Flag football is now a fully sanctioned high school sport in Arizona with 26 6A teams and 30 5A teams with most of the inaugural programs located in the greater Phoenix area but teams are also located in Flagstaff, Casa Grande and in Southern Arizona in the Marana School District.

Marana will compete in the 6A Central Region and will have 12 games scheduled and Mountain View is in the 5A Southern Region and will have 10 games. The first set of rankings are slated to be released on Sep. 26 and the top 16 ranked teams in each of the two conferences will advance to the state playoffs.

There are over 20 NAIA schools participating in girls flag football and Ottawa University in Kansas won its third national title this year. Also, a few dozen NJCAA programs competed this past year with Florida Gateway College winning the national championship.

Marana’s head coach is Shaun Lara and he gave us a few thoughts heading into tryouts:

“I’m super excited to be a part of the inaugural year for girls flag football,” Lara said. “I have coached football in the Marana District for the last 10 years and have been the girls head wrestling coach for the last four years. I’m very lucky to be coaching with Sean Roebuck and his expertise in flag football. I played for Wayne Jones and Paul Schmidt at Mountain View way back when and have since coached with these great coaches, Andy Litten, Jake Price, Clarence McRae and Matt Johnson.”

 

6A CENTRAL MARANA FLAG FOOTBALL

 

Coach: Shaun Lara

Tuesday, Aug. 29 vs. Casa Grande, 5 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 31 at Mountain View, 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 5 vs. Westwood, 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 12 vs. Queen Creek, 5 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 14 at Basha, 5 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 21 at Maricopa, 4 p.m. (Region)

Tuesday, Sept. 26 vs. Desert Vista, 5 p.m. (Region)

Thursday, Sept. 28 at Mountain Pointe, 6 p.m. (Region)

Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Dobson, 4 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 5 vs Tolleson, 4 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 17 at Gilbert, 5 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 19 vs. Corona del Sol, 4 p.m. (Region)

Tuesday, Oct. 24 Playoffs, 6 p.m.

Shaun Lara. (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson)