St. Margaret’s grade 8 student Ella Chin snagged an interception during Monday’s Middle School girls flag football game against St. Mary’s, returning it nearly the length of the field for a memorable pick-six touchdown to open the game’s scoring.
 
It was a big moment—the touchdown and ensuing two-point conversion to Samarra Dalton ended up being huge in a low-scoring 8-6 Tartans victory over the Falcons. Even more significant, Ella’s defensive highlight marked the first touchdown in the history of St. Margaret’s girls flag football program.
 
St. Margaret’s announced in September the launch of girls flag football as an Upper School and Middle School sport, coinciding with the rapid growth of the sport at the high school, college and Olympic levels. Middle School officially launched the program this spring as one of 14 athletic team options for the division. Upper School flag football will start this fall as one of 27 sports offered at the varsity level.
 
This spring’s Middle School team has 17 students in grades 7 and 8 participating, and is coached by Dan O’Shea, Andrew Lachelt and Dania Markum. The win over St. Mary’s was the first of eight games on the schedule, with home games slated to be played on Chalmers Field.
 
As the program gets started, some of the Middle School players competing this spring will transition right away and compete on the Upper School team this fall once they enter grade 9, alongside a number of current Upper School students who have expressed interest in competing this fall. The Upper School team will be coached by Bryan Fournier.