The past two years for the Ithaca High School girls flag football team have been filled with challenges. The Little Red went 3-8-1 in 2024 and was followed up by a 2-13 campaign last season. Both seasons featured different coaches, but a familiar face is back in the saddle this year to help right the ship.
Ray Hage returns as the Little Red’s head coach. He previously led the team in 2023 and was an assistant coach in their inaugural 2022 season. There was much excitement from players current and former when the news was announced, and Hage shares that same level of enthusiasm to be back at the helm.
“I love this program a lot,” Hage said. “I was at every home game the past couple years, watching away games on streaming and stayed in contact with the student athletes. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than coaching this program.”
A lot has changed in the flag football world since Hage last coached the sport. In 2024, the Little Red added a junior varsity team and currently has over 40 players throughout the program. That same year, the New York State Public High School Athletics Association (NYSPHSAA) officially recognized flag football as a championship sport. But the most notable news was that it would be added as an Olympic sport, being at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, and that the National Football League would create a professional women’s flag football league. With more high schools and colleges adding teams by the day, the sky’s the limit for flag football.
“What I’m already hearing from some of my athletes who are coming from other sports is their goals have shifted to, ‘I want to play flag football in college.’” Hage said. “Girls flag football is already one of the fastest-growing sports in the country. When girls start to see, ‘Oh, this isn’t just something I can do in high school, this is something that can help me get to college,’ I think we’re gonna have one of the biggest sports in the country.”
Ithaca’s season is already off to a promising start. The Little Red ventured to Horseheads on March 26 and battled through the rain to prevail 26-20. While their talent and depth is already on full display, Hage hopes they will continue to buy into the culture that he has created alongside new assistant coaches Sylvana Ross and Nick Lavy.
“The most important thing for me was the team culture,” Hage said. “[It’s] having a positive team culture, having a group of girls who are going to play for each other who are going to put aside drama and interpersonal conflicts and just be focused on the team goal of giving our best effort every day in practice and in games.”
Only two players remain from the last Hage-led team in 2023: Aicha Cisse and Chloe Boyer. The senior duo were unsurprisingly voted as team captains, and their experience will be instrumental in guiding the team to a fruitful season.
“They’re so important because they know the culture that we were setting back in 2023 and they’re able to bring that back this season for the girls who didn’t experience it, for the girls who went through the on-the-field struggles in the past couple of years,” Hage said. “Aicha and Chloe have been able to share with the team what our actual potential is as a program and are helping to lead us back to that success.”
Cisse and Boyer start on the defensive line for the Little Red. Over on offense, Janelle Lucena leads the team as the starting quarterback. The sophomore’s point guard skills on the basketball court are sure to translate to essentially the football version of a point guard. She has plenty of weapons at her disposal, including sophomore running back Heiley De Jesus Torres, junior wide receiver Je’Da Vick and senior wideout Charlotte Groat. The skill position players are supported by a strong offensive line consisting of senior River Murray, sophomore Cecilia Keller and the only freshman on the team, Lyra Brown.
As for the other key defensive players, junior Brooke Parker will play at linebacker and safety, while senior Elzita Myers is a versatile threat on both sides of the ball at linebacker and running back.
A rejuvenated Little Red squad has its sights set high this season in the hopes of winning the program’s first-ever Section IV championship. There are plenty of games to be played, but things are certainly looking up for the Little Red this year.
“I think the girls know that we have high expectations for ourselves, and I think we have the talent to compete with anybody,” Hage said. “I always tell them that I care more about the effort in every game than the result of every game. But I think we give our best effort every game, we can be in every game.”
