They weren’t used to playing with each other, and they weren’t experts on the rules, but with varsity head football coach Thomas Gammerdinger guiding them, an eclectic group of female athletes with experience playing a variety of different varsity sports won two games to reach the inaugural Austin ISD flag football tournament final at Burger Stadium before bowing out to Bowie in a low scoring championship game.

We are pleased to make the groundbreaking tournament the subject of this weekend’s Tuesday Top 10 photo essay. Don’t count the number of photos please. At least it’s Tuesday.

CENTER STAGE, CENTER FIELD: Junior Ava Dallesandro performs the national anthem at the AISD inaugural Flag Football Tournament on Friday. Dallesandro was offered the opportunity to sing at the tournament after a joking suggestion unexpectedly became reality.

“I made a joke to the woman running the tournament about needing someone to sing the national anthem,” Dallesandro said. “She asked if I wanted to do it, and I told her I was just joking, but then my friend Magnolia Meisel said, ‘She’ll do it!,’ and so I did!”

McCallum was seeded second in the tournament and won two games to get to the championship. Before the playoffs on Friday, Dallesandro was told that she had received specific requests for her to sing the anthem at the next game.

“Obviously I did it again,” Dallesandro said. “It was even more sweet because my family made it in time to see it this time.”

Dallesandro described the experience as a dream come true, combining her two greatest passions.

“It was exciting because this is something I’ve secretly been wanting to do spontaneously for a long time now,” Dallesandro said. “[It was] a great opportunity for my two worlds of performing and sports to collide.”

Although the team lost in the championship game to Bowie, Dallesandro said that the experience was a meaningful way to connect with other athletes.

“It was a super special experience because we all kinda knew each other from various sports like soccer, softball, volleyball and track,” Dallesandro said. “We also got to meet some new people and were lucky enough to have two weeks of pure fun together with a super athletic and funny group of girls.”

Caption by Katie Martin. Photo by Julia Copas.

STARTING STRONG: Sophomore Magnolia Meisel claps as the teams are introduced before the first game of the AISD Inaugural Flag Football playoff tournament on Friday. Meisel said that being a part of such a new program took some getting used to.

“Nobody really knew how the games were gonna go or how the sport worked,” Meisel said. “We were all learning together.”

Meisel said that it came as a shock that the team performed so well in the tournament as it was their first time playing in a game setting.

“It was very exciting that we had made it that far in the tournament when nobody really knew what was going on to start.”

Meisel says the short practice time offered challenges along with chances for improvement.

“Some challenges we had were not being able to practice together a whole bunch before our games.” Meisel said. “I do feel like the team was able to grow a lot together through practices, learning the plays with Coach G and figuring out the game together.”

Caption by Katie Martin. Photo by Julia Copas.

HALFTIME HOMILY: Sophomore Hazel DeMont enjoyed having Tom Gammerdinger as the coach of the flag football team this season.

“Coach G was an amazing coach,” DeMont said. “He taught us the sport in the little time that we had.”

Bowie was the Knights’ biggest competition. During halftime, Coach G gave the team a pep talk to encourage them.

“Coach G told us if we control what we can and put everything we’ve practiced into use, we would have a successful game,” DeMont said.

The Knights ended up losing by one touchdown in a close final game.

“The season went super well, considering we made it to the championship,” DeMont said.

DeMont is excited for the next season to come.

Caption by Josie Linton. Photo by Sofi Saucedo.

JACKSON-WOODS SETS SAIL: After a pass reception, Kafia Jackson-Woods breaks away for a huge gain during the inaugural @AustinISD Flag Football Tournament this past Friday at Burger Stadium. The big play came after she and Izzy Vaca made it up on the spot.

“This was the first time we ran this play,” Jackson-Woods said. “It’s called Sail, and I got the pass and almost scored a touchdown.”

Jackson-Woods believed the short season went well, considering all the other teams competing had been practicing for much longer than the Knights.

“We only practiced for two weeks, and we were second place out of everyone in the district, so we did really well,” Jackson-Woods said.

Jackson-Woods was unsure about joining the team at first because she didn’t know many of the other players.

“I was like, I’m gonna do it because, ‘Why not?’ I love football, and I get to meet new people,” Jackson-Woods said.

The team had 10 plays, and they all had to memorize them quickly.

“I think we did a really good job running the plays,” Jackson-Woods said. “Our defense was so good. They did not let anyone get past us, and we only had a couple of touchdowns scored on us.”

Jackson-Woods believes the team played a strong game against Bowie, considering they only lost by one touchdown, which was better than many of the other teams competing.

To see more photos from the tournament, please click the first link in our bio or visit macshieldonline.com.

Caption by Josie Linton. Photo by Julia Copas.

HOME COOKING: Sophomore Tiara Cooks catches a pass, after the ball was nearly intercepted. The football rolled off the hands of a Travis High School player, and Cooks then caught the ball. The Knights defeated the Rebels in the tournament semifinal after knocking off Crockett in the quarterfinal.

The girls flag football team had a very short, but successful season, taking second place in Austin. Cooks was pleased with season, as they tried to form a girls flag football team last year and it didn’t work out.

“We actually tried to start a flag team last year, but that obviously didn’t work out,” Cooks said, “I was intrigued to join the team because my dad played football, and I wanted to try it out.”

Cooks thinks the team did a really good job on its defense this season and on having fun.

“Our defense was really strong throughout the games,” Cooks said. “We did really well in the championship against Bowie because we only let them get eight points.”

Caption by Sienna Martens. Photo by Julia Copas.