Tiarra Del Rosario ready for playoffs with Cimarron-Memorial
Reigning state flag football player of the year Tiarra Del Rosario stood silently on the barren field behind Cimarron-Memorial High School on Monday afternoon.
Coaches are in the midst of tailoring another game plan around her right arm in advance of their Class 4A Sunset quarterfinal game at 4 p.m. Tuesday against Sierra Vista, but she remains unfazed by the pressure that accompanies the quarterback position.
Defenses don’t seem to bother her, either.
Del Rosario, who threw for 5,046 yards and 66 touchdowns last season, is in the midst of another incredible campaign for the defending Class 4A state champion Spartans (14-4). The junior leads the state with 4,476 passing yards and 62 touchdowns while adding 595 rushing yards and seven more scores in coach Mark Bailey’s offensive system — one molded to fit her strong, precise throwing arm.
“Once we kind of learned the system she could play in, we asked her to throw high-percentage short passes,” Spartans coach Mark Bailey said, “and beat them deep when needed.”
Del Rosario loves throwing the deep ball, like her favorite NFL quarterback, Derek Carr, who plays for the soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders.
She loves the Raiders, too, as does the rest of her family. She has watched professional football for years but didn’t play flag football until older sister Rosie persuaded her to try out in 2015-16, her freshman season.
Bailey rotated quarterbacks that season before settling on Del Rosario as the starter and future of the program.
“It took me a year to learn how to play, where to throw the ball at and all the plays and stuff like that,” she said. “I caught up fast.”
Did she ever. Del Rosario guided Cimarron to a 21-1 record in 2016-17 and a 24-7 victory over Coronado in the Class 4A state championship game.
The Spartans’ top three receivers all graduated, but the team reloaded this season behind soccer player Samantha Silva, who leads the state with 2,004 receiving yards and 40 touchdowns in this, her first year of flag football.
“She tells us how exactly where to go. She knows where to put the ball and she knows exactly how the game is,” Silva said of Del Rosario. “She knows the game like the back of her hand.”
Del Rosario studies football during the NFL season and observes how different quarterbacks beat blitzes and other defensive schemes.
After flag football season, she’ll join Cimarron’s varsity softball team, for which she has played center field since her freshman year.
The softball hasn’t had the same success (finishing 3-17 last season), but she said, “… we’re getting there.”
Her flag football team is good, though.
Because of her.
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Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.
