Tucson isn’t the only city in Southern Arizona with major sports talent.
A little over an hour’s drive south of Tucson sits Nogales, a neighboring city with a population of around 20,000 known for its proximity to the Mexico border. But, for the citizens of Nogales, it’s so much more than a border city.
It’s a sports community filled with talented baseball players, track and field runners and numerous multi-sport athletes who break school records and win state championships.
One of those multi-sport athletes is Nogales High School senior Johanna Simpson, a basketball player, track and field runner and flag football running back with the school’s inaugural team.
Johanna Simpson joined Nogales’ inaugural flag football team to try something new and ended up loving it. Four games into the school’s debut flag football season, she’s already logged 279 rushing yards.
No matter what Nogales High coach you talk to, they’ll all tell you something similar: Johanna is one of the most hardworking athletes on the team.
“Johanna is easily one of our better athletes,” said Leo Federico, a teacher and track and field coach at Nogales. “And I think she represents our school in the best way possible. She fulfills everything about this place that I love and I think she embodies a lot of not just the pride of this place, but the hard work and the community that she represents.”
But Simpson’s success on the field (or court or track) goes beyond her coaches’ words; she has the numbers to support their praise.
Four games into the school’s debut flag football season, she’s already logged 279 rushing yards. The current national average is 103. Her average yards per carry is sitting at 21.5, while the national average is far below at 7.6.
When Nogales launched flag football, joining the team was a no-brainer for Simpson.
“I wanted to play because it was something different, something new, as well as it would have helped me translate what I learned in there to other sports,” she said.
Johanna Simpson is a senior multi-sport athlete at Nogales High School and participates in girls flag football, basketball and track and field.
Nogales currently holds a 3-1 record, with its next game on Oct. 22 against Desert View High School. Simpson is one of the team’s “fastest girls,” according to co-head coach Samuel Ocampo.
“It (flag football) has been something nice for this community, the town and seeing that we can do this, that our girls can be competitive,” Ocampo said. “Nogales has talent. I think that hasn’t been able to be exposed the way it needs to be. Baseball is huge here and they’re very talented. But why couldn’t we do that with the girls? We just got very, very lucky that we did with the girls. And coaching them has been super fun for myself and Tony (Garcia). We don’t have any girls. I have three boys and these are like our 25 daughters.”
“Coaching her has been a lot of fun,” Ocampo added. “She is very athletic. That girl is very athletic. She does basketball, she does track and field and then she decided to do this and we were actually pretty blessed that she did.”
Before Simpson had a passion for flag football, her first loves were cheerleading, basketball and track and field.
She began running as a child and says she fell in love with it instantly. She ran track and field throughout middle school and continued her running journey throughout high school.
“I definitely love the environment, it’s so fun,” Simpson said. “You get to meet so many different people from different areas. … And just the competitiveness with each other, you push each other, even though you don’t know them from that certain school, you see them at different meets and you get to compete with them all the time and it’s fun. I just enjoy it a lot.”
Johanna Simpson a part of the 4x400 relay team that broke the Nogales High School record with a time of 4:11:73 at the AIA Division II Championships in May. She hopes to run track and field at the University of Arizona.
Last season, she often found herself within the top five of 100-meter hurdles at track and field invitationals and was even a part of the 4x400 relay team that broke the Nogales HS school record with a time of 4:11:73 at the AIA Division II Championships in May.
Similar to her track and field journey, Simpson has been playing basketball for around six years. Her coach, Yahaira Sanchez, has known her for several years and says she’s extremely hardworking and leads by example, whether that’s on the court or the field.
“She’s just a heck of an athlete. Her motor doesn’t stop,” Sanchez said. “She works hard all day and sometimes you got to take her out so that she can understand that she can relax for a little bit, like, ‘OK, calm down’ and then she’s ready to go again. But, she works at one cylinder, she doesn’t think of anything else.”
Simpson, a guard with the team, earned a First Team All-Region honor last season. She averaged seven points and six rebounds per game.
Nogales finished last season first in the Class 5A Sonoran division with an overall record of 11-7.
Sanchez says she expects another big year from Simpson.
Johanna Simpson (10) is a guard for Nogales High School. Last season, she averaged seven points and six rebounds per game.
“I’ve coached her for so long and this year she’s a senior, it’s really sad that I won’t see her next year,” she said. “I’m happy because she’s gonna do something when she picks track or when she picks basketball, she’s got an incredible future ahead of her because she’s determined. I look forward to watching her grow and it’s also a bittersweet feeling because I’ve watched her grow in front of my eyes and (now) I get to watch her grow from afar.”
It may seem like Simpson solely focuses on sports, but she also takes academics seriously.
She currently has a 3.6 GPA, received numerous academic honors, is a member of the National Technical Honor Society and is president of the Apache Leadership Advisory Committee at Nogales HS.
“I mostly put academics first because sports are one thing, but academics is where it’s going to get me somewhere, even if sports weren’t there,” she said. “So, just mainly focusing on that and having my parents as well direct me on that especially at a young age, too. That’s mainly my focus and doing my homework on time.”
Johanna Simpson’s first love was track and field. Last season, she often found herself within the top five of 100-meter hurdles at track and field invitationals.
After she graduates in 2025, Simpson hopes to run track and field at the University of Arizona, where she will study either psychology or sports medicine.
Even though Simpson is a star student-athlete, she’s still a teenager at heart who enjoys hanging out with her friends, watching movies and cracking jokes.
That’s something else all of her coaches agree upon: Simpson has a larger-than-life personality and a sense of humor they hope never changes.
“As a teacher and as a coach, I get to see kids grow and mature in a lot of ways and Johanna is no exception,” Federico said. “She has become a much more level-headed athlete and a much brighter student and I feel by the time she graduates, she’s going to be a very well-rounded young woman.”
Get to know Johanna
What’s your lucky number?
10. (Her basketball number)
What’s your favorite movie?
“10 Things I Hate About You.”
Who’s your favorite athlete?
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
What’s your go-to spot in Nogales?
McDonald’s. (Simpson’s go-to order is a 10-piece chicken nugget, large fries, an orange Fanta and a side of ranch.)
What’s your current favorite class?
Psychology.
