2026 Shore Sports Insider Girls Flag Football Defensive Player of the Year: Jayla Kline, Pinelands
The rise of the Pinelands flag football team becoming a Shore Conference contender was mirrored by senior Jayla Kline becoming a star.
Kline’s emergence as one of New Jersey’s top defensive players coincided with the Wildcats reaching the Shore Conference Tournament final last season and making a run to the quarterfinals this year.
She entered her senior year in the spotlight, and she delivered once again.
A sideline-to-sideline force, Kline finished with 79 tackles, 17 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss, three interceptions and an interception return for a touchdown to earn Shore Sports Insider Defensive Player of the Year honors.
She was the leader of a defense that allowed a Shore Conference-low 54 points and only 4.9 points per game for a Pinelands team that finished 8-3. No team scored more than 14 points in a game all season against Pinelands, and that included undefeated Shore Conference Tournament champion Barnegat, which led the Shore in scoring. Kline had eight tackles, six of them solo, in a 14-7 loss to the Bengals, and she also had 11 tackles against SCT semifinalist Central.
She was a two-way player for the Wildcats who also ran for 627 yards and 5 touchdowns and caught 13 passes for 178 yards and three scores.
Kline finished her decorated career with 215 tackles. She was also named the Shore Conference Defensive Player of the Year by the coaches as a junior last year.
“I told everyone at our banquet that she will be the Jerry West of Pinelands flag football,” head coach John Tierney said. “She will forever be the logo of the Wildcats. Every time we compare another player to greatness, she will be the one we compare them to.”
Kline will take the field one final time on June 20 as part of the South All-Stars in the Girls Flag Football North-South All-Star Game at The College of New Jersey.
Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point.
Email: scottstump25@gmail.com
