-for-state-titles good.

“I think we’re a state-championship contender,” head coach Barrie Pedersen said. “I think we’re going to be very, very competitive.”

Salpointe plays its first AIA-sanctioned flag football game Wednesday night against Tucson High. The Badgers started their program last year. Many others — especially in the Phoenix area — are entering Year Three.

So Salpointe is, on some level, an expansion team. The Lancers won’t be the . Maybe the opposite of that.

The practice I observed last week was crisp and well-organized. Periods were devoted to special teams, offense and the two-minute drill. The finest details were emphasized, including how to angle the ball while holding on a placement kick, getting your head around quicker on an out route, maintaining lanes while covering a punt and where to line up after going in motion.

Pedersen knows what he’s doing. The father of three boys who’ve played flag and tackle football in the Tucson area — including eldest son Landon, a senior on the Lancers’ tackle football team — Pedersen has been coaching flag football for 12 years. He started out as a volunteer for , the popular and successful flag and 7-on-7 program founded by Toby Bourguet. Pedersen later founded his own organization, .

“I don’t make any money doing it,” he said. “I just really enjoy it.”

Pedersen devotes his afternoons and early evenings to flag football. He’s been an officer for the Tucson Police Department for more than 20 years. He currently works an overnight shift in the K-9 unit.

“I’m able to make it work,” Pedersen said. “It can be a lot at times. But I have an amazing wife at home (Kristin). She allows me to do this stuff by picking up a lot of my slack around the house.”

The squad he has assembled at Salpointe makes the experience a satisfying one. The players are serious but also know how to have fun. They sang happy birthday to him at the end of practice.

“My birthday was in July,” Pedersen said, laughing.

‘Awesome’ growth

Girls flag football became an official AIA sport in December 2022, and its inaugural season was the following year. Thirty-two schools in Arizona signed up at the start. Fifty-four participated when the ’23 season began. By 2024, that number had grown to 101. Now there are 135 statewide.

Marana and Mountain View were the first Southern Arizona schools to have flag football programs; the Tigers reached the 6A semifinals last year, when six other Tucson-area schools joined the flag craze. Six more are playing flag football this year, with the first slate of games scheduled for Tuesday night.

“It’s awesome,” Pedersen said. “I got to see it first-hand. Just to see where it was three years ago versus where it is today ... it has just exploded.”

What took Salpointe so long to hop on the flag football bandwagon?

Athletic Director Phil Gruensfelder cited two factors. The first was that he wanted the sport to grow a little more. Salpointe now has 13 potential opponents who are a short bus ride away.

“I didn’t want to send our kids up to Phoenix twice a week,” Gruensfelder said.

He also wanted to see if anyone was interested in playing. Salpointe announced it was launching flag football in January. The school held an “interest meeting” in the spring.

“We might have 15 girls show up,” Gruensfelder told Pedersen before the meeting.

It was closer to 115.

“One hundred and nine,” Pedersen said. “I looked at Phil and I was like, ‘We’re gonna need another coach.’”

Pedersen has two assistants: offensive coordinator Marcos Salazar, the father of freshman center/linebacker Eliana Salazar; and defensive coordinator Kevin Collins, the father of freshman quarterback/linebacker Isla Collins.

After some initial “open gyms” in the spring, Pedersen ran a summer program that had about 40 regular participants. Sixty-one student-athletes tried out for the team. Forty-five made the cut, divided into varsity and junior-varsity squads. The coaching staff is expected to expand next year to accommodate the demand.

Pedersen credits sophomore receiver/safety Aliyah Adger for spreading the word.

“She’s that personality in the school,” Pedersen said. “For lack of a better term, she was the one recruiting all the girls ... to come out and try it out.”

Adger had several years of experience playing flag football. The same can’t be said for most of the rest of the team.

Championship athletes

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Pedersen’s prediction for the 2025 Lancers is that so few of them had played flag football before this year.

Four have what Pedersen described as “tournament-level” experience: Adger, Collins, Salazar and senior receiver/quarterback Kenna Johnson. Adger, Collins and Johnson are team captains, along with junior defensive back/receiver Andie Tkalcevic. Three others played in local leagues, Pedersen said.

That’s less than a third of the 25-player varsity roster. But don’t be fooled: The Salpointe flag football team is filled with athletes who’ve competed for and won state championships.

Almost every non-freshman on the team is or has been on another team at Salpointe, including multiple members of the reigning state-champion girls soccer squad.

“We have a bunch of soccer players — a bunch of state-champion soccer players,” said Tkalcevic, who happens to be one of them. “We have basketball (players), we have some wrestlers. Any sport you can think of, they’re out here.”

Whatever they lack in flag football experience, these Lancers make up for it with athleticism, competitiveness and experience in high-pressure moments.

“It’s not like they haven’t competed,” Gruensfelder said. “They’ve competed.”

Gruensfelder and Pedersen are both advocates of young athletes playing multiple sports. If any coach at Salpointe isn’t on board with that, Gruensfelder said, they’ll be out of a job.

A handful of players left last week’s flag football practice early because they had responsibilities in other sports. They had Pedersen’s blessing.

“Most of these girls didn’t come to Salpointe to play flag football. A couple did,” Pedersen said.

Collins, a member of the , is one of them. She’s such a skilled player that Pedersen moved her from receiver to quarterback.

“I’m not in a position to be like, ‘Hey, we’re in season. I can’t have you playing softball. I can’t have you playing soccer,’” Pedersen continued. “I’m doing everything I can to try and allow them to be the multisport athlete they want to be.”

Knowing that the roster is chock-full of big-time athletes gives Gruensfelder hope that Salpointe will hit the ground running (and passing and catching). He also knows nothing is guaranteed.

“I won’t know until I see them play, and that’s why I’m so anxious to see them play,” Gruensfelder said. “When I was coaching, I used to talk to my players about ‘potential.’ What is potential? It’s defined as ‘possible but not yet proven.’ Do we have a lot of potential? We’ve got a lot of potential. But we haven’t proven anything yet.”

Adger — who played for the Salpointe girls basketball team as a freshman and has “absolutely insane” juke moves on the football field, per teammate Johnson — sounded confident heading into game No. 1 in year No 1.

“I’m looking forward to coming out with a win and proving to everybody that we are a team that can make it far,” Adger said. “I feel like a lot of people might be doubting us because we’re brand-new. We just want to prove to them and show them that we’re there to win.”