SENIORS LEAVE A LEGACY

Flag football team falls short of state championship goal

Alyssia Hamilton Editor-in-Chief

Four long months of dedication, hardwork, sweat, and teamwork ended with the team falling short of their goal, a return to fight for the state title. The girls beat North Gwinnett in the quarterfinal game with a score of 13-0, making it to the final four versus Blessed Trinity.

The semifinal game was held on Dec. 5 at the Atlanta Falcons training facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia. Last season, the semifinal game was supposed to be held at the Mercedes Benz Home Depot field, but it was canceled because of last minute issues with the field. Tailgating took place the day before the game, and the field was torn up and muddy, which resulted in the cancellation of the game.

“The Falcons offered to host this year after the bad publicity from the tailgating issues with the messed up field. It helps to make them look better as a company and bring good publicity to hosting after last year’s upset,” Coach Houstoulakis, head football coach said.

The indoor facility is 90,000 square feet but doesn’t have the capacity to hold a large students section. Marietta sold tickets for the game but there was a 150 ticket limit. These tickets were bought mostly from the families of the athletes and staff of Marietta. Cheers from the crowd came from families members, as no student section was present.

“It felt okay because we had so many supporters in the crowd. They traveled far to show their support and show us they had our backs no matter the outcome,” Kennedi Young (11) said.

The girls played through the two twenty minute halves fighting to score and advance forward to the state championship. Despite a winning season, the final score was 0-19. After the game, the team huddled up as Coach H gave an encouraging speech after seeing the reactions of his athletes.

Continue to pg. 8 for “Flag Football”