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Mission Hills High School’s Catie Kaminski runs against Newport Harbor during the MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Newport Harbor defeated Mission Hills 21-0. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
San Diego, California – Newport Harbor’s Scarlett Guyser looks to throw against Mission Hills during the MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown at the Chula Vista Elite Training Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Newport Harbor defeated Mission Hills 21-0. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
San Diego, California – Sierra Canyon High’s Makena Cook runs against Bonita Vista High during the MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown at the Chula Vista Elite Training Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Sierra Canyon defeated Bonita Vista 13-7. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Newport Harbor’s Scarlett Guyser looks to throw against Mission Hills during the MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Photo by Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Mission Hills Kenzie Del Gatto attemps to get around Newport Harbor’s Skylie Cid during the MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
JSerra’s girls defeated Newport Harbor 21-6 in the finals of the inaugural MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown in Chula Vista on Sept. 12, 2026. (Photo by Dan Albano, Orange County Register/SCNG)
CHULA VISTA — Organizers of the recent MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown hope to grow the national tournament and will explore a new site for the event, including Orange County.
JSerra defeated Newport Harbor 21-6 to claim the inaugural event on Sept. 12 at the picturesque Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center.
“We’re exploring a few locations but this (site) has been fairly good,” tournament director Steve Montoya of MaxPreps said after the two-way tournament. “We see it’s not set up for things like broadcasting. It’s not set for scoreboards and some stuff like that.”
“We’re going to take all that into consideration,” he added. “We’re going to reach out to every coach and try to get their feedback and their community feedback like what was good, what can we fix and what will make it feel even more special this next season? I think the girls leaving here felt like, ‘Wow, this is big time.’ “
Regarding Orange County become a tournament site, Montoya said, “It is a consideration, too. We have a lot of Orange County teams coming this way.”
MaxPreps partnered with iFlag, Montoya said, to host the invitation-only event.
The 17-school tournament field included JSerra, Newport Harbor, Huntington Beach and Orange Lutheran.
The four schools combined to post a 12-2 record. JSerra, Newport Harbor and Huntington Beach each reached the semifinals.
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“The hope is next year that we can open it up and even get to 32 teams or beyond,” Montoya said.
ORANGE LUTHERAN REMAINS A CONTENDER
Orange Lutheran won its first two games at Flag Football Showdown but didn’t advance to the semifinals because of point differential.
In pool play, the Lancers defeated San Ramon Valley 13-12 in overtime and Sierra Canyon 18-6. Sierra Canyon featured former Orange Lutheran standouts Makena Cook and Happy Dubois.
With a 17-team field, point-differential was used as a tiebreaker to advance.
Vincent Memorial from Calexico dropped from the tournament to create the 17-team field, Montoya said.
“Obviously, it’s a bummer to have a team go 2-0 and not advance,” he said. “It’s stuff we have to learn from for next year’s event.”
Orange Lutheran’s Ava Harrison caught two touchdowns from Alyssa McClure in both pool-play games.
“(We) just wanted to prove we belong with these top teams still and we did that,” first-year Orange Lutheran coach Dennis Hester said.
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