DANVILLE — After learning a lot in its first season, the Danville flag football team is ready to show what they have learned.
The Lady Vikings’ second season has them knowing what to expect.
“I think this season we have a lot of confidence,” Danville co-head coach Taylor Williams said. “The girls actually have a feel for the game, especially those who are returning. We know what to expect, but we just have to play together.
“We lost six seniors, but we have a lot of returning ladies that played on both sides, so we are very confident. We have some newcomers that we are excited to show as well.”
While there were losses, Williams said that there will be enough returning players for them to compete.
“We have Lindsey Porter, who was one of our top receivers last year,” Williams said. “Our quarterback, Kali Bacys, is coming back. We have been working on her throwing ability and we are excited to see her improvement. We have Ashanti Conaway, who’s one of our running backs and receivers. Ava Foster, who is one of our receiver and Serenity Martin, who is our backup QB and a receiver. We also have Gabi Rule, who is our top flag pullers. She’s short, but she is very feisty.”
But there will also be young players that Williams said that will make an impact for the future.
“We have some freshmen who are athletic, coachable and fun to work with on and off the field,” Williams said. “We are excited to get them in and wanting them to love it because they are the future.”
The veterans and the freshmen will start action today against an already familiar foe.
“We play Peoria Richwoods, who is our biggest rival,” Williams said. “We played them three times and they beat us once. They are very competitive. We just want to win and we want to have fun.”
While a lot of the things are the same, Williams said there are still some new changes to watch out for as the fairly new sport continues to grow around the state.
“I think we learned a lot last year. But since a lot of rules have changed, we now have to change some things for this year,” Williams said. “The Peoria teams got in when we got in, so they are in their second year as well.
“So we have us and them with a year under our belts. We learn every day, from games, to practice, to any changes in rules and we go from there.”