It was an effort to keep up with the Joneses – or in this case, the neighboring academies – that led Saint Mark's High School in Wilmington, Delaware to initially field a girls flag football team in the fall of 2024.
"Our Dean of Students, Rashaun Davis, read about Padua and DMA (Delaware Military Academy) starting their own flag football clubs, and they were going to play each other. So when he read that, he wanted to see if Saint Mark's could get in," Will Reid said.
"He's one of my best friends, and we had coached football together, but I wasn't coaching anything at the time. So he called me up to see if I would (become the head coach of the flag team) and I told him I would. That was kind of how we got into it. Basically, we just didn't want to get left behind by Padua and DMA."
Reid, who is a science teacher at Saint Mark's, found that the girls at the school didn't want to be left behind either.
"There were two or three that had just kind of been bugging people at the school about starting it up in some way before we had even started," Reid said. "Once we announced it, I think we had 45 girls show up to the interest meeting on the first day of school and probably 30 girls show up to the first practice. Those girls pretty much stayed the whole season."
Four Delaware high schools – Saint Mark's, Padua Academy, DMA, and Ursuline Academy – participated in the inaugural season. And four more – Concord, Cape Henlopen, William Penn, and Newark Charter – joined them and took part in last year's campaign which was held in the fall.
Saint Mark's has enjoyed success from the start.
"We won (the championship game over Padua) in '24 and lost a (13-6) heartbreaker (to DMA) that I'm still thinking about in '25," Reid said. "The first year we were 4-0-1, including the playoffs. And then last year, we were 4-3 in the regular season, and then 1-1 in the playoffs."
Even though Saint Mark's has reached the title game both seasons, Reid feels the girls are getting more out of being on the team than victories.
"The things I got out of my sports that are lasting are, first and foremost, the friendships and memories. And then after that, there's all the life skills you get from being a part of the team, the selflessness and communication skills, leadership skills," Reid said.
"One of the things that I didn't realize was going to be such a cool piece of it is that there are so many individual women's sports. We had a lot of really good athletes. We had a wrestler that had never really played a team sport. We had a gymnast that had never really played a team sport. We had a swimmer. So some of these girls got to be part of a team for the first time. I think it definitely helped some girls become a little more comfortable in their surroundings."
Having coached girls and boys football as well as basketball during his 12 years at Saint Mark's, Reid has become more comfortable, as well.
"I am a big lead-by-example guy," he said. "I honestly try to let my girls do most of the leading and pushing of their peers. I try and aid that by modeling consistency and respect. As I have progressed in my coaching career, I have realized how jarring it can be for kids when they don't know what to expect from an adult leader, so I try to make sure they can count on me to be a constant.
"I am there 15 minutes early with a smile and a positive attitude centered around a growth mindset every day. I keep that attitude regardless of the situation. I honestly wasn't great at this 10 years ago. My passion for competition would get the better of me and I could lose my temper and say things that were counterproductive. I have gotten way better at this since I have taken over the girls flag program.
"And they are a blast. I can say they are the most fun group I've ever had coaching, and the most I've ever enjoyed coaching. They're pretty easy to coach in the sense that you don't have to tell them multiple times to do something. But more importantly, when they're out there, they are competing, but they're also enjoying each other at the same time. There's something to be said for that."
Reid may be a big lead-by-example guy, but in being named as the Philadelphia Eagles High School Girls Flag Football Coach of the Week, presented by Visa, he is demonstrating that he is also a big-picture guy.
"I think it's more a reflection of the program and the fact that we're building a program that hopefully is going to last. I think that's really what I'm more interested in – building something that lasts beyond me," said Reid, who is assisted by Chris Widener and Davis.
"So I think the recognition that we're doing that is nice, but at the end of the day, the goal is to build something sustainable. I think we're on a good start."
