WRITING

The desert heats beats on the backs of high school girls as their head coach watches while they do the drill incorrectly. Frustrated, she drops her clipboard and does the drill with what looks like a watermelon on her stomach. She then yells, “If I can do it eight months pregnant, you can do it, too!” This intensity in practice is what LaCette Tirado-Holt brings to her team. As head coach at Corona Del Sol High School in Tempe, Arizona, Tirado-Holt shows her team what she expects them to do every time they are on the field. This year, the second-year head coach finds herself on the field for the first time. Before the start of the 2023 flag football season, the first in Corona Del Sol’s history, Tirado-Holt had to put her season on pause for maternity leave to have her second child, Bronson. “I interviewed for this position and I was pregnant and that was something I really went back and forth on,” Tirado-Holt said. “I really wanted to be involved with this, given my due date and things like that, it was going to interrupt my first season as far as my involvement.” Not being on the field for what would’ve been her first season coaching her team was rough on Tirado-Holt, and it was difficult to separate her wants and needs. “I felt like I was absent from this team that I wanted to be a part of,” Tirado-Holt said, “But I couldn't be absent from the family that needed me.” She grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, and was one of three with two older brothers. Naturally, Tirado-Holt began to enjoy competing in sports with her brothers while being academically involved and participating in clubs. She was a multi-sport athlete competing in track, soccer and cheer. These sports would not be the ones she ended up pursuing later in life. High school is where her love for flag football developed. “When I was in high school, I was asked to play in a flag football tournament, that was probably when I was 14,” Tirado-Holt said. “That’s when I started playing and then I loved it, and that tournament was at the time one of the biggest four-on-four flag football tournaments in the country.” After high school LaCette moved to Los Angeles, California, where she met her husband, Michael Holt. With Michael, LaCette has two children, Maleah and Bronson. Michael said he got involved in flag football when Tirado-Holt’s co-ed team needed an extra man due to an injury. As the closest person to his wife, Holt understands her love for the game and the team she coaches. He knows that her passion for her girls does not stop as soon as she gets off the field. Michael and LaCette attended a wedding about three weeks ago. During the wedding, Tirado-Holt told everybody about her team, the different tournaments and building on the relationships with those who are also supporting the flag football environment, according to Holt. After LaCette went on maternity leave before the 2023-2024 season, her friend and current assistant coach, Emily Eswonia, took over the reins. The Aztecs finished the season under Eswonia at 5-7. Just because Tirado-Holt could not be the one coaching the girls throughout the season, doesn’t mean she was not involved with the team. She was very involved, according to Eswonia. “We texted each other throughout the day when I was getting frustrated with what wasn’t working,” Eswonia said. “She was always there to help pick me up and just keep me focused, remind me of what our goal was. It felt like eyes behind the scenes.” Eswonia is a mother of two herself and understands what it means to be a mother while coaching a team. This season, she has taken over the defense and said that she is happy to be on the sideline next to one of her best friends. Now, back from maternity leave, this season has not been easy for Tirado-Holt. The Aztecs as of the end of the season, ended up with a 2-10 record, according to Azpreps365, with one game remaining on the season. The offense has struggled, scoring 39 points over the last nine games. Even with the team’s struggles, some of Tirado-Holt’s biggest struggles come after she gets home from the game. “I’m already coming home late and I’m exhausted after having a full day of work and then having done a game,” Tirado-Holt said, “And then [Bronson]’s up in the middle of the night.” Even with the midnight wake-ups after long gamedays, Tirado-Holt still finds her growth this season as one of her proudest achievements. “I’m really proud that even after tough losses, the way that the girls talk to each other, I’m really proud that’s something that we are cultivating,” Tirado-Holt said. Some of the hardest challenges happening throughout the season, and some bright spots on the roster have been seen. Senior Bryce Watson was able to come in and play quarterback after the unfortunate injury to Junior Alana James, Freshman Sofia Villone is third in the state for interceptions according to MaxPreps and the team still goes out and competes every week. Watson has been on both teams with and without Tirado-Holt at the helm. She has been a quarterback for most of the season and spends a lot of time with her head coach who she considers close. “She’s like my family,” Watson said. “I can go to her for anything football-related or not football related. I know she has my back.” Creating a family is important to Tirado-Holt, wants to have two families, one on the field and one off. Who wants to players are like her kids when she coaches. She also believes being a parent allows her to coach her players even better. “Emily and I would try to coach them not only physically, but also kind of emotionally,” Tirado-Holt said. “I think that’s a lot about being a parent, you have to be understanding of one’s feelings, but also tough on them and teach them things.” The love for the sport is not the only reason Tirado-Holt wanted to take this job; she wanted to give back and share this sport with girls just like her in high school. “The light in their eyes when they would come out and play and they would make a good catch, or they would throw a good ball or pull a flag,” Tirado-Holt said, “ I was like “yes,” like this is the feeling, this is the sport.”