When Ramona High needed a junior varsity flag football coach this season, the athletic staff didn’t have to look far.
The varsity coaches last spring asked the senior players if any of them were interested in the job.
One was defensive back Grayce Padilla.
“They really wanted us to come back, especially coach Robbie (Bash),” Padilla said. “He asked me personally. For a number of reasons, the other seniors weren’t able to do it. I thought it might be fun.”
It turns out the now 18-year-old San Diego Mesa College freshman, with a little help from varsity coaches, Robyn and Robert Bash and Wes Bryant, was correct about how moving from playing to coaching in one year might be exciting.
Challenging, but fun.
“We scored our first touchdown last week (against El Capitan) and the girls were so excited,” Padilla said. “They were leaping for joy and so was I. It was one of those little steps that shows how far we’ve come.”
Indeed.
Padilla found out she was approved to coach the Bulldogs in June, but didn’t get all of her clearances until July. After tryouts were announced, 40 potential players signed up.
When practice started on Aug. 1, the group slowly whittled itself down to 13 varsity players and the 20 who make up the JV team, which has started 0-5.
Grayce Padilla, a 2026 Ramona High alumna, has returned to coach the junior varsity flag football team. (Stephanie Ogilvie)
The record isn’t the part that has Padilla enthused.
“When we started, a lot of the players didn’t know what downs were or what a first down was,” said Padilla, who played varsity her junior and senior years after the sport was officially approved. “Some of the players’ knowledge consisted of playing Madden video games.
“It turns out the age difference (most of the players are 14-year-old freshmen) is no big deal,” she said. “Two players returned from last year and although the varsity practiced against the JVs, I wasn’t real close to them.
“They actually think it’s cool (her being so young) because when I want to explain something, I can jump right in and show them,” Padilla said. “Some of the girls were saying things like, ‘wow, she’s fast, really fast’ when I ran some plays, but I’m not that fast — some of the freshmen are faster than I am.
“I’m close enough in age to them to understand what they’re thinking, and they have so much fun,” she said. “They joke a lot and they make me laugh, but when it comes time to be serious, they get serious.”
Interestingly, because of a play introduced just last week, the Bulldogs scored their first touchdown.
“We practiced running reverses and at first, the players ran into each other,” Padilla explained. “But they got it down by the end of practice. Work and repetition. So, a few plays before the touchdown, we ran a reverse and I think that made El Capitan’s players think we might do it again.”
Harlow Kauwe-Radelow broke a 20-yard run for the TD. Quarterback Emma Barajas found Carli Tripoli for the extra point.
Padilla said basics, like showing up on time and doing the little things over and over until they recognize them in the games and then do them without thinking, have allowed the team to make dramatic progress.
“In the first game (a 32-0 loss to Cathedral Catholic), we couldn’t move the ball at all,” Padilla said. “But against El Capitan we could. They’ve come a long way.”
Padilla said she played some flag football and soccer, which her mother, Alica, coached. But, when the school added flag football, she knew that despite playing soccer, which sport she preferred.
But coaching?
“It’s fun,” she said, “and we have some players who might get called up for the playoffs at the end of the year.”
As for Padilla, she is focusing on academics at Mesa because the community college doesn’t offer flag football and she doubts she’ll have the time to try to help start the program.
Meanwhile, Ramona won’t have to search for a JV coach in 2027.
“I’m definitely coaching next year,” she promised.