DePaul Prep Flag Football Starts Today

DePaul Prep kicks off it’s second season of flag football this evening. The Rams take on Trinity High School at 7:00 p.m., at DePaul Prep stadium.

I had occasion to visit practice yesterday, talk to Coach Mallette and take a few photos. The is the second year of flag football at DePaul Prep and prospects look bright for the young program.

This is only the third season of this sport as an IHSA sport. School participation has nearly doubled since the start in 2024. Only 154 schools then and now it’s up to 234 this year. The Rams will play sixteen games including three home games. There is also a game in works against Lane Tech that is expected to be played at Horner Park. The Girls Catholic Athletic Conference will have sixteen teams.

I confess that I am new to flag football as a high school sport. The games are 48 minutes long with 4 quarters. There are punts but no traditional kick-offs. It’s first and 20 yards for a first down instead of 1st and 10. The Rams will field three teams of 20 players each—a varsity team and a junior varsity A team and B team. The varsity has 15 returning players.

Head Coach Kendall Mallette was cautiously understated in her comments about the upcoming season.

“We are really fortunate to assemble an incredible group of athletes. Most of our girls play two sports. We have a high concentration of basketball players and soccer players and a few track and a few softball [players],” Mallette said.

“We lost in the second round of the playoff last year to the eventual state champions. We were the only team that put points on Maine South in the plays [until the state semi-final game].”

Keep your eyes on this flag football team.

DePaul Prep falls to Providence 66-60

The DePaul Prep Rams girls’ varsity fell 66-60 to GCAC rival powerhouse Providence Catholic (22-3, 5-2) on Tuesday. These are two of the top girls teams in the area. The Rams are ranked No. 9 in Kyle Williams Super 25 in the Sun-Times. Providence is ranked No. 12.

The Rams fell behind 9-0 to open the contest but battled all the way take a 31-29 lead at the close of the second quarter on Ava Giordano’s three-point.

This was very high level basketball. It was a back-and-forth affair. I wish I had the bandwidth to properly cover the GCAC. Providence has these two sisters, Layken Callahan and Landrie Callahan who made life very tough on the Rams.  

Even so, the game was tied at 56 with 2:44 left. The Celtics edged that Rams in the final minute holding off the Rams’ comeback.

The Rams historic regular season continues with Simeon on Saturday and then the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference tournament next week where the Rams have a change to avenge their defeats at the hands of other very high quality GCAC teams. It appears that both Friday’s home game against Taft and Saturday’s game against Simeon will not go ahead because of the cold. The DePaul Prep athletic director is working to reschedule the senior night game.

It’s been fun watching this senior starting group, Ava Giordano, Grace Lee, Kaitlin Totaro and Lucia Trautman, along with the addition of sophomore standout Ramiyah Puckett grow into an elite squad among the best in the state. They rival their counterparts on the boys team in that respect. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the work off the bench put in by sophomore Grace Poleski, seniors Kaitlin Reap and Vivian Lightfoot, and junior Caley Wood.

The Rams host a regional in the 4A Maine South Sectional. The seeds will not be announced until about 4 pm on Thursday, February 5th so will don’t know who they will face. Based on the assignments, the Rams are likely to be a 2 or 3 seed in the sectional.