Booker T. Washington Magnet School launches first girls flag football team

Booker T. Washington Magnet School was building its first girls flag football team from the ground up in Montgomery, with Brandice Bonnee leading a program that did not exist before this year. For the Yellow Jackets, the debut season is about creating a roster, teaching the basics and setting an identity before the first snap is ever taken.

That kind of launch takes more than a coach and a set of uniforms. Bonnee and Booker T. Washington are in the early work of bringing in players, establishing conditioning routines and turning flag football into a real varsity option for students trying the sport for the first time. In year one, success will be measured by whether the school can field a team, build buy-in and give Montgomery athletes another place to compete.

The timing matters because girls flag football already has a firm place in Alabama high school sports. The Alabama High School Athletic Association runs postseason play in two classifications, 1A-5A and 6A-7A, and its 2025 champions were Moody in 1A-5A and Central-Phenix City in 6A-7A. The association’s Super 7 football championships also include two flag football classifications, giving new programs a direct path into a statewide title chase.

Booker T. Washington’s start also fits into a broader Montgomery pipeline that was already forming before the varsity debut. Montgomery Public Schools celebrated an inaugural middle school flag football season in November 2024, showing that interest in the sport had begun to spread through the district. The new Yellow Jackets team now extends that growth to another level, adding a school, a coach and a new roster to a sport that keeps expanding across Alabama.