New girls flag football head coach Carlton Rosemond was presented this offseason. With an extensive background in coaching and the class of ‘98 Evanston Township High School alum, Coach Rosemond is no stranger to the big stage as well as the Evanston community.
“I have been working here at Evanston Township High School for roughly 10 years now,” Rosemond said. “My Background in Coaching is, I came in as an assistant coach for girl’s basketball; I was an assistant coach for about seven years[…] I was a JV head coach for about five of those years. And I then recently had taken a head coach job for Girls Basketball at Oak Park River Forest, resigned from there in March of last year, and then volunteered for [Evanston’s] flag football [team] this past season.”
The traits Coach Rosemond possesses make it unbearable not to connect with him. Coaching various sports have opened up gateways to many things bigger than Flag Football.
“I’m relatable to the players. I’m all about the players,” Rosemond said. “Coaching different sports has allowed me to see different athletes. One of the things that I hold true is that I want to be able to have good relationships with the players. When you have good relationships with players, in essence, they run through a brick wall for you. [I want] to get to know them, get to know the parents and also build a strong community that’s not just based on our performance.”
2024 is the 3rd annual year since the partnership of the Chicago Bears, NFL Flag, and Chicago Public League schools to launch the first-ever girl’s flag football league in Illinois. Evanston’s first season appending with the league this past season, the Kits finished 9-4 with The Kits having successes and challenges on and off the field.
“Having almost 30 girls that necessarily didn’t have any flag football experience, [and] trying to teach them the game in its entirety while playing the season can always be a challenge. But what helped us and what’s been our best success is that these girls want it,” Rosemond said. “They’ve put in a lot of time, energy and effort. [We] even [had] impromptu [additional] practices [when] they asked for extra help and skill work. That helped us to be successful on the football field, to put a 9-4 record together..”
Behind the success was hard off-season work and emotional connection. As a fresh program, team bonding was a top priority. All-State junior Running Back linebacker Hannah Honroe and junior center and kicker Rachel Durango-Cohen voice the process of becoming one on and off the field.
“We’ve been doing clinics for middle schoolers, and at the clinics, we also get to play and coach,” Durango-Cohen said. “That’s keeping all of us together [during the offseason]. [We] also [have been] going to each other’s sporting events. We have a lot of track runners and basketball players. Them staying in that competitive mindset and us going to support them is just always keeping us hyped.”
Wildkits checked off all the boxes to be successful on the field while simultaneously building personal connections.
“A lot of my teammates, I didn’t really know [before flag football]. Since they’re freshman and sophomores I wouldn’t [have had the opportunity] to be around them that much, so I think I gained a lot of friends [from the sport],” Honore said. “I learned with these people, I played games with these people, I failed with these people. We’re closer on a different level.”
With the inauguration of the Illinois High School Girls Flag Football program, female athletes’ participation in football is a hot topic. The Wildkits are passionate and joyful about embracing female athletes in football. I asked head coach Rosemond and center and kicker Durango-Cohen about their thoughts on people stating female and girls shouldn’t be playing football.
“[Flag football] is a sport for everyone to play, and girls are discouraged [from playing for] the regular football team because it’s not seen. [Flag football] gives us an opportunity to play in a supportive place,” Durango-Cohen said. “Having a female coach supporting us was really empowering, but having a male coach who also sees us as just as important as the boys is really great.”
In today’s world, we see female athletes strive like never before. From college athletes to pros, women’s sports are paving the way for the next generation to walk on.
“Female athletes are some of the best athletes out there,” Rosemond said. “Professionally we’ve seen in the WNBA how those female athletes are in a world of their own. We just had an all-star game in which Steph Curry was going against one of the top female athletes, a three-point specialist [Sabrina Lonescu] who just forced a three-point shootout; maybe ten years ago you wouldn’t have seen that. In collegiate sports there’s nobody hotter than Caitlin Clark right now. Female athletes are great, and football is a sport built upon having skill and [in] flag football, they’re able to utilize those skills in the best ways possible. Who better to do it than our female athletes.”
As flag football inches closer to the 2024 fall season, the Kits squad is galvanized by next year’s possibilities.
“Everyone’s excited about the [upcoming football season],” Honroe said. “We have [the] new coaching staff that everyone wanted. [I’m] excited about the new things we’re going to do. We’re going to be so much better than we were last year because we’ve learned so much this year, and we’re going to learn more but with a [more experienced] coaching staff. I’m so excited.”
As Wildkit fans, it’s a must that we look out for key players who are instrumental in the team’s success. The young Evanston team produced a lot of underclassman talent as well as light-out junior talent. The athletes not only represented Evanston on their backs but put themselves in a position to gain the recognition that they deserved.
“[Last season], we had one all-state [athlete] Hannah Honroe; she’s a track & field star that did well for us on both sides of the ball. She was one of our best rushers to start the season and we moved her to offense and she was just lighting in a bottle,” Rosemond said.
