As league champs, regional champs and more, Loyola flag football makes leap in second year

Jessie Kafka never envisioned playing girls flag football for Loyola Academy.

Yet, the sophomore became an integral part of the team’s success in Year 2 of the program. The Ramblers saw their program double in size and advanced further than it did in Year 1, finishing with a 19-5 record with a perfect 10-0 record in the inaugural season of the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference.

“One of my friends who did basketball told me to come out for (tryouts),” Kafka said. “It was the last week of camp and I really enjoyed it. … It kept getting fun with more time.”

Kafka, who played linebacker, led the team with five interceptions and also added four pass breakups in conference play, while Ali Banaszek recorded three interceptions and Michaela Burm had two, including a pick-six.

For Kafka, playing defense in flag football came almost naturally, as she also plays basketball for the Ramblers.

“Playing defense in flag football is definitely using your athleticism,” Kafka said. “It was just fun to be out there and using that.”

Kafka led a Loyola Academy defense that allowed just 7.04 points per game. 

“I am going to nominate her for All-State because I truly think she’s one of the best defensive players in the state,” Ramblers coach Connor Buckridge said. “Just really natural instincts for the game.”

Buckridge had some doubts about what the team could achieve entering the season following news that last year’s starting quarterback, Riley Williams, sustained an offseason injury and would miss the season.

But freshman Sophia Calhoun switched to the signal-caller role, and after an audition, she grew into the new role and ran with it.

“She had grown up playing flag football as a receiver and linebacker, and we convinced her to give quarterback a shot,” Buckridge said. “She had a phenomenal year.”

Buckridge said coaches envied that he could have three more years of Calhoun piloting the Ramblers.

In 10 conference games, Calhoun threw 22 touchdown passes and added another six scores on the ground. Mary Grace Connolly was her favorite target with six TD receptions, while Burm added three.

While Kafka said some of her teammates were worried about the loss of Williams, she said had confidence in Calhoun based on what she saw on the hardwood.

“I did know Sophia because she plays basketball with me,” Kafka said. “And she was amazing. I just told her to play with her heart and I knew that she was going to be great at it.”

Early in the season, on Sept. 8, Loyola Academy lost 25-7 to one of the state’s best, Glenbrook South, dropping the team’s record to 3-3 at the time; however, that game was when Kafka felt the team connected. And it took off from there.

The Ramblers lost just once more in the regular season, won seven straight games and then proceeded on a 10-game winning streak before losing to Evanston in the IHSA postseason round of 32.

“I just thought it was so competitive and so fun,” Kafka said. “It’s when the team truly discovered ‘We want to win now.’”

In the first year of the program in 2024, Buckridge said he had 50 players come for tryouts. Twenty-eight players were kept on the varsity team, with no JV team. This season, the Ramblers fielded a varsity and junior varsity team, with nearly 60 players in the program.

“Unfortunately, the budgets were already in,” Buckridge said. “So, we could only keep the one team, which was a little difficult because we were in the balance of wanting to win now but also making sure we kept freshman and sophomore players on the team so we wouldn’t be starting over in Year 2.”

Following the success of Year 2, Kafka said she has begun the process of ensuring next year’s team grows in numbers and achieves on-field results.

“I am recruiting my friends right now, ‘You have to come out and play,’” Kafka said.

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