Football
GIRLS FLAG FOOTBALL: Columbia’s small beginnings turned Giant in only year one
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — There was a time when recent Columbia High School graduate Matisen Roy would’ve had to call someone crazy if they told her that she’d be playing in a flag football game in MetLife Stadium, she said in a phone interview Friday.
After all, this past Spring marked just the inaugural season for the sport in Section 2.
Whoever would’ve said such a thing to Roy, would’ve also been right.
“At the beginning of the season, no one knew what they were doing; we were all learning. So, I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to be a fun experience, but we’re not making it past sectionals, realistically,’ and then all of a sudden, we’re winning sectionals, we’re winning regionals, we’re making it to state semis, and now we’re playing into August,” Roy said emphatically.
“It’s just crazy.”
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On Thursday night, the Columbia Flag Football team, after winning the Section 2 Division-I and NYS Regional Division-I Championships this past June, was honored at the New York Giants Preseason Week 1 game against the Detroit Lions.
Team members not only got to stand on the MetLife Stadium turf in East Rutherford to watch the NFL teams warm up for their preseason debuts but also played a game at halftime versus fellow conference title winners, Northwest Catholic, from Connecticut.
“It was very, very quick and we were all very nervous because there were so many people. But, we ran out, and then all of a sudden we were playing, so we didn’t have much time to be stressed or worried, and it just went by so quickly,” Roy said, who played wide receiver for the Blue Devils and even caught the team’s lone touchdown pass on Thursday.
“But, it was just a miraculous experience,” she added.
The Giants have been anything but a silent partner in the growth of flag football in Section 2 since it was announced the organization would donate $30,000 in support and for equipment, back at the introductory press conference in February.
“I knew right then that they were fully invested. I didn’t know it was going to quite be this invested in it, but I knew they were invested like they were throughout the year,” Blue Devils head coach Craig Cavotta said.
On top of being a phone call away for any additional resources throughout the season, the Giants hosted a Field Day for Tri-State area championship teams in June and Thursday night’s festivities.
Partnering with the New York High School Football Coaches Association and Nike Football, the Giants also helped host the inaugural NYS Girls High School Flag Tournament in Cortland, this past July.
“They want kids to be active like they want kids to be a part of the game and that’s what’s just great about it,” Cavotta said over the phone on Friday. “Last night they made it another big deal. They made sure our kids were on the field, one of the assistant coaches was throwing them passes, the (Giants) players were running by them and they were slapping their hands when they were getting ready and doing their warm-ups; I mean, that’s just a huge thing.”
Columbia, coming a long way from where the program and the rest of the new flag football league started, ended its scholastic season with a narrow, 14-0, loss in the NYSPHSAA Division I Semifinal on June 1. Or so it seemed.
From there, the team has continued playing, taking part in the Giants Field Day, which subsequently, was when Cavotta was approached with the opportunity to compete in the Cortland tournament, and for the Giants’ preseason opener at MetLife.
“At the time (when league debuted), the opportunity was, hopefully, we’re going to get to play these 11 games and then everybody made the playoffs, so we’d at least get to play one more game,” Cavotta recalled. “We had small goals at the time and as the season kept going on, these girls just kept doing these amazing things, it opened up all these other doorways for us.”
At the field day event, featured in a video posted to the Giants’ social media just this past Tuesday, Columbia, along with the nine other Tri-State area champions, got to meet head coach Brian Daboll, as well as players, Brian Burns, Isaiah McKenzie, Devin Singletary and Dante Miller.
They could also be seen in the video, competing in events such as hacky-sack races and tug-o’-war, alongside the pros.
“(Burns) had these sunglasses, and one of our girls wanted them, but he had already given them to someone else. He said, ‘Hold on,’ and he ran to his car, he had four or five pairs, and our girls got them, and they thought that was the greatest thing in the world for them,” Cavotta shared from the day.
“They’ve made more fans in kids that are now rooting for the Giants,” he added. “It was a big deal. It was a really big deal for our kids.”
At Cortland, and on an NFL field, the Blue Devils have had the opportunity, above all, to keep playing together, carrying on a historic year for their program. Cavotta believed those opportunities needed to stay open to everyone from last season’s group, even the five recent graduates.
“For them to be able to extend and have those couple more opportunities because they won’t be able to continue to play with us going forward, at least they were able to share in those things. Some of these kids, even myself, were hesitant when we were first starting out,” Cavotta said. “But as it kept evolving…sometimes you just don’t want it to end. They realize how much they liked it.”
“When the season ended, I thought, ‘Okay, this is it.’ Normally, for my other sports, if we have something in the summer, if you graduated you don’t participate because you graduated; you’re gone. But our coach, Cavotta, he really wanted us seniors to be able to have the experiences that the other girls on the team were having,” Roy said.
“This was just kind of a fun way to wrap up the season and end my time with this team,” she added. “It’s everything I could have asked for. I couldn’t imagine a better way to go out with this team.”
In the fall, Roy will attend Alfred State University to continue her academic and athletic career. She won’t be playing flag football, rather, she’ll be back on the pitch, playing for the women’s soccer team.
However, when it comes time for Columbia’s year two title defense in spring 2025, Roy hopes to be back in the mix but serving a different role.
“I absolutely plan on coming back and watching the games, even helping out on the sidelines, if they’ll have me, because this is just an amazing group, and it’s just an amazing sport,” Roy said. “I unfortunately, only got one year, and I just want to be able to come back and watch these girls grow and get better.”
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