With the Michigan Girls High School Flag Football League season ready to kick off, Birmingham Groves hosted a three-way scrimmage with Redford Union and the P-CEP Prowlers — the co-op team between Canton, Plymouth and Salem — on April 22 to help each team tune up for Week 1.

While each team faced each other for only one 20-minute half, there was still plenty to learn about each squad during the preseason action.

Here are four takeaways Hometown Life sports reporter Brandon Folsom had after watching the scrimmage:

Well, it’s too late to change Jenna Mokachar’s number, but it’s safe to say the No. 30 jersey she wears for the P-CEP Prowlers doesn’t do her skill set justice.

The Plymouth freshman was hands down the best player at the scrimmage, catching six passes on seven targets for 66 yards and rushing once for 16 yards in a 0-0 tie with RU, then adding five catches for 67 yards and four rushes for 40 yards in a 6-0 loss to Groves.

She looked like a prototypical NFL slot receiver, snagging passes in the flats, becoming a threat in the short and intermediate game and taking end-arounds and reverses for first downs.

You watch her play and think Wes Welker, Danny Amendola and Cooper Kupp — or, for Gen Z readers, Amon-Ra St. Brown or Puka Nacua.

While she shares their natural ability to use speed and athleticism to move the chains on underneath routes, she doesn’t share their jersey numbers. The Prowlers need to get her a No. 83 like Welker or digits in the teens like Kupp (10), Nacua (12), St. Brown (14) or Amendola (16) so she can really fit the part.

Coach Derek Hoffman said he’ll take that into consideration when he orders jerseys next spring because that backup linebacker/special-teams ace number she’s rocking just isn’t working.

For now, the best I can do is give her a nickname to help her out.

RU coach Jon Ghazal and Groves coach Geoff Wickersham are close friends, which is fitting because both of their squads entered the spring with the same question: How will their returning QBs fare without their elite counterparts?

For the Panthers, that’s junior Ameerah Saba, who has been an excellent passer while sharing the backfield with Cameron Cherry, Hometown Life’s Player of the Year in 2025.

Cherry took pressure off Saba in the pocket. She could catch passes and make defenders miss. She could outrun linebackers and rushers, despite usually being the biggest player on the field. And she could throw downfield with precision.

Now she’s gone, lost to graduation, and Saba must work her magic without one of the best players in Michigan by her side.

Judging by how Saba led the Panthers down the field against Groves and P-CEP, she should be just fine this spring.

She led two TD drives against the Falcons, finishing 7 of 13 passing for 103 yards and a 24-yard TD pass to Jamie Rucker while also rushing for a 14-yard score. She also went 5 of 11 passing for 57 yards against P-CEP.

She’s even found a favorite receiver in Kayleigh Goodman, whom she targeted eight times over the two games, connecting on five passes for 60 yards.

Groves junior Ke’lko Buskin also showed off her arm, despite not having current North Carolina Central University player Gabby Frazier-Body in the backfield.

While the Falcons’ receivers are still working on their timing with Buskin, you can see the progress they’re making. Against P-CEP, she was 9 of 12 passing for 94 yards, including a game-winning 26-yard TD to Chloe Morucci in the waning moments. She also completed three passes for 31 yards against RU.

She made heads-up plays almost every series, especially finding veteran targets for first downs in no-run zones. But perhaps her biggest highlight of the evening came on an incomplete pass. She lasered about a 40-yard bomb with a perfect spiral just inches beyond her receiver, who was about a half step behind the throw. It’s the kind of long-range threat you don’t normally see in this league.