Ednovate Athletics Is Growing. Here's What's New This Year.

Ednovate's athletics program spans across the network's eight schools, including everything from football, soccer, and cross-country to golf, chess, and competitive gaming. The program continues to expand because there's a place in it for nearly anyone who wants one. Whether a student is a returning champion, trying a sport for the first time, or keeping things organized as a team manager, athletics gives them another way to belong on their campus. This is exactly what Positive Multigenerational Change looks like on and off the field.

None of that happens without the coaches who run it: teachers, alumni, and staff across the network who take on practices and game days on top of everything else they already do for their schools. Their work is showing up in real growth. Three schools have become full California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) members. E-sports is picking up steam. Flag football is adding a second league. And on September 19, the network is throwing its biggest athletics celebration yet.

We are kicking off the year strong with our fall sports line-up. Girls flag football returns, and a new boys flag football league, backed by a scholarship from the Rams, kicks off with 12 teams across the network. Cross country season kicks off October 1, and this year's Ednovate Cross Country Challenge, the network's one-day, all-schools meet, moves to a new home on November 17.

USC Hybrid High’s 2025-2026 boys basketball team with their coach

Milestones Across Our Teams

Athletics at Ednovate is growing on several fronts, and CIF membership is one of the clearest signs of it. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body that oversees high school sports across the state. It's what allows a team to compete for real standings, qualify for playoffs, and be recognized alongside every other public and private school program in California, rather than just playing informal games. 

Last year, Encore College Prep completed its first season as part of CIF. USC South LA, Brío, and Esperanza all cleared their probationary periods and are now full CIF members! Starting a new CIF program takes just one interested athlete, especially in an individual sport like cross country or golf. Ahmad Mallard, Ednovate's Athletics Director, says every Ednovate school now has a path to build more teams based on student interest.

Girls Flag Football Builds Leaders On and Off the Field

Now entering its second season, Ednovate's girls flag football program has grown into something bigger than wins and losses, for the players and the coaches watching them develop.

Dyana Pena, a playmaker and quarterback, came into the program not knowing how to properly throw a ball or run routes. Her skills improved tremendously last year, as her coaches and teammates supported her through accomplishments, challenges, and mistakes. 

"The biggest thing I learned is that being a good player, or even having good players, isn't what wins games," she said. "It's when we uplift each other and believe in each other as a team. Flag football is not an 'I' or 'me' sport." 

Team captain and receiver Kaylie Manzano said last season taught her that success isn't handed to you. "You have to stay disciplined and work hard to be successful and achieve what you want," she said. "As long as you have that hunger and desire to be successful, it will happen." This year, she's excited to face new, more challenging teams across the growing league, calling it a chance to find her team's strengths and weaknesses "and grow stronger and better."

For Head Coach La’Trice Lauve, the growth has gone well beyond the scoreboard. "Watching our girls grow in confidence, trust each other, and find their voice was everything," Coach Lauve said of last season. Heading into this year, the focus is on continuing to build: "I love watching our returning players lead while welcoming new girls into the program."

Ednovate vs. The World

For the first time in Ednovate history, three of the network's football teams, USC South LA College Prep, Legacy College Prep, and USC Hybrid High, will play on the same field, on the same day, in front of the same crowd. 

On September 19, there will be three 8-man football games at 12 p.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m. at Harbor College, each with its own MVP award, celebration chains, a photographer capturing the day, and media on hand to cover it. "We've never brought the Ednovate family together to play at one location and have an all-day event," Ahmad said. "It falls in line with being More Like Family. We're all together. Let's be one."

The day is also a chance to put a spotlight on 8-man football itself, a format Ahmad says gets overlooked in a sports world built around 11-man teams. Because Ednovate's charter schools tend to draw students who value academics as much as athletics, rosters are often small and full of first-time players. 8-man football gives them a real shot to compete and to shine.

Legacy College Prep 2025-2026 boys football team

A New Kind of Athlete

E-sports at Ednovate includes both competitive video gaming and strategy games like chess. It has quietly built momentum across the network for a few years now. E-sports gives students another way to compete at a high level without needing to be on a field or court.

USC Hybrid High won last winter's Clash Royale tournament, and this year, attention is turning to a rising chess player: Ester Castillo, a 10th grader at Encore College Prep. Ester placed 3rd last year as a freshman, and according to Encore chess coach Tyler Jackson, they both share the same goal: grow Encore’s chess team and win the Ednovate Chess Tournament this year.

Nationally, e-sports has become one of the fastest-growing parts of school athletics. More than 150 colleges and universities now field varsity esports teams through the National Association of Collegiate Esports. Many offer scholarships the same way traditional sports do, and popular titles like Rocket League, Valorant, and Super Smash Bros. have become legitimate paths to college for students.

For Ahmad, the appeal goes beyond recruitment. The strategy sessions, the communication under pressure, the practice of regrouping after a loss and adjusting the plan: those are the same skills students need in college and, eventually, the workforce. "It may be a situation where they have to regroup, meet, come up with a new strategy ASAP to reach a goal," he said. "All of these things can apply to life." For students, that's the real win: another door into college and potentially a fulfilling career. 

More Than Wins and Losses

Ahmad helped build the athletics program at Ednovate’s flagship school USC Hybrid High before returning to Ednovate for a network role last year after some time away. For him, the throughline across all this work is simple: win or lose, students get to represent their school and build community in front of their families.

"Aside from the joy and the competition that comes with athletics, what we notice is that schools rally around the people who are playing sports, and that builds more camaraderie, more of a sense of belonging to campus," he said. "That's what really stood out."

Most Ednovate teams compete in the lower divisions of their leagues, meaning they aren't always the most competitive on paper, but Ahmad reminds us that sense of belonging doesn't depend on the scoreboard. "It doesn't matter how good you are," he said. "It's just, do you have a team? Are you representing? And are you building the school camaraderie? Parents love to see that,” and so do we! 

Coach Lauve, who leads the girls flag football program, put it like this: “Sports give students a place to grow, lead, make mistakes, and discover what they are capable of." It's a sentiment that echoes what athletics is meant to do across the entire network: "Athletics is another way we create Positive Multigenerational Change," Coach Lauve said. "We are helping students become confident leaders who know they can do hard things and create opportunities for themselves and others."