Daily Journal Flag Football Player of the Year: Menlo’s Ava Allen

“I was really struggling trying to decide what to play,” Allen said. “I figured [flag football] was a perfect opportunity to have a lot of fun.”

And a lot of success. After sharing time as the Knights’ quarterback last season during which they lost only one game, Allen, a sophomore, was the no-doubt-about-it starter this season. All she did was help the Knights to an undefeated season and is the inaugural San Mateo Daily Journal Flag Football Player of the Year.

“As a head coach, I’m not going to just give [a starting position] to anyone,” said Noah Lubarsky, who took over as head coach this season, replacing John Paye.

“But on Day One, she was our quarterback. I had heard she had success last year and just had all the intangibles. … Ava looks like a quarterback.

“The thing about her and what makes her great is she is overly competitive and wants to master the intricacies of the position.”

Because many of the fields the Knights played on did not have football hash marks, it’s hard to know how many yards she had throwing. But she did throw 56 touchdown passes and added six more running touchdowns. And she didn’t just play one way. She was a shutdown cornerback who came up with six interceptions, two of which she returned for scores.

That’s 64 touchdowns on the season.

“We definitely take pride in that (winning streak),” Allen said. “We play sports to have fun and build community, but winning is something I take pride in. I definitely love to win.”

While running the ball is an aspect of the game, flag football is all about throwing it and Allen is one of the few that can really spin it. But she had never played the sport until turning up for tryouts last year.

“Just backyard sessions with my dad and brother,” Allen said of her previous football experience. “In elementary school, we never had a flag football team.”

What Allen did have, however, was an extensive background in both baseball and softball, playing both while growing up. And because Menlo does not have a softball team, Allen played baseball as a freshman last year — starting on the JV level before getting called up to varsity.

She believes the motion of throwing a baseball or softball is similar to throwing a football. But she didn’t just rely on her athletic ability. When she decided she wanted to play flag football, she went about preparing to be the Knights quarterback.

She has certainly gotten some high-level tutoring. Last year’s team was coached by Paye, who starred at Stanford before going on to the NFL and the San Francisco 49ers. Additionally, she has been mentored by 49ers great and football Hall of Famer Steve Young, whose daughter, Summer Young, attended Menlo and played on the flag football team as a senior last year.

While Young is not at practice every day, he certainly imparted some wisdom to Allen.

“I was familiar with both (coaches’ resumes),” Allen said. “Paye massively helped my development. He was always thinking about football.”

As for Young?

“What a luxury,” Lubarsky said. “You need help with your footwork? Go talk to him.”

Lubarsky, however, is no slouch when it comes to “The Menlo Way” of football. Is it any coincidence that a Menlo football team has an outstanding quarterback and receiving corps?

Lubarsky had spent the previous 12 seasons on the 11-man football coaching staff, including six seasons as the Knights’ quarterbacks coach, so he knows what it takes to have a high-flying aerial attack on the football field — flag or otherwise.

“On the boys’ end, we’re such a small school and we generally don’t get that many large kids,” Lubarsky said. “So much of our offense is getting a mobile quarterback who is smart and can get the ball out quickly. That philosophy works really well in flag.”

A quarterback is only as good as their receiving corps and like the boys’ team, the flag team had plenty of ball catchers — including senior Ellie Knoll, and juniors Sophie Housser and Megan Mulloy.

“I think our receiving corps is the best around here. … It definitely takes you really having trust in your receiver, just knowing they’re going to be there,” Allen said. “I remember Sophie made a one-handed catch that blew my mind. … The level of perfection I expected from myself could have been much higher, but [my receivers] took some of the pressure off to make the perfect pass.”

Adding to Allen’s learning curve is that Lubarsky’s offense does not have a set read prior to the snap. All of Allen’s decisions come once the ball is put into play.

“Our offense is all about post-snap adjustments,” Lubarsky said. “The quarterback is looking at the defense and then making a throw. You have to trust the receiver is making the same read.”

Said Allen: “At the beginning, it was me deciding who I would throw the ball to. As we played better defenses, Coach Lubarsky really showed me how to read defenses. Just because I’ve never really played (football), it was an adjustment. Now there are a lot of different options and a lot of decisions to make.”

The ability to read defenses helped her on the defensive side of the ball, as well, knowing what the opposing quarterback is trying to do and reading those plays. Lubarsky said Allen was originally a part-time player on defense, but it didn’t take him long to insert her into the defensive starting lineup.

“She almost takes away one side of the field,” Lubarsky said.

And despite having moved on to the Menlo basketball team for her second year of varsity play, Allen hasn’t turned the page on football.

“She had this incredible season and when the season ended, she reached out to me to work me to learn how to read defenses better,” Lubarsky said. “She wasn’t just satisfied. She’s still looking to be better.”