Gateway flag football team looks to maintain winning run after unbeaten season in 2024

By: Michael Love
Sunday, March 30, 2025 | 11:01 AM

With a mix of returning talent and newcomers set to make an impact, the Gateway girls flag football team hopes to make waves in its third season in the high school division of the Pittsburgh Girls Flag Football League.

“The girls are ready to go. They are excited,” Gators coach Haley Adams said a few days before last Saturday’s season-opening games against Plum and Woodland Hills at Saint Vincent College.

Gateway, which finished 2024 undefeated in the regular season, has a younger group this year with four seniors — co-captains K.C. Glaze and Kaitlyn Karpuszka, along with Paige Loughran and Shavonne Williams — and 11 juniors who have all played since the first season in 2022.

There are nine freshmen on this year’s roster.

Gateway’s lone loss last season came against North Catholic in the first round of the league playoff tournament.

“We lost a lot of seniors from last year, but I think we are going be OK,” Glaze said.

“We have a lot of young and gifted athletes. We just have to continue getting the plays down. We have a lot of potential. We have a lot of motivation coming back after we didn’t go as far in the playoffs as we wanted to.”

Glaze, a wide receiver and linebacker, has an offer to continue in flag football at Tiffin in Ohio.

“I am really excited to get more offers as the season goes on,” Glaze said. “I didn’t commit yet because I am still trying to feel everything out.”

College scouts were to attend Saturday’s games at Saint Vincent, and Glaze hoped that it also was the start of having some of her teammates get noticed.

The slate of games this Saturday (April 6) at Woodland Hills will have Gateway playing at noon and 1 p.m. Gateway will host a series of games May 11.

Karpuszka, a wide receiver, running back and safety, hopes to make it back into the lineup before too long.

She has been sidelined with a broken nose. She visited her doctor last week to see what the steps would be in her recovery.

“We were doing a drill in practice, and I got elbowed in the nose,” she said.

“It just sucks that this happened my senior year. It was just a light practice, and I didn’t think something like that would happen.”

Until she is back, Karpuszka wants to do whatever she can to help her teammates reach their full potential in games both in and out of the division.

“I am definitely honored to be a captain,” Karpuszka said.

“This is my second year as captain and entering the third year playing. We had a strong base of seniors last year, but we are really looking to the group of freshmen to contribute. We have seen so much improvement from them in practices. I am excited to see us go up against all of the competition and be able to make a push to the playoffs again. There is room for improvement, but we are definitely ready to go.”

Gateway again will face Plum, Woodland Hills, Jeannette, Propel Braddock Hills, McKeesport, Penn Hills and Greensburg Salem in East division play and also will match up with divisional newcomers Burrell and Latrobe.

This year marks the first for cross-division games, and Gateway will take on Shaler and Hampton.

“We are familiar with Shaler because we play them in our summer league,” Adams said.

“It will be a regular-season matchup for the first time ever, so we’re excited about that.”

Gateway lost to Shaler in the summer-league championship game.

“It was a very, very close game,” Karpuszka said.

There are 52 teams in the league this year, up from 36 last year. The top three teams in each of the six divisions will make the playoffs May 17-18.

The 18 playoff teams will gather on the first day to play through the quarterfinals. The final four teams then will return on Day 2 to determine the champion.

Adams said new starting quarterback Nyerra Reid, who steps into the position left vacant with the graduation of team co-captain Maia Jones, is looking strong as the head of the Gators offense.

“Nyerra is looking awesome for us,” Adams said.

“She comes from a football family. Her younger brothers play football. She is honestly locked and ready.”

“Maia handed her the keys last year, and she got a lot of good reps and was able to ask questions. I am really confident in Nyerra.”

Adams, along with her excitement for how the team could do this year, is pumped up for next spring when the WPIAL and PIAA begin to govern high school girls flag football.

“It’s going to be just like any other sport,” she said.

“They are going to have a schedule where there will be games on weeknights. It will be a more consistent schedule instead of us all going to one location one day a week.

“It is absolutely fantastic just seeing how it is growing. A lot of colleges are picking it up and allowing girls the opportunity play after high school. We’re also looking to 2028 when it will be an Olympic sport. The future is so bright. We’re hoping to get middle school kids involved so we can build a pipeline to our varsity and JV teams.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Gateway