Throughout the development of sports they have been more broadly opened with new sports and expansion for including certain genders. The popularity of flag football has grown vastly across the world to the point where it will be included in the 2028 Olympic Games. Ava Trujillo is a freshman student athlete with great determination for flag football.

Trujillo has been playing flag football since April this year and has broadened her skill greatly to make it onto the varsity team. Trujillo is a hard worker who not only pushes herself to new limits, but also her teammates. She is a well rounded individual with great work ethic, great sportsmanship, and collaboration skills.

However, the course to make it onto the flag football team was not easy. It not only took a long time, but it also needed great commitment. Throughout the course of tryouts there were many requirements such as times for certain plays, catching drills, and flag pulling drills, but despite all of these expectations, Trujillo was able to meet them and excel. Not only in her skills in playing football, but Trujillo excelled in other skills like celebrating her teammates and being greatly coachable.

“There was a criteria that we had different stations, that they had times or catches or flag poles on, and then we had the intangible stuff like being coachable,” Flag Football Coach Amy Campbell said. “But [she’s] just an all-around great kid and she’s one of the best athletes I’ve seen in a really really long time.”

Like most sports, there are many boundaries that can limit athletes. For some it may be physical constraints, while for others it might be showing that they deserve to be on a team despite age or gender. For Trujillo, she continuously strives to prove her worth as a girl playing varsity flag football.

“[The idea of] girls playing football just doesn’t happen so now that we have flag [football] that girls can do, it’s almost like when women were able to vote,” Trujillo said.

Ava has been able to push herself to break the wall of gender roles in society. She not only works extremely hard, but works great with others. With Trujillo’s positive attitude she not only improves herself, but also helps the team.

“Ava is someone who works well with everyone on the team,” Mariska Csupak (9) said. “She takes criticism and makes not only herself better but the whole team better as a whole.”

With all of Trujillo’s great skills combined, she has advanced in her skills. Whenever she does what she loves, she puts her full effort into it no matter what. But most of her aspiration comes from wanting to show younger athletes that they can do the same thing she can.

“Showing little kids that you can do [flag football] is my motivation. All the little kids that I see that know that I play football go like ‘Wow, you do flag [football],’” Trujillo said.

Trujillo has done much to not only contribute herself but also her team. Her great personality shines brightly through her that others see making her so much of a better player.

“Beside genetics she’s just naturally gifted a lot,” Campbell said. “She works really hard and she’s really pushing the tempo all the time. She asks questions, she’ll ask her teammates questions, and she goes hard to her teammates. It’s that mutual respect kind of thing, but I think that’s why she’s such a great athlete.”