AURORA - This year, the Colorado High School Activities Association has added a new sport to its fall roster, with flag football joining the fray. This addition provides new athletic opportunities for hundreds of girls across the state of Colorado

and nowhere is that effort more evident than at Mountain View High School.
 
The Mountain Lions’ head coach, Tim Test – who describes himself as ‘the realest fake coach you’ll ever meet in your life,’ and a, ‘Ted Lasso-type,’ – has been tasked with taking 22 girls from seven different schools and bringing them under the same roof to form one cohesive team.
 
“I am about bringing people together. I am about bringing community. I'm about bringing fun times, and you grow when you're having a good time,” Coach Test explained. “I need these girls to bond. I need them not to be a collection of strangers. I need them to be a group. I always say that putting together a team is like taking five different puzzles, taking all the pieces, and throwing them on the ground to make a picture that looks wonderful.”

 

In this case, those puzzle pieces are a cast of students from Berthoud, Longmont, Loveland, Resurrection Christian, Roosevelt, Thompson Valley, and, of course, Mountain View. That list once included Windsor too, but unfortunately, its student-athlete had to step away from the team with a season-ending injury.
 
Yet, despite having to stitch together this wide assortment of players, and the season not even being two weeks old yet, the pieces are coming together to form a remarkable work of art.
 
“Oh my gosh, it was so awesome,” Keira Knowles, a freshman on the team who attends Berthoud, exclaimed following the team’s first scrimmage. “It was very hot, but it was so good to get a feeling of what it'd be like in high school, knowing that I have great athletes on this field and knowing we could get a state championship. I knew that was going to help us and lift us up to be better.”
 
Plus, the players aren’t the only ones enjoying the process. This herculean task has been a labor of love for Coach Test and a responsibility that has been, ‘a ton of fun,’ even though it hasn’t always been easy.

 

Although girls flag football has been blossoming in Colorado for years, Mountain View only entered the frame once CHSAA officially sanctioned the sport in April. The Thompson Valley School District hadn’t offered a flag program at any of its schools previously, but decided to change that this season, and tabbed Mountain View to be its first program. With nearly two decades of flag football coaching already under his belt, Coach Test lunged at the opportunity to help grow this program, and in turn, the sport.

“I honestly didn't know I would have a chance to actually be the head coach,” Test recalls. “I went through three interviews, and every time I left thinking, ‘I did a good job but there's no way I’ll get it.’”
 
Although he had plenty of experience in flag football, Test feared his lack of playing experience and high-level X’s and O’s knowledge would be passed over in favor of a more traditional football background. Instead, Mountain View did its best AFC Richmond impression and chose to hire its very own culture-first head coach.

 

“These girls deserve somebody that is really passionate about bringing this to life, about giving players opportunities, and about celebrating how monumental this inaugural season is, how special it is,” Test gushed. “And so when they finally, after the third interview, told me I had the job, I just let out the biggest breath. I could not believe it. I called my wife and told her a little bit and then the next day, got to work.”
 
The first thing he did was start spreading the word throughout the district and the region that Mountain View flag football had arrived and was looking for players. Test soon recruited Noah Tank, a fellow football coach with experience playing and coaching both flag and tackle football, to shore up his X’s and O’s prowess and help bring more routine to practice. He set up a series of free camps starting in late May and carrying throughout June at Berthoud High School, open to both middle and high school students. Those summer camps helped him cultivate a team of nearly 20 players, the overwhelming majority of which had no prior experience with the sport.
 
Then, on the first day of fall sports practice, four more girls joined the team, bumping the roster count over 20, which enabled the creation of a junior varsity team, allowing every girl on the roster to get more playing time and further develop their skills -- a development that thrilled the head coach.
 
So, just a couple short weeks into the season, Coach Test is already starting to realize his dream of providing this opportunity for girls across the state, and the impact has been felt immediately.
 

“We have way more players than the first team I ever played on with [Coach Test],” Kendal Finley, a senior at Longmont, and one of the few players on the team with prior flag football experience, said. “It’s great just having the variety of everybody, and especially with all of us being from different schools. It's just nice to see where everybody comes from and the athleticism they all bring to the team. Plus, when I played in the past, I played on all-boys teams. I've never played with a team of all girls, but coming and being on an all-girl team, especially seeing all these girls that love playing the game, it's just really different, and it's really amazing.”
 
Then, there are players like Mountain View student Ellie Roberts, who were pining for a fall sport that fit them but didn’t have one until now.
 
“I do two other sports, and I wanted to get a fall sport so that I can stay in shape,” Roberts said. “I heard they had flag football, and I decided to try it out, and I really enjoyed it, and thought it was a lot of fun.”
 
Kaitlyn Liddle, of Loveland, joined for a very similar reason.

 

“I played three other sports throughout the season, but I never really had a fall sport,” Liddle explained. “ A couple of years ago, I tried cross country, but it wasn't for me. This was my senior year, and this was something new, so I was like, ‘might as well go all out and try something new. It's your senior year, it's your last chance to do this. So, just go try it and maybe it'll give you the fall sport you've been looking for.’ It was really just a new opportunity, and I love seeing everyone's energy and drive to play and win. I feel like a typical stereotype with a lot of girls is that they're not as competitive, or they don't have the same drive, but it’s really the complete opposite. I feel like it's so amazing being able to watch this team and watch their drive to win and their competitiveness, while also still being good sportsmen, of course.”
 
Other girls, like Thompson Valley’s Jesika Hopkins, were drawn to the opportunity to be a catalyst in the world of football and help blaze the trail for the next generation of female athletes, as Liddle alluded to.
 
“I just saw flag as a fresh start, and a chance to finally be the first of something, possibly make a big change in the world, and give girls that will follow me more opportunities and encouragement to try new things,” Hopkins reflected. “It just makes you feel important for being the first, or, as [Coach Test] would say, being a pioneer.”
 

The foundation has been laid. Mountain View tied for ninth in the flag football preseason poll, and the Mountain Lions now sit at 1-0, after a rousing 34-0 victory over Thornton, with the rest of the season in front of them.
 
Now, it’s time for the next step in Coach Test’s master plan – continuing to spread flag football so that Mountain View isn’t the only program these girls can play for.
 
“We've already won, mostly because we made this team happen, even if it's just one school up in northern Colorado, at Mountain View, we have got one. We got our foot in the door," Coach Test ellaborated. "And just like with the pilot program for the Broncos, when they went from 28 teams year one to 72 teams year two, I think we're gonna see that same growth. So, no matter what, I think we have won already because we're playing. That's huge. But secondly, we want to show people what flag football is all about – that it can be fun, that it is an alternative, and that it's not here to take over tackle [football]. It's here to be an alternative way to play the game, just like how softball isn't taking over baseball.”

Coach Test might not be looking to take over the tackle football world, but his team is certainly ready to dominate the realm of flag football.