Flag football was never just a sport to me. I started playing flag football my sixth grade year. I was a twelve year old girl, who knew nothing about football. My two coaches, Blade and Dysen, had faith in my ability to be one of the best players. I told Blade and Dysen directly that I didn’t think I was a good fit on both sides of the ball. When I told them that, they both told me to have faith in myself and never give up. From that moment on, I have always put all of my time, strength, and confidence into flag football. Throughout my first year of flag football, I went from knowing nothing, to knowing way more. I had gotten ten times better than at the beginning of the season.
In my second year of flag football, I was struggling mentally. We had gotten anew coach since our old coaches had to go back to school and couldn’t help us practice anymore. Our new coach, his name is Ron Ziya. Mr. Ziya didn’t really know a lot about football, but was willing to learn more to help us succeed. Our first couple of practices were really tough for me. It wasn’t that Mr. Ziya was not a good coach, but it was because I always felt so drained. Mr. Ziya could tell one day and gave me some advice on life. That day on, I realized that my family and friends wouldn’t want to see me fail. Mr. Ziya led our team to many successes. I had improved way more than last season then most of the people there.
My eighth grade year, Mr. Ziya coached our team again. My team and I had made a lot of improvements as shown at our first practice back. I was chosen to be the defensive captain of our team. From that moment I put all of my heart, body, and soul into this sport. I pushed my team to become the better version of themselves for this team. Our first game we had lost. It wasn’t that we didn’t put in enough effort, it was because we couldn’t communicate well. I remember during half time our coach had a talk with us. He told us that he believed in us and knew we could do better than that. That day on we grew our communication levels better. Mr. Ziya led our team to success, after many losses in the past. We had played seven games in total due to how our games always got pushed back. My last game of my eighth grade year, I had suffered an injury. While I was running after my guy, my hip popped really loudly, and I couldn’t walk. Knowing me, I didn’t want to see a doctor because I was afraid I would have fractured it.
My freshman year of high school, my hip would pop out of place from time to time. Even though my hip would give out, I still put my all into the sport I loved most. My coach Nick Espinoza was one of the best coaches I had. He set standards for our team, and only wanted to see us doing our best in the sport. He would help us over and over again if we didn’t understand something correctly so we wouldn’t forget it in a game. Our coach would come from work just so he could teach us to become better. Nick Espinoza was a great leader and a coach. My team and I learned a lot from our season together in 2024.
Flag football has taught me to always push myself hard. When things aren’t going your way, sometimes you need to take a break and figure out what is wrong and learn from it. In most cases sports mean a lot to people. Like for me, I love flag football and it’s a way to let my emotions out whenever possible. So, in this case, flag football was never just a sport to me.
