Girls Flag Football:
Bonita High School has taken the necessary steps to ensure its girls flag football program will be ready for the inaugural kickoff in the fall of 2024.
And it all started with the naming of Michael Mann as its first coach.
Mann is a teacher on the La Verne campus, and he’s been a member of a number of coaching staffs, including softball and football.
Of the 40 or so schools this site covers, Mann is literally the only person to contact this reporter last summer in the hopes of generating interest among Bonita’s female athletes from the classes of 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028.
Mann said they’ll field a varsity program in four months, but the Bearcats big-picture hope is to also build lower-level squads in the near future.
Bonita expects to play 12 games, including league contests.
As of today, Palomares League competitors Ayala, Bonita, Claremont and Glendora are expected to be ready for kickoff in August.
There is also the possibility that flag football may have tournaments, and that would serve everyone well in affording its athletes as many opportunities as possible to gain valuable experience.
While all of the logistics and planning are still in progress for this upcoming season, the plan is to play their home games at the Bonita High School Stadium.
The inaugural season will also include CIF-SS playoff games.
CIF-SS rules mandates that the field size will be 30-40 yards in width and 50-80 yards in length.
Mann hopes the new sport will pique the interest of the many multi-sport female athletes at BHS.
Bonita High School parents can email him at [email protected] if they have questions.
Lastly, I asked Coach Mann about his thoughts on leading the Bearcats into battle.
“I’m very excited going into this inaugural season. Growing up, my younger sister dominated in water polo and swim. She would go on to beat out men in Huntington Beach lifeguard competitions,” he said. “She was a phenomenal athlete. That’s when I started realizing that women in sports are a force, and have been for decades. My daughter, Peyton, has been heavily involved in sports starting at a young age, and that has opened my eyes even more to the simple fact that female athletes possess all of the characteristics that coaches hope for in players.
They have tenacity, passion, aggressiveness, intelligence, athleticism, resiliency and so much more. In general, women’s sports continue to be on the rise, and I would tell somebody who hasn’t been paying attention that they are missing out. Flag football is a small piece in the equation to continue to empower young female athletes, and I’m just blessed to be able to be included in this process.”
Quotable:
Bonita athletic director, Darren Baumunk: “We are very excited to get flag football underway here at Bonita High School. We have hired Mike Mann as our head coach. Mike is a teacher on campus with prior experience with Flag Football. I feel that Mike will do an excellent job. He is very organized, a great leader as well as a great motivator. We are just so excited about getting the season underway.”
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