On May 16, 2025, the Athletics Department announced via email that it is looking to introduce a new spring sport for girls, which will be either softball or flag football.
The vote between softball and girls’ flag football reflects MFS’s broader commitment to equity and student interest in athletics. While participation levels and competitive potential will shape the logistical decisions, the initial initiative itself signals a school-wide push to create space for more inclusive and engaging athletic opportunities.
The announcement read, “In an effort to expand our athletic programming and maintain a level of equity during the spring season, we are looking to charter an additional spring sport in the 2025-2026 school year.”
The email was accompanied by a Google Form designed to gauge student interest and determine which sport has more support.
Girls flag football, one of the options for a new spring sport, was recently established as an official New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association-sanctioned sport.
Upper School baseball manager, Arianna Arzu ’26, said, “I feel like it’s about time, since girls don’t really have the same amount of opportunities during the spring as the guys to play a sport, since the only girls’ team is lacrosse.”
Arzu continued, “As a baseball manager, I’m happy that we’re finally getting an actual opportunity to play, since I’m interested in playing softball but wasn’t that interested in playing baseball since it’s a different experience to be one of the only girls on a male-dominated team.”
With girls lacrosse being the only current girls team offered for the spring season, some students like junior Sarah Capparelli ’26 are hopeful about expanding opportunities, but also mindful of the impact.
Capparelli said, “I think it’s a great thing for MFS to add another girls sports team in the spring because it is kinda lonely being the only one as lacrosse, but I do worry that a new sports team might take members away from girls lacrosse which creates an issue in that department as well.”
Capparelli continued, “We have really low numbers as is, and I would really hate it if we lost more.”
Other students, however, are eager for something new.
Junior Jenaya Santiago ’26 said, “I’ve played football in PE and recess, so I’d rather play flag [football] because, since I haven’t played actual football, I think it’s interesting to learn how to do things like throw the ball and learn different plays.”
Santiago said, “I’ve been on the boys’ baseball team, and I know how baseball works, so learning a completely different sport like flag would be more interesting, and I think flag would especially be cool since we don’t have a football team, so it’s a nice replacement.”
Whichever sport is chosen will begin at an intramural level for the 2025-2026 season meaning the team will only be practicing and won’t be playing in official games to assess both commitment and participation to evaluate if it is worth trying to compete at the interscholastic level.
According to the Athletics Department’s email, “Student-athletes interested in participating need to show an efficient level of dedication,” and the sport that is chosen will need to show a reasonable amount of interest in order to compete competitively.”
According to Isaiah Coleman, head of the Athletics Department, the goal is to treat the intramural season as seriously as any other sport.
“I want to try to replicate a normal season as best as possible, so even the chosen intramural team will have real practices and will be practicing the same times as JV and Varsity athletes,” Coleman said.
He explained, “At first, we need to evaluate how many individuals will be playing the sport, but we can possibly create mock scrimmages and other fun activities just to see where the team is at competitively, even if they don’t originally start at the interscholastic level.”
Coleman added that expanding options for girls during the spring season was a clear priority.
“The spring season only offers one girls sport, as baseball and golf are both coed, and in golf only very few student athletes can compete and participate in a match at a time so we knew this was something that needed to be done.”
He explained, “We picked the two options based on recommendations and suggestions that have come to me throughout the school year; I’ve even had faculty and parents share interest in a softball team.”
As for the flag football option, Coleman said it came from growing regional momentum.
“How we came to flag football was from all of the initiatives and excitement all around creating flag football leagues in our area, and there’s so much energy surrounding girls’ flag football, especially with it now being recognized as a NJSIAA-sanctioned sport.”
Ultimately, Isaiah shared that the decision is in the community’s hands.
“I just figured I’d put it out to the community to see who would be interested, and whichever sport gets the most interest is the sport that we will focus more on.”
