How flag football helped reenergize a veteran coach

In the spring of 2020, Doug Caines was exhausted and finished training football.

“The covid season probably broke me,” he said.

He was head coach Pueblos High since 2018. He was head coach at Santa Barbara from 2012 to 2014. He stayed at Dos Pueblos as a media arts teacher and focused on his own children.

Then, in 2023, he was approached to become the women’s football coach in the first season of sport. It changed his life.

“Honestly, I have never had so much pleasure in training football,” he said. “Man is fun. The girls are just a coach and want to play and most are the other athletes first. ”

The football receiver from Back Pueblos Flag, Brooklyn Hedricks, on the left, and the quarter-Arrière Kacey Hurley.

(Michael Owen Baker / For Times)

This feeling of pleasure, the players who want to learn and the parents who watch the game instead of worrying about university recruiters best describe the third season of Football Flag. Everyone realizes that this purity will probably not last long. Players are already receiving flag football scholarships at colleges. High schools started looking for players.

However, for the moment, participants like to have the chance to do a sport that was reserved for boys.

“Before the first year, I had never played and I never heard of it,” said Brooklyn Hendricks, the receiver of the star Dos Pueblos / Dos Défensive, Brooklyn Hendricks, whose father, George, is a baseball coach and also an assistant flag coach.

Back coach Pueblos, Doug Caines, center, speaks with his players at halftime.

(Michael Owen Baker / For Times)

She was a travel ball player for years in softball. His parents spent a lot of time and money taking her to games across the country. Guess what happened in its first year of high school?

“Softball was my best sport, but Football Drapeau is honestly my best,” she said. “Getting a scholarship offer is crazy.”

Dos Pueblos is 18-2 and is part of a solid group of teams from the county of Ventura and the region of Santa Barbara ready to challenge the powerful teams of Orange. Dos Pueblos took 18-1 Orange Lutheran at the overtime before losing.

“It was the most intense game in which I played,” said Hendricks. “It was such a battle in both directions. It was so fun. “

In addition to Hendricks, who has more than 30 interceptions in his flag football career, the quarterrier Kacey Hurley was a key contributor. Last season, Hurley was the center that made the ball in the quarter-Arrière. Now, she is the one who draws spirals, with 49 passes to hit so far.

The regular season ends on October 15. The playoffs will take place on October 21, 25, 28 and November 1 with championship matches on November 8.

Caines was revitalized and rejuvenated.

“It was magic,” he said. “The first year was so fun. No expectations. Everything was new – the first match, the first hit, the first interception. We were able to continue.”

Based on the experience of coach of Caines, a real trend in the years to come could be football coaches of 11 veterans who pass to football to return to the time of players who learn from scratch and enjoy every moment in training and games.

Meanwhile, players will continue to have strange dances before and after the matches, applying a neetblack as if it was makeup and, above all, having fun playing a sport that is not their main but could be one day.

“This team has excellent chemistry,” said Hendricks. “There is never a drama. We have a good set of coaches, we focus on pleasure. We love a victory. It’s great. But it’s more a family.”