Trojans flag football celebrates breakout season, honors players

A scoreboard often tells you a lot of information behind the scenes.

Records are often a direct reflection of a coach’s ability or the quality of the program.

But what those two things don’t highlight is the heart that never let up all season from this group of young ladies.

“Saturday wrapped up a fun season for us,” Trojans flag football head coach Jeff Corbett said. “We had a great potluck. Kids had fun and got their awards and letters.”

Diona Nixon was named Defensive MVP, Anji Mercado earned Offensive MVP, Jazmyn Herrera received the Best Attitude award, Ma’liyah Collins was recognized as Most Outstanding Freshman, and Savannah Thompson earned the Coaches’ choice award.

Starting in January last year as a ‘small boot camp’, the program set their sights on forming a group of ladies that were devoted and fired up to learn a new game nearly from scratch.

“The biggest takeaway was just getting the exposure to the different schemes that are being used by other teams. From January to the middle of the season, we saw confidence building,” Corbett said. “The butterflies started to subside, the reps got them more physical, and they started to get better being in the right place.”

Despite the season’s set of challenges that arose, Corbett was joined alongside veteran coach Edward Rankin — a 27-year coaching mainstay and current JV football assistant — along with Jessica VanderWal, a former women’s professional football player with the Rocky Mountain ThunderKatz, who the ladies really took a shine to.

As the Trojans season got deeper into tough matchups, the defense often stepped up right alongside with it.

Despite not receiving a coaches’ award, junior LB Ember Castenda-Dabney was constantly in the mix, disrupting pass defenses with her quick cuts to the ball.

“If I run this route, then the defender will react this way; it started to click more,” Corbett said. “We were able to go more in depth on defense adding quarters and match at the end. This is all the building blocks for next season.”

As the program takes some time off the field for a couple of months, Corbett says he is gearing up for next year already.

“I think this group will excite some girls that were on the fence. At minimum, I think they had fun. And I hope that this sparks more interest at the middle school level as well,” Corbett said.

Contact Jacob Powers at jpowers@pvtimes.com. Follow @jaypowers__ on X.