Champs! Northside wins first conference flag football title

Published 11:34 pm Sunday, December 15, 2024

By Jason O. Boyd

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GREENVILLE, N.C. — The celebration for Northside’s flag football team began as soon as the officials said time had expired.

They jumped in the air with excitement, rushed to hug each other and took the celebration to the sidelines, where it continued with other teammates. The Panthers quickly formed a line to shake hands with Ayden-Grifton, the team they had just beaten 12-6 in the Coastal Big 12 Conference title game. As soon as that was over, the celebration picked up on the sideline … this time with a giant trophy that signified their victory. There were also lots of pictures taken and interviews with the media.

Saturday’s win at East Carolina University’s North Recreational Complex was not only an exciting one for the Northside players, coaches and fans, but it was also historic. Schools across North Carolina over the last two years have taken to flag football like a duck to water, with many holding their own conference and state titles. However, the NC High School Athletic Association met recently and chose not to sanction the new sport for the 2024-25 season.

But it’s only a matter of time. Most of the ladies who participated from the 12 schools in the conference during the inaugural season agreed. On top of that, Northside will always have this moment to remember as the first to take home a title. Together, all of the teams played a role in laying the groundwork for a new sport for high school girls to play.

“It’s amazing,” said Madison Scheffler, who caught a touchdown and picked off two Ayden-Grifton passes. “I mean, we go to a 1A school. We’re the smallest school here.

“We’ve never done this until this year. So I think it’s really cool that, despite that, we were able to win this game. It was a ton of fun the whole time.”

As with any sport, there was hard work and extra time devoted to learning how to play, the offensive and defensive schemes and the other aspects of the new game. A lot of the Northside players are also on the girls’ basketball team along with Michelle Leathers, the head coach of both squads. So some days had practice for both sports. Throw in learning many of the plays drawn up by Jared Adams — Northside’s defensive coordinator along with the boys’ basketball coach and athletic director — and it was full speed ahead.

“It’s just crazy and especially as much as it grew in the short amount of time,” Northside quarterback Riley Hudson. “We’ve had a great time, especially to win the championship.

“These girls, you look at these girls, and we play every sport. I mean, we play all kinds of sports. It’s like basketball players, volleyball players, softball players. And to come out here and win, it means a lot to all of us.”

Northside won three games on Saturday, beating Farmville Central, Washington and Ayden-Grifton. Defense was a big reason for those wins, too. The Panthers returned two interceptions for touchdowns against Farmville Central, one by Scheffler. Tatianna Moore had three interceptions against Washington, two returned for touchdowns.

“We’re able to make … I always talk about adjustments. We had to move some people around in different positions,” Leathers said.

Things worked on offense, too. Adams has been busy adding plays to the offense and it worked several times as Hudson pitched to OJ Cahoon, who then threw two touchdown passes on trick plays, including to Scheffler against Ayden-Grifton.

“We did a lot of little trick plays, and it really worked well for us because, I mean, Coach Adams is the mastermind of our offense,” Hudson said. “He was working with us. He’s like, ‘I’ve got this idea,’ and then we run it. He’s like, ‘I don’t know if I like that.’ He’ll tweak it. I mean, it worked really, really good for all of us.

“And then girls like Tatianna and Madison. They’re dogs. They’re dogs, especially Tati. And, I mean, Madison, they scored – they’re on defense and they’re scoring touchdowns.”

Northside’s only loss was to Havelock in overtime in the first week of the season. After that, the Panthers won their final 10 games.

Washington finishes fourth

The Pam Pack made their way to the Northside game with two wins, including a double-overtime thriller with North Pitt. After neither team scored in the first overtime, Washington won it with a pass in the back of the end zone in the second overtime.

Washington finished 9-4 for the season, losing three times to Northside and once to Havelock in overtime.

“They finished fourth, they finished in the top four today. And then just coming out with kids who have never played football, don’t even understand the game,” said Washington coach Brad Horton, who is also the softball coach.

“First day of practice, we asked the girls, ‘Anybody know what a line of scrimmage is? Not a single kid knew what a line of scrimmage was. So to come out and learn how to set up, how to run plays, understand the game.

“Man, that was a big win for a lot of these girls. And to have the opportunity to be able to come out and play football, that they’ve seen brothers and boyfriends play, and come out and watch, and they get the opportunity, that’s what it was all about. It was great.”

More Washington Pam Pack

Roundup: Washington boys stay unbeaten, Southside wins two

Washington boys basketball to play in John Wall Invitational, beats Conley 95-68

Washington grad Terry Moore racks up two more honors for Duke

Wednesday roundup: Northside boys lose first game; Pack wrestling sweeps quad meet

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