Twenty years ago, Patriot High in Jurupa Valley didn’t exist. It was a landscape of rolling hills, sheep and sheepherders. Now, it is the home of the three-time River Valley Division III girls’ flag football league champions.

Despite the difference in fundraising and overall money going toward high school sports programs in middle to lower income areas versus the higher income suburbs, the Patriot girls’ flag football team has thrived.

During a game in October, Bishop-Montgomery girls’ flag football team of Torrance arrived in Jurupa Valley in a fully air conditioned luxury coach bus to play Patriot High. Patriot won 25-7. Two weeks earlier, the Patriot team rode in a yellow school bus without air conditioning on a 100-degree day to an away game at Ramona.

1

2

3

1. Ninth graders Marley Handley, left, and Audrey Baca take a selfie while riding the bus to a Patriot High girls’ flag football game. 2. Before most games, the team gets ready in the locker room as their coach speaks with the team. Emma Urrutia, right, styles Kayla Reynoso’s hair, middle, as Angelica Reynosa puts on hair spray, left.
. 3. The Patriot High girls’ flag football team lines up for referee inspection of flags before A Division 3 first round CIF Southern Section playoff game.

Flag football was first invented during World War II as a recreational sport for the military to avoid risk of injuries while playing full-contact football. Organized female flag football leagues began decades later. There are four quarters, with each lasting 12 minutes. The field is a 80 yards long by 40 yards wide. Each player wears a thin black belt which is cinched tightly around the waist with one flag attach to each hip. Once a flag is pulled by a defender, the play is over.

Senior Alana Carrillo got interested in the sport when she was 9 after watching a girl on YouTube play. Her parents wouldn’t let her play tackle football. But when the new flag football team was formed at her school in 2024, she signed up.

“The team has meant so much to me because of how highly we value character,” Carrillo said. “Character is a big thing when I play sports because it looks better than any play you could make. My team is always there for each other never holding bad plays over anyone’s heads and we all think of everyone very highly.

“Everyone has great traits about them even on bad days and I feel this team just brings those great traits out every time we play.”

1

2

1. Senior Alana Carrillo walks with her parents Andrew and Amy and siblings on Patriot High School Senior Night after a 57-0 win. “The season is bittersweet because I was with the program when it started and seeing my time with the program come to an end makes me grateful for everything,” she said. 2. As dusks settle in over the field, family and friends cheer for Patriot High School girls flag football team during the team’s first CIF Playoff win. The team has won their league championship three years in a row, this was the first year they advanced in the playoffs.

Located 47 miles east of Los Angeles in the northwest corner of Riverside County, Jurupa Valley wasn’t incorporated as a city until 2011. Its population of more than 107,000 is 72% Hispanic and Latino, according to the 2020 Census. Patriot High, with about 2,400 students, launched its flag football team in 2024, the same year the CIF sanctioned the sport. This year’s seniors are the first to have played the sport all four years of their high school careers.

The Warriors finished their season 14-6-0 and faced Bishop Montgomery in the first round of Division 3 play, beating them 25-7.

After 20 years as physical education department chair, Jurupa Valley girls’ flag football head coach Giselle Kendall is retiring. Kendall is an immigrant from Peru who moved here when she was 6.

“My mom arrived in the U.S. four years before me. Towards the end of the Cold War, communism was almost taking over Peru,” Kendall said. “There were lines to get bread and milk. Our family got visas and we got out. But, I was separated from my mom for four years.”

As a child, Kendall couldn’t speak English but played sports.

“When you don’t know language you know sport, it was a saving grace, “ Kendall said.

The Oct. 20 CIF playoff win was the anniversary of Kendall’s mom’s death. During an embrace after the game, Kendall said senior wide receiver Alana Carrillo whispered, “‘We did it for you and your mom.’”

It was the team’s first CIF playoff win since the program began.

The Warrior’s season ended in Round 2 when the team fell 38-14 to Compton High (21-1-0).