TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Women’s flag football playoffs for AIA started Wednesday, November 13.
It’s a sport in its second year in existence, but growing all over the country.
Now many girls in southern Arizona have real possibilities of playing at the next level.
That’s a reality for some players and parents like Sean Roebuck.
Roebuck coaches for his daughter Malaysia’s team in Marana.
“As a father, you see your daughter, you know, with sports, take something like this on, and you’re like wow. They got it,” Roebuck said, referring to his daughter’s skills.
Malaysia had to play with boys growing up, as there were very few female teams. It’s something she says she stuck with to have an outlet for something she says she was always drawn to.
“[I love] how competitive it is, and the community, the people that play.”
So, when the opportunity came, Roebuck’s father joined with head coach Shaun Lara to create the girls flag program at Marana last year, without realizing how quickly it would grow.
“I honestly couldn’t [have] even painted the picture,” Lara said, “in southern Arizona, it’s booming. I mean, it’s grown drastically.”
Now the sport has three divisions in AIA and a sponsorship deal with the Cardinals to broadcast one game a week.
“It’s having multiple different conversations. I have seniors right now that are ready for that next level, and they’re looking for some colleges, and they want to play at that level.”
One of those girls looking to play at the next level is Roebuck, a dream she says she is excited to pursue, while, of course, putting her grades first.
“It’s very uplifting to me. I look up to every day and I have to put in the hard work every day.”
While these athletes have overcome so many hurdles to play the game they love, one hurdle which seemed to be in their way was the opportunity to play professionally.
But it’s something one southern Arizona athlete is looking to do.
“I truly thought I was going to hang up the cleats my freshman year for flag football,” Salpointe grad Rylen Borguet said. “Just being back at it is I’m just so grateful that this path opened up for me.”
Borguet never had a chance to play flag football in high school, but hearing of the addition of the Olympic sport, she left her collegiate volleyball career to pursue the Olympic dream.
“I think it’s awesome just seeing the high-level play that the girls are playing at, and it’s only going to get higher as these years goes on. So I’m just excited to see where it takes them,” Borguet said.
Showing football isn’t just for the boys.
“These girls, they’re going to make believers and have fans,” Roebuck said.
Lara said he just had meetings with college recruiters and even team USA scouts looking for recommendations for their upcoming training camps including the full select team tryouts in February where Borgeut will be.
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