Valencia Flag Football: Tiana Louie

Tiana Louie is a senior at Valencia High School and plays on the Valencia Girls Flag Football Team. This is her first year on the team, since flag football is a new sport on our campus. When she is not practicing or playing, she takes pictures and contributes to the Viking Voyager, our school yearbook!

Q: The girl's flag football team is new to our campus, can you briefly talk about the program?

A: It’s the first year, although I think we’ve been trying to get it to be a thing for about two years. Also, it's a good sport to get into since you don't need a ton of background experience as long as you don't mind running and being aggressive when you need to be, you can join. It does take up a lot of time which is something to be mindful of if you want to join but it is incredibly fun and all of the girls have gotten really close to each other.

Q: What inspired you to start this sport?

A: I've always liked football since my family is a football family and it was just something that I was already kind of familiar with. I also just wanted to try it out since I had never played a high school sport before and I wanted to see what being on a high school team was like.

Q: What position or positions do you play?

A: We have names for the positions but they aren’t that understandable unless you’re on the team. My positions would probably be best explained as wide receiver when we are on offense and defensive back when we are on defense.

Q: What lessons has this sport taught you?  

A:It's definitely big on teamwork and working with different personalities because when it comes to losses everyone takes stress differently so working with yourself and with other people and trying to keep the team motivated is a big lesson I've learned.

Q: What do you believe to be one of your weaknesses and what are you doing to improve it?

A: One of the things that I have trouble with is getting tunnel vision. When I get stressed I tend to focus only on what I need to do and that doesn't work in football since you have to communicate with your team and express what's stressing you out or express what's going on. I’m getting better at it but it takes time during practice to focus on not just shutting down since your teammates are going through the same thing as you so they understand.

Q: Are you planning to continue this sport in the future? 

A: If the opportunity comes up I would, but at the moment it's not a reason for me to go to college. If there was an intramural sport I could participate in that’s something I would maybe do as well.

Q: What is one movie you think everyone should watch? 

A: The movie Me Before You because I love that movie with all of my heart but I bawl every time I see it.

Q: Who is the most inspirational person in your life?

A: I have to say my mom because she has been through a lot in her life and she didn't come from a lot so she has always tried to give me and my brother everything that she's always wanted. Also, she's always been super supportive and really worked her way up, restarting her life when she moved here which is why I think that is so inspiring.

Q: What are your plans after high school?

A: I plan on going to a four year university and majoring in psychology. My dream job is to become a forensic psychologist and work for the FBI.

Q: Who is a fictional character that you relate to a lot?

A: Becca from Pitch Perfect because I feel like right now in my life we relate a lot since she had a pretty stable background and then once she got to college she was able to step outside of her comfort zone and try something new. There were a lot of ups and downs but for her, it turned out really well and I’m kind of hoping that if I keep my head up everything will turn out fine.”