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(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
If you’ve been to an Aurora High School football game, you’ve seen the flag line perform at halftime. This year, the flag line consists of sixteen girls: three seniors, five juniors, five sophomores, and three freshmen.
Senior, Ava Gambatesa, a captain of the team, shares how her experience on the flag line has impacted her high school experience: “The most important thing that Flag line has taught me is the importance of getting involved and building a supportive community.” Gambatesa has been a part of the flag line for all four years of her high school career.
Because this is her last year, Gambatesa is having some bittersweet feelings. “This fact has encouraged me to live in the moment and soak up every game while I still can. Additionally, I have had the honor of leading the line as a captain, which has encouraged me to be responsible and lead with purpose,” she shared. Being part of such a unique experience has helped her create special bonds that she wouldn’t have made otherwise.
Since Gambatesa is a captain, she’s responsible for choreographing the routines, which is one of her favorite things about being on the flag line. She mentioned, “Seeing my work reflected in the performances is a great feeling and is incredibly rewarding.” She talks about how she likes to utilize her creativity to make her own moves.
(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
Senior, Mia Lovell, a captain alongside Gambatesa talks about how it feels to perform at the football games for the past few years, “I love performing at football games, I do get nervous right before we go on and I see the crowd. After, I feel amazing and proud of myself for doing well. Performing gives me such a thrill.”
(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
In addition to performing at games, the flag line does stuff together outside of practices.“We often go to team dinners, and half the line often goes gift shopping together. By the end of the season, we have all gotten very close and normally hang out with each other outside of flags,” Lovell mentioned. It’s clear to say that the line has built a supportive bond and close-knit community.
Along with hanging out outside of football games and practices, Lovell mentions that the flag line has specific traditions that they do before every game, one of them being: “For home games, we always have team dinners where we get ready for the game together and eat food at a teammate's house before the game.”
(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
Junior Sara Elliott states, “It's hard for people to hang out as much as we do and not have a strong bond.” The flag line practices very often throughout each week and obviously will spend a lot of time together throughout the entirety of the football season. After being asked what her favorite part of the flag line is, Elliott replied, “I love getting to know and teach the new girls while I bond and make inside jokes with the returns.”
In addition to Lovell mentioning that the flag line has specific traditions, Elliott explained another tradition: “Our most frequent tradition is that every time we end practice we get into a huddle and put our hands in the middle and do a chant. The seniors lead the chant by saying ‘Twirl like a beauty’ and the rest of the girls respond with ‘Toss like a beast.’”
Ashleigh Cenna, who is a sophomore on the flag line this year shares her experience. “Performing at football games can be kind of nerve-wracking in a way, I get nervous before I perform because I want to do good in front of such a big audience,” she mentions.
(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
If you didn’t already know, every year the Aurora band puts on a band show with other schools at the football field. At the band show, called Thunder Over Aurora, This year it was on September 21st. The flag line will typically perform 5 songs that have more complex routines. Cenna explains, “One of my favorite memories is probably Thunder over Aurora because I had so much fun that day preparing with my friends and I liked the overall show.”
(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
Freshman, Anjani Panigrahi, who has experienced her first year being on the flag line this year is asked about her improvement, “I have improved so much over the past few months. Oftentimes, I look back on my old homework videos from the summer, and notice how much better I am now.”
Performing on the football field for the first time is an experience to remember, Panigrahi explains, “It was such an amazing experience, although it was very nerve-wracking to see the amount of people in the stands.” She talks about how she felt nervous at first, but everything went very smoothly. The flag line begins to learn many of their routines over the summer, another thing Panigrahi explained that made her feel very well prepared for her first performance.
The first-year girls on the flag line must learn all the moves for the first time, which could be difficult. Panigrahi mentioned, “Honestly, it depends on the routine that we are learning. Many moves we do are used in other routines as well, but learning new moves is where it gets more challenging.” She also talks about how some of the moves can be slow, making them easier to remember and learn.
(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
(Instagram: ahsflaggies)
This year, the flag line has been working hard choreographing routines and getting them down. Be sure to see them at the next football game!
By: Natalie Magdics
Flagline Instagram: ahsflaggies
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