The DeKalb girls flag football team will make history Monday with its first game, a home contest against Belvidere.

The roster includes longtime advocates like senior quarterback Angela Gary, who pushed for the program’s creation, and newcomers like junior safety Kaylee Tenard, who joined for fun and ended up enjoying the sport.

“We have a bunch of great girls and they’re dedicated,” coach Cedric Little said. “They’re having fun. They like being out here. Everybody is just ready to play. That’s the main thing. We’re just ready to play, have a good time out here and show everybody what we can do and why we actually have a team.”

The IHSA is in its second year of sponsoring the sport. The Barbs are the first area team to offer the sport and join Naperville Central and Naperville North as the only DuPage Valley Conference schools to offer it.

Gary, a thrower on the track team, had pushed for the sport in the spring of 2023 ahead of its fall 2024 debut. Logistics kept it from getting off the ground in DeKalb last year, although the team did play Naperville Central, Naperville North and Metea Valley in scrimmages over a weekend, scoring over 100 points and winning all four games, according to Little and Gary.

Official workouts started in July.

“I’m really happy to be a part of this foundation,” Gary said. “Me and another friend did come to Cedric, and were like, ‘We should have a flag football team.’ It did take a while to get it started but eventually we did get it. I’m actually really happy because this is an amazing opportunity to have.”

The game is played on a standard 100-yard field. Teams need 20 yards to achieve a first down. There are punts but no extra points or field goals. There are two post-touchdown conversions – a one-point attempt from 3 yards out and a two-point try from 10 yards out.

Seven players are on the field for each team, and the defense is allowed to send one pass rusher who must be at least a yard behind the line of scrimmage.

Tenard said she didn’t know anything about the sport when she came to practices in July. She said her friends asked her to come out.

“Then I was like, OK, we’re doing a new sport. Might as well,” said Tenard, a junior who also plays point guard in the DeKalb basketball program. “Since the team is coming up, I might as well.”

Eight teams made the state tournament last year, played over two days at Willowbrook High School. Fremd beat Rockford Guilford 24-12 to win the inaugural title.

The IHSA lists 220 programs competing this year. The postseason is run like non-football sports, with regionals, sectionals and a supersectional. Every team makes the playoffs.

The offense, Little said, is similar to an I-formation with the quarterback under center, one running back and two receivers on each side of the field.

Little said he really likes the team’s offensive capabilities, led by Gary. He said Kayden Johnson is a solid target for Gary, and Sarah Foltz has done a good job at center.

“They’ve been here from the beginning and they are great,” Little said of Gary, Foltz and Johnson. “They’re dedicated to the team and they’re ready to go. They’re ready to grind. They’re dying to play a game.”

Tenard said it’s fun helping to build a program from the ground up, even if she was unfamiliar with it just two months ago. That kind of attitude, Little said, is prevalent among the team.

Gary said she’s really looking forward to Monday’s game against the Bucs, who went 0-9 last year and were shut out eight times.

“You never know what the outcome could be,” Gary said. “The team could be good, the team could be bad. But either way we’re all here to play and at the end of the day we could get scholarships. Or we can make new friends.”