The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
It’s a new day for the Lakewood flag football team.
The Lancers finished third place in the Moore League last year with a 9-3 record, and made a playoff run to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 bracket. This year, though, the Lancers are without their first and only coach to this point, as Leilani Utupo departed for rival and reigning Moore League champ Long Beach Poly.
Stepping into the light for Lakewood is Fern Viramontes, a bright young coach who’s also the Lancers football team’s assistant head coach, and a former head varsity lacrosse coach for the school. Viramontes is new to flag football but has plenty of gridiron experience, but also plenty of Lakewood love as an alum and dedicated coach.
“This season at Lakewood, our focus is simple: Lakewood,” he said. “We’re getting back to basics, doing the little things right and holding each other accountable. The girls have fully bought into the culture our staff has been building.”
One challenge on the field will be that a ton of top-shelf talent graduated from the program, meaning there’s a lot of teaching going on with players like Kyrah Feagin, Dimiah Williams, and Layla Kawamura.
Feagin, a volleyball player, said she was not the most knowledgeable football player on the field for the Lancers’ open tryouts.
“Okay so I actually knew nothing about football,” she said with a laugh. “I just saw there’s tryouts and I wanted to try something different, because I’ve basically just been in the gym playing volleyball and I wanted to change the scenery and see what it’s like outside.”
Those who have followed the young history of girls’ flag football in the Moore League know that’s a common story, with most teams made up of multi-sport athletes. That will be the case at Lakewood this year too.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces, many of them dual-sport athletes,” said Viramontes. “We’re ready to use that to our advantage. Our goal is to put a program on the field that the entire community can be proud of and excited to support.”
Among the other key players for the Lancers will be Jaylah Fuailetolo and Kayla Bullard, as well as quarterback Allison Honeycutt.
Feagin said her team is excited and has been working hard and supporting each other through the learning process with a new sport. Asked about her expectations, she said it’s just to keep growing.
“We had so many seniors leave and it’s a lot of new girls,” she said. “Our goal right now is to do our best every day, put it together and keep improving.”
