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Up North: Proctor becomes pioneer fielding girls’ flag football team
The Proctor Rails are set for a new beginning this spring, with the addition of girls flag football thanks to the Minnesota Vikings.
A coach of Proctor girls basketball but also Cloquet tackle football, Matt Solberg was at a coaches clinic, and struck up conversation with a Vikings flag football booth. Next thing he knew, expenses were shared, and Proctor had a fully sanctioned team thanks to the Vikings.
Now, it’s time to build from the ground up.
“We started with 18 and we’ve already had kids ask, ‘hey can we still play?’ They found out from their friends this is fun,” said Solberg. “You can see, we have very little knowledge. They’re learning on the fly, everybody is blank slate. They have no bad habits because they don’t know. They watch pro football or a college game or their high school teammates play in the fall, but it’s not the same as doing it. That takes some time.”
Practices started just weeks ago, meaning the team is in the beginning steps – there aren’t even positions for each player yet. But in the first year, it’s all about getting your feet under you and getting rid of the initial nerves.
“Where we are week one and where we are week four will probably be a different team because we’ll have experience,” said Solberg. “There will be some butterflies because they never played. A lot of these kids have already played varsity soccer, volleyball, basketball, whatever, well none of them have played a football game, so there will be some butterflies with that.”
While butterflies may certainly be the case, there’s a bunch of excitement as well, and a ton of confidence.
“I’ve always wanted to be a football player so, now that it’s being brought into our school it’s really fun. I feel like I’m a Viking myself, I have to play good so they’re proud of me,” said Gianna Hansen, a junior on the team. I play a lot of other sports with these girls so having the connection with them and learning the sport for the first time, it makes it easier since we all know each other.”
Routes are still to be run, flags to be pulled, and most importantly fun to be had, paving the way for the next set of Northland girls in the future.
“I have two little girls myself, this is something I hope they want to play when they’re in high school. A four year old and six month old so we’re a ways away, but 12 or 13 years down the road, I hope they want to play too,” concluded Solberg.
The Rails play their first game on April 27th.
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