GUADALUPE, AZ — Every athlete has an origin story. Anyiah Sanchez’s began at the Boys & Girls Club in Guadalupe.
“I know she's always liked sports. And she was always good at throwing the ball, playing outside in the streets with the kids. So, I knew it was something that she would like to do,” said Sanchez’s mom, Raelyn Martinez.
Martinez took her daughter to the local Boys & Girls Club in the family’s neighborhood, hoping to find a way to get her children involved in after-school activities.
“And then they came up with flag football for boys," Sanchez said. “And then I asked if girls are allowed to play.”
The club coaches said yes, making Sanchez the first girl to play flag football for the Guadalupe branch of the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley. At first, Sanchez said, she was a little intimidated to join the boy's team as the only female athlete.
“But then I noticed I could really throw a football,” Sanchez said. “So then I was like, ‘Who cares what they say? I'm just gonna go play.’”
Drew Veatch, an Area Director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley, was Sanchez’s coach in 2016 when she joined the Guadalupe flag football team. In the few years he had coached, he had never coached a young woman on a sports team. But according to Veatch, Sanchez quickly became one of his star players.
“It was very, very evident very quickly that Anayiah was very talented,” Veatch said. “Hands down, for multiple seasons, she was our best player.”
To help Sanchez as a player, Veatch looked for the young athlete’s strengths – which were more than just her impeccable spiral.
“Anayiah was quick to help out other team members who maybe didn't know what they were doing, or potentially could have done something just a little bit better,” Veatch said. “Something that we really valued about Anayiah on the field was that she would pull players [aside] after they made a mistake, give them a pat on the back, and say, ‘This is what you should do next time.’”
Sanchez, for her part, credits Veatch with her ability to stay calm and collected on the field, especially when she began playing flag football for her high school team. Years of playing with boys made the transition to an all-female team difficult, according to Sanchez.
“I was in a mindset of like, playing a boy,” Sanchez said.
Playing with teammates who didn’t necessarily understand the sport meant tapping into her inner coach.
“I used to get frustrated with all the girls but then I remembered Coach Drew would come to me and be like really calm with me and just explain it. So he just really helped me out with that one because I would have been yelling at them girls, not gonna lie,” Sanchez said, laughing.
As girl's flag football grew in popularity across the state in its inaugural season, Sanchez – and her throwing arm – became a viral internet sensation.
The McClintock High School quarterback became well known for her hard, accurate, deep-field throws. Videos of Sanchez playing made their way back to Veatch at the Boys & Girls Club, giving her former coach an idea.
“As a coaching staff, we evolved a lot having the opportunity to coach Anayiah. We learned a lot from her,” Veatch said. And so, he offered her a coaching position on the Guadalupe Boys & Girls Club flag football team, in part due to Sanchez’s levelheaded encouragement of her teammates.
“She was rallying the troops. She corrected things in a friendly manner. So, to bring that to our coaching staff is something that we feel like can be valuable,” Veatch said.
Veatch also hopes having Sanchez as a coach will inspire other young women to join the Boys & Girls Club flag football team.
“Other female athletes that might potentially want to participate just will feel more welcome saying like, ‘Hey, there's another girl who not only is a coach but also did it here with us before,'” Veatch said.
———————————————
ABC15 is partnering with Earnhardt Auto Centers for the Second Chance Sports Gear Drive throughout the month of February. Donate new or gently used sports gear at your nearest Earnhardt Auto Center to provide the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley with sports equipment for young athletes.
For more information, go to abc15.com/gear.
