Steamboat Springs High School on Saturday added flag football to its sports lineup, launching its first season with a sideline filled with eager players, stands filled with enthusiastic fans and wins for the home team.

The Sailors walked off the field after a thrilling 13-6 victory over previously unbeaten Lakewood (2-1) to kick things off, with the winning touchdown thanks to a fingertip catch by senior Claire Shea. The Sailors followed up that victory with an impressive 57-0 win over first-year Wheat Ridge (0-2).

“Because we’re a first-year team, we’re still learning how to play and kind of how the game works — we’re not too worried about the competition,” said senior Izzy Hamric, who starred as the Sailors’ quarterback. “We are more interested in building our team culture, and the morals and fundamentals behind it. With all of us coming from different sports and backgrounds, I think coming together as a team, that’s where our focus is — not necessarily towards our competition.”

Hamric said she was excited when the high school opened discussions about adding a new girl’s sport to its fall sports lineup. When the school decided to go forward with football, Hamric said she jumped  onboard immediately.

She was not alone, said Luke DeWolfe, Steamboat Springs High School athletic director and assistant principal.

“We identified that during the fall — especially for girls’ sports — there were a lot of girls who were interested in participating in something, and as we kind of dialed that in, it became clear that flag football was something that garnered a ton of interest, and so we pursued that,” DeWolfe said. “The participation has been way more than we expected originally. We were expecting around 30 or 40 girls, and we’re at 60 right now.”

DeWolfe said the idea was to provide more opportunities for female athletes in the fall season where the only two choices had been volleyball and cross country prior to the addition of flag football. DeWolfe said interest in volleyball and cross country remains high, and that flag football was just an option for athletes looking for something else.

“We’ve had amazing support from the high school administration,” said Connor Payne, who has stepped in as head coach. “They want to create a program that’s equitable and new here for girls and women’s athletics … flag football is a growing sport for girls nationwide, and we are so excited to be part of that groundbreaking.”

The Steamboat Springs team is playing in the 10-team Jeffco League and is the first Western Slope school to offer a flag football program.

Flag football in Colorado is divided into two classes, with 38 teams playing in the 4A division with teams coming for schools with as many as 1,685 students. Schools with more than 1,685 students will compete in the 5A division that includes 34 schools statewide.

As part of the Jeffco League, Steamboat will compete for a playoff spot with Bear Creek, Dakota Ridge, Evergreen, Green Mountain, Littleton, Pomona, Wheat Ridge, Golden and Standley Lake. The Sailors are currently scheduled to play 13 games, but Payne is hoping the team will be able to add a couple of games to play the 15 games allowed in a season.

“I told the girls at halftime that nobody had any expectations for them, and then all that they did was come out here and blow everyone out of the water,” Payne said. “I think (our players) just took that positive energy and they really let it loose on the field.”