2025 Outlook

Coach: Marques Lowe (2nd season)

Career Record: 10-2

Last Playoff: IHSA Sectional semifinals, 2024

Best Playoff: IHSA Sectional semifinals, 2024

2024 Record: 10-2

Aside from their regular-season and sectional semifinal losses to Bradley-Bourbonnais, nobody else the Kankakee girls flag football team played in 2024 could beat them. After a 10-2 record built by blazing speed on both sides of the ball, the Kays return a plethora of key cogs from last fall as they look to improve upon last year’s regional championship campaign.

“The regional title was fun, but losing in that next round stung a bit,” Kays coach Marques Lowe said. “I feel like they were better than they played, so if we can do that, and maybe get to the sectional finals or state, but winning state would be the ultimate goal.”

The Kays have good reason to feel they have a chance, as only three graduated seniors need to be replaced. Junior London Stroud was the full-time quarterback by season’s end, and fellow junior Lamaryah Smith gives Lowe a “1A and 1B” quarterback room.

“They both have deep balls with good accuracy,” Lowe said. “Now it’s just working on when the arm is tired, knowing when the play breaks down and what to do, getting out of the pocket and hitting your receivers in the hands.”

They’ll both have plenty of targets, as state track and field sprinters Trinity Noble (sr.) and Jasiah Hawkins (jr.) are back at receiver, while their state track teammate, junior Essence Bell, is joining the team as well. Another state track star, Da’Mariana Tooles, returns in the backfield with fellow senior Taniyah Sherman.

With Lowe also serving as their track and field coach in the spring, Noble said the program-wide comfort helped the girls hit the ground running when the flag football program started.

“Most of us had our mindset set with Coach Lowe, so we just made sure to stay in the game, made sure to stay focused,” Noble said. “That was pretty much it, staying focused in the game, at practice, in the classroom.”

Most of the same players will be on the defensive side, where their stingy unit allowed just 11.2 points per game last season, allowing two scores or less in nine games. Lowe knows that their team athleticism was the primary factor on defense last year, with this offseason providing more of an emphasis on the finer things, including taking advantage of the rules change that allows defenders to blitz from a yard off the line of scrimmage as opposed to 7 yards last year.

“Track the ball, get the flag, try to limit the runs and identify their players who have speed,” Lowe said have been the main talking points. “But mostly just making sure they’re breaking at the right angles and their awareness.”