With the exponential growth of girls football, there has also been a greater interest in the high school teams, highlighted by San Francisco choosing its first all-Metro flag football team. With 22 players chosen from areas as far south as San Jose and as far north as Santa Rosa, Acalanes had two players, Ines Coyne and Isabelle Agnost, both in their second seasons, with a team that finished the season with a 17-3 record and played in the NCS championship game.

    Coyne, a junior, played quarterback, completing 155 passes for 1,544 yards and 23 touchdowns. She also ran for 1,016 yards and scored 13 touchdowns. She also played linebacker and was second on the team with 76 tackles, with two sacks and five interceptions.

    Coyne, who is also an equestrian, did not play football as a freshman and was strictly a defensive player as a sophomore and in an unexpected way became the Acalanes quarterback. “We had a scrimmage on a Saturday and none of our quarterbacks could be there so we put Ines in and she played great and ended up taking most of the snaps the rest of the year,” co-head coach Mike Ivankovich said. “What made her productivity all the more impressive what that I barely got to coach her as a quarterback on her mechanics, footwork and reads over the summer as she was playing wide receiver and outside linebacker. What Ines had was a will to win and a desire to dominate and more than once would put the team on her back and just willed our way to victory. Besides her natural ability, Ines is super smart, clever, tricky, and so competitive on the field.”

    Agnost, a sophomore in her second year of flag football played running back and cornerback, finishing the season rushing for 1,468 yards, caught 25 passes, scored 19 touchdowns, threw two touchdown passes, returned a punt for a touchdown, and had 15 tackles and was chosen first team all-league as well.

    “Isabelle is just a great kid who is fun to coach,” Ivankovich said. “It’s rare to have a player that has all the physical attributes, mental toughness, and high-level competitiveness and yet with all of these attributes, she is so unselfish. There has not been one time when she went high maintenance, selfish or pouted if she wasn’t getting the ball. She just goes out and plays hard and loves her teammates. By the end of the year Isabelle was also starting as a cornerback and she did a great job there as well. Isabelle works just as hard as a sprinter on the track team and she set a freshman record in the 100 meters.”

    Ivankovich is already looking forward to next season: “We’re just really grateful that Ines and Isabelle are returning next season but all together, we are returning 22 of the 27 players that were on our team last season.”