While entering this new season, we introduce a new Flag Football Coach to the West High Pack. As we get to see his Team on the field, we also get to see his strategies and coaching lifestyle. Aria Afshar also known as, Coach A, graduated from West High School seven years ago and is excited to be back and present here. He has experience substituting different types of classes, but he is pleased to be set on coaching.
When getting to know what his hopes are for this year’s season he says, “You know, we want the girls to understand the game of flag football because there are scholarship opportunities out there.” Most importantly though, he wants his team to have fun and to be better than they were last year. Coach A wants them to master the basics of catching, flag pulling, and especially working as a team. I asked him what goals he wants the girls to achieve, and he says that he would really enjoy seeing them putting their classes and grades first. He also wishes that they have fun as players and individual people.
When questioned about what he enjoyed most about coaching, he said that he enjoys being outdoors and having team bonding days with the girls. His words of advice when talking about the girls team were, “Given out the knowledge that I have to the girls. They’re really positive and we have a really great time.”
When interviewing a member of the team, senior Kimberley Villa says that Coach A is preparing the team very well with a lot of running drills and showing them how to run offense and defense in an actual game. Villa says he is a very good and detailed coach filled with a lot of encouragement and positivity and that he is helping her develop as a player. She says, “What I like best about his coaching strategies is that he doesn’t try to stress you and he just keeps telling us that everything is okay and that we’re doing good.”
I also interviewed senior Kayla McWhorter who is also part of the Flag Football team. McWhorter says, “He’s giving us a lot of game-like situations and he’s really breaking down everything and he makes sure that we know the small details of the game.” She also says that he records their practices so that they can all look back at the recordings to see how they can improve together and individually.
As this season is beginning, Coach A wishes to build up the athletes as well as he can for this to be an amazing season for the team.
