After playing on the flag football team in the fall, freshman Charlotte Dunne said she wanted to practice in the off-season. So when she heard about a new club flag football team launching in Burlingame, Dunne knew she wanted to sign up.
“I’m most excited about meeting new people and especially getting stronger in flag football,” Dunne said. “Because I was a quarterback for high school, so probably just getting stronger and understanding the game more.”
The new club team is a part of an organization called Next Play, which was created during the COVID-19 pandemic. The name, “Next Play,” conveys the organization’s mission to inspire athletes to move forward from past mistakes on and off the field. According to founder James Johnson, Next Play expanded to Burlingame after Burlingame alumnus Angelo Medina contacted him about launching his Apex 7 vs 7 flag football club teams.
“That’s when I said, you know what, let’s get this next play organization running, which would then support your goals of coaching these teams in that process,” Johnson said.
Next Play now serves as the parent company of multiple clubs, helping them gain additional playing experience through its connections.
In the Burlingame division, there will be eight total teams: four girls’ teams and four boys’ teams. Flag football coach Denise Burch will be one of the coaches and the director of the girls’ division. Students in eighth through eleventh grade are eligible to try out, and the season runs from January to April, including seven tournaments across California.
Although Next Play is a competitive sports organization, Johnson said the most important goal is instilling a growth mindset in athletes.
“Our goal is to teach you how to work through that and move on to that literally, and that could be on and off the field, that’d be at school,” Johnson said. “You don’t get the grade you wanted. You didn’t get a position you wanted. How do you navigate through that?”
Johnson added that he hopes the new club will foster the training and development of local high school athletes, so that their players can also improve during the off-season and aim to play in college.
“We need to bring back where, if you’re local, if that’s where your high school is, that you have an opportunity to come to our program, get better, and then play at your local high school and represent your public high school,” Johnson said.
Freshman Sienna Pariani said she is excited to keep playing flag football outside of school, improve on her skills and muscle memory in the off-season, and train with coaches she already knows.
“I’m comfortable with them in their coaching style and stuff, and I think that’ll help a lot, because I already have experience with their way of playing,” Pariani said.
The girls’ evaluations took place on Saturday, Dec. 6. Burch said she looks forward to expanding the new brand and creating more opportunities for girls interested in flag football.
“We just wrapped up our third season in our district, it’s brand new, and the popularity, the way it’s exploding, is just so exciting to watch,” Burch said. “The girls get so into it. The parents get so fun to be involved on any level that I’m excited to see where this takes us.”
