The Southern Section is home to many of the best high school quarterbacks in the country and yes, that goes for flag football too.
Los Angeles County standouts include Lexi Loya (Lakewood St. Joseph), Haley Ramos (South Hills), Claire Heisinger (Agoura) and Kenzie Paimany (Long Beach Poly).
Orange County features Makena Cook (Orange Lutheran), Madi Lam (Santa Margarita), Maia Helmar (Newport Harbor), Roxie Shaia (Huntington Beach) and Bella Conteras (Rosary).
Riverside County has Karissa Green (Roosevelt) and Feli Solomua (Corona) while Western Christian freshman Maliyah Estrada is a rising star in San Bernardino County.
In Ventura County, no flagger does it better than Ventura High junior Ava Ortman, who is among the state leaders in touchdowns and is equally effective running the ball. She is the quintessential dual-threat quarterback, having improved in both aspects since last year when she threw for 3,849 yards and 44 touchdowns and rushed for 643 yards and three scores on a struggling squad with a sub-.500 record. She tried out as a receiver but quickly transitioned to quarterback, where she has excelled.
This fall, the Cougars are 23-5 and ranked in the top 20 in California, and their athletic signal caller is a major reason why. She is also a guard on the school basketball team and an outfielder on the softball team, but she admitted football is fast becoming her passion, following in the footsteps of her older brother Tyler, who was an offensive lineman for the Cougars.
“This is my favorite sport — it brings me joy,” Ortman said upon reaching the triple-digit milestone this season with three touchdown passes Wednesday night against Dos Pueblos in the third-place game of the Channel League Tournament at Ventura College. “Recently, I’ve been running the ball more, but whatever it takes is fine. I want to win more than anything. We weren’t that good last year, but we’ve learned a lot since then and we’ve gotten so much better. I’m confident we can go far in the playoffs.”
Ortman prefers to talk about the team and let her individual stats speak for themselves. Through 28 games she has a .676 completion percentage, connecting on 560 of 828 attempts for 6,379 yards and 101 touchdowns. She has rushed for 1,346 yards and eight scores and plays free safety on defense. She has thrown five or more touchdown passes eight times this season and only once has she failed to throw at least one — that being Tuesday’s 8-7 upset loss to Oxnard when she was intercepted four times.
Nearly half of Ortman’s scoring strikes have been to fellow junior Kaiya Cooke, who leads the county with 189 receptions, 2,357 receiving yards and 40 touchdown grabs.
Sophomore Mya Rodriguez has 176 receptions for 1,919 yards and 29 touchdowns while Makalya Halley has added 100 catches for 826 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Ortman is averaging 11.4 yards per completion (227.8 per game) with a passer rating of 117.0 and she averages 10.4 yards per carry. The Cougars’ offense has produced 900 points, an average of 32 per game.
“Ava’s greatest attribute is the ability to make her teammates better,” Ventura coach Frank Jordan said. “She has good communication with her receivers and has become a true leader. She was new to the game last year but was eager to learn. She took that challenge and ran with it and just like any other effective quarterback, is adept at reading the defense. She prides herself on being accurate. If one of her receivers drops the ball, Ava blames herself because she wants to make a more catchable pass.”
Ortman accounted for eight touchdowns — six through the air and two on the ground — during a 60-0 rout of Oxnard Pacifica on Oct. 2, but her most efficient performance came a week earlier when she completed 34 of 44 passes for 374 yards and six touchdowns without an interception in a 39-12 triumph over Santa Barbara. On Oct. 9, she achieved a near-perfect quarterback rating of 151.6 after she was successful on 26 of 31 throws for 298 yards and six touchdowns in a 40-0 shutout of Buena.
Yet her coach believes the best is yet to come.
“Ava is very resilient,” Jordan said. “If she misses a few throws you know she’ll make them the next game. She’s that competitive and she’s all about improving.”