Story Written by: Rob White @ CHSAANow.com
AURORA – After going 7-10 last year in the first CHSAA-sanctioned season of flag football, Pomona is off to a 4-0 start in 2025.
One of the Panthers' wins thus far is a victory over 5A Horizon, a team that beat them last year.
For his efforts, Pomona's Guy Ryan has been named the Broncos High School Flag Coach of the Week.
Throughout the season, there will be a weekly Broncos Coach of the Week for flag and tackle and every nominee will be recognized on-field at a Broncos home game.
Interview with Guy Ryan:
Talk about your coaching experience. Where else have you been and what else have you coached?
GR: I started coaching middle school track and basketball at Bear Creek K-8. When I switched to the Arvada area, I was asked if I could coach with the Pomona track team and from there they were just starting flag football and they asked me if I wanted to coach that. I remember my wife (Rebekah) saying, 'We should consider these things.' I told her, 'I already agreed to it.' Because I was really excited.
What is your background in flag football? Did you know much about it when you started?
GR: My experience that I like to joke about is that I coached my wife's sorority flag football team (at the University of Nevada). We were undefeated, then the only game we lost (then-Nevada stars and future NFL players) Brandon Marshall (a future Denver Broncos linebacker) and Colin Kaepernick took over as coaches for a week and they talked the refs into calling a penalty!
What were athletics like at Nevada at that time?
GR: I was the equipment manager, so I met a lot of the athletes. I got to go to Hawaii for a bowl game. And I learned from Chris Ault, a Hall of Fame coach and one of the best coaches ever. You see the high expectations he had for you. Even for me, he didn't know my name, but he had expectations for me. Everyone has their part, and no one can slack. It was an intense environment, and it was good for me to be around.
How was the learning curve for you for coaching flag at the high school level?
GR: I remember that after our first game, we won by one score, like 6-0, got an interception and punched it in and nothing else really happened – it was just a mess in the middle. And after the game, the girls came to me and they had a million questions. And I realized then that they aren't watching games on Sunday, and the most important thing was just teaching them football – what's our goal? Instead of trying to go so far into the Xs and Os – I wanted to do all these advanced, crazy things – it became what can we do that's basic and teaching that. Let's do those basic things really well and then let's build from there.
What's your coaching style and where did that come from?
GR: I'm going to get emotional, because I'm going to talk about my dad who has passed away. The earliest memories I have is my dad putting me in the four-wheeler to go rake the baseball field – at Garey High in Pomona, California (I laugh about the Pomona connection) – and we'd go to Garey High football, basketball and softball games. We'd see his (baseball) players and they would come and talk with him. And I guess that's how I do it. For me, it's about building a community. I love sports and being competitive, but to be able to meet the parents and get to know them, the siblings who are younger and older. I guess my style is inclusive. I want to include people. I want to build those relationships, so that they can trust me, and I can trust them in those big moments (in games), and in those life moments beyond flag football they know that I'm always there for them. I don't know what kind of style it is, but it's my dad's style.
How have you seen flag football impact the lives of some of your athletes?
GR: I think it's just given them the joy of sports. At Pomona, we've been in the highest division but with low numbers for a long time. And a lot of girls have been able to step into flag football where athleticism translates. It's brought the competitiveness of a lot of girls out. Maybe they thought they were too short for one sport, or didn't have the skills for another sport, but flag football isn't like that. I've seen girls go play for club teams, and I've seen girls decide to go out for more sports because flag football has been fun. I've seen girls build their community. Our girls wrestling team here is fantastic, and we have a lot of those girls. Our best player, our quarterback (Jay Cordova), grew up playing tackle football – and she's tiny, 5-foot on her best day, but she's one of the best players in the state because flag football exists, where her speed, her athleticism and her quickness can really shine. Any type of athlete can play flag football.
What other positive impacts have you seen?
GR: The community aspect of it. Seeing families and parents and relatives … it's just extra opportunities for bonding, whether it's coming to watch them play or playing with them at the park, watching a game together … it's cool to see the relationships that happen because of it.
You're 4-0 so far after winning seven games last year, so you've almost matched that, and you beat a team that you lost to last year – how has this all come together?
GR: One thing I've worked on – and this will annoy the girls – is TNT. I worked with Justin Bise, who's now the (tackle football) head coach at Mountain View, about the frustration from all the little things we were doing wrong. And he talked about TNT – Takes No Talent. So I preach to the girls that if we can do all the things that take no talent, we should be very successful. (Avoiding) a false start takes no talent. Showing up on time takes no talent. Being kind to your teammates takes no talent. If we do all the things that take no talent, we're going to be much more disciplined. We've cut down on our penalties – we've had three penalties in four games, and I think we had three penalties on the first play last year, and I'm not exaggerating. If we can do those things I think we're going to be competitive in every game, and we've been able to do that.
What are your goals for the rest of the season, and has anything changed because of the way you've started the season?
GR: For us, it's always a goal to win the last game of the season. Some of these seniors have played with me for four years – four for all four years and a bunch of them for three years. So we have big goals to try to win it all, and I think we do have a really good team. So our goals haven't changed. It's just marching forward, because it's a long season. It used to be about a month and a half, and now it's two and a half, almost three months if we get to the end. So it's, 'Can we do our best today?' Because later, we're going to need our best. If we're doing that every time and that's our new minimum, then we're going to find ourselves being successful.
