Marana High School flag football roars to No. 1 spot in state rankings after 10-0 start

No matter where Marana flag football has played, the Tigers have won.

At 10-0 overall entering this week, and the Class 6A Conference’s top-ranked team, the Tigers have emerged as the sport’s first powerhouse in its first season as a sanctioned varsity sport by the Arizona Interscholastic Association — despite playing only two home games so far.

Marana didn’t play a home game until Sept. 26 when the Tigers defeated No. 9 Phoenix Desert Vista 14-12, their tightest outcome of the season. The delay came after the Marana High School football stadium turf was damaged in a storm, though the community rallied to help repair it and cut down on the time the flag and tackle football teams had to stay away from their home field.

“It feels like we’re just making everybody else’s home fields our home fields,” Marana flag coach Shaun Lara said. “So it’s our kind of home-field advantage because we’re so used to being on the road.

“We take that as a blessing because our field wasn’t ready this year, we had a storm take care of it.”

There are 54 flag football teams in its inaugural season and only 6A No. 1 Marana, 6A No. 3 Mesa Red Mountain and 5A No. 1 Mesa Eastmark are undefeated.

“It’s amazing, it’s like a dream come true, I couldn’t have asked for a better team or anything,” said Marana sophomore quarterback/safety Roxi Singer.

The Tigers won five games before they played their first home game. Their regular season will only feature three home games.

“I wish we had more but at the end of the day I just want to play,” said junior receiver Madison Myers-Rebidas.

If Marana can maintain a top-two seed, they might just get that wish for more games at home. In the state tournament, they could play as many as three home games in a row. The flag football tournaments are 16-team brackets, with single elimination games held at the higher seed until the state championship game; the title game location has not yet been announced.

Since Mountain View, a 5A team, is the only other local school with a flag football team, the Tigers have to play in a region of mostly Phoenix area schools where every team is north of Casa Grande.

“It’s tough but I love it,” Singer said. “I’d do anything to play and if that means I have to travel two hours to play and do my schoolwork and stay up later, then so be it, I’ll play.”

Salpointe Catholic tackle football plays in a region with only Phoenix area teams but they play Friday nights. Their JV and freshmen teams play those Phoenix teams on Thursday or Wednesday nights but the jayvee have a nine game schedule and the frosh an eight game slate.

Flag football games are on weeknights — often two a week — and the season is 12 games for Marana plus the playoffs.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“It’s kinda tough just cuz I miss a lot of my school but I get it done during the study period,” Myers-Rebidas said. “So it’s really no trouble — just fun.”

Lara said they have six classes and it’s tough when they’re gone a lot of the time.

“I’m just super happy with our team because they’re working in the classroom just as hard as they are on the field,” Lara said.

Marana’s next game is Tuesday afternoon at No. 13 Gilbert. The Tigers have shut out their last four opponents — 24-0, 22-0, 17-0 and 42-0. They close out the regular season on Thursday when they host No. 16 Tempe Corona del Sol at 4 p.m.

Singer is seventh in the conference in passing yards with 1,678 and eighth in total yards with 1,996.

Sophomore receiver/linebacker Malaysia Roebuck is fifth in 6A in receiving yards with 804 and seventh in touchdowns with 13.

Junior Nami Singer is first with 28 sacks, and senior kicker/receiver/defensive back Thais Monson is fifth in tries with four.

Mountain View (6-2 at press time) plays in the other flag football conference, 5A, where they are ranked No. 9. The Mountain Lions were undefeated until they lost 20-0 at 5A No. 8 Casa Grande.

MV’s other loss was 22-0 to Marana.

“We were very confident coming in. We’ve been playing a lot of tough teams,” Lara said of the local matchup. “I know Mountain View’s been on a roll. They’ve been doing really well. They’re a really good team, I’m super happy to see what they do in 5A.”

Lara wonders how long it will take for more local teams to join Marana and Mountain View on the girls flag football circuit.

“I haven’t heard about anybody in Tucson adding yet but honestly I would be shocked if teams hadn’t started picking this up like Amphi, TUSD, or even out in Vail,” Lara said. “This is just too much fun.”

Photos: Marana shuts out Tolleson Union 42-0, continues undefeated season