First-Year Trojans tackle first flag football season with heart — PHOTOS
Every flag pulled this season was a small victory for Pahrump Valley High School’s inaugural girls flag football program.
Having been part of a team myself in pony baseball (the Braves) that went undefeated in the win column the whole duration of the season, I can tell you firsthand how easy it would have been to quit.
But that’s not what Trojans do.
“Overall, the season was an absolute success! One, the girls had fun learning a new sport. I’m certain that it’s gonna grow from here and more girls are going to get excited about at least trying it,” Trojans head coach Jeff Corbett said. “Second, there is huge strides and growth. Flag football is a bit different, where it’s more mental than physical.”
Heading out to Doral Academy Red Rock on December 2 for their first game of the year, the girls quickly had to adapt to multiple poised and experienced programs in the conference.
It was a tough schedule from the start, facing powerhouses through the season in Spring Valley, Sierra Vista, SLAM! and Arbor View.
Corbett, who launched the program from scratch in January, called the build-up a “good starting point and good building block for years to come.”
“They’ve learned that we kept the score to around 40 and we scored a couple times as well,” Corbett said. “Those are my couple of goals that I had this year.”
Despite going 0-16 in their first year, it was fun to watch the light bulb start to click as the girls progressively became more advanced in their play calling and defensive aggressiveness.
Senior RB/WR/QB Diona Nixon displayed flashes in the pan of the legendary rusher Bo Jackson as she ripped multiple long rushes throughout the year.
Using her speed advantage as a prior soccer star this past fall, Nixon was coupled in the backfield with freshman Ma’liyah Collins.
The Trojans flexed multiple different offensive schemes as they rotated between Nixon in the wildcat, Nereyda Gonzalez in the gun and Savannah Thompson out of the pistol.
Anchoring the defense, Ember Castaneda-Dabney, Nixon, Collins, Thomson and Jazmyn Herrera were constantly in the mix disturbing opposing offenses.
Herrera did a great job with the special teams unit learning how to punt a football for the first time, similar to her to a free kick out of the box.
“I’m very happy with what I saw and how the girls grew individually and as a whole,” Corbett said.
Contact Jacob Powers at jpowers@pvtimes.com. Follow @jaypowers__ on X.
