Ava Ortman showed up to Ventura High's flag football tryouts expecting to play receiver. By the end of her high school career, she had thrown for more than 18,000 yards.
Videos by FanBuzz
Ortman became the Cougars' quarterback as California's high school flag football program was getting started. She had played volleyball, basketball and softball, and her throwing arm helped get her into the quarterback competition. Coach Frank Jordan saw something else, too: an athlete who could read the field and make decisions quickly.
The numbers followed. In her final season, Ortman completed 720 of 1,007 passes for 7,292 yards and 104 touchdowns. She added 1,484 rushing yards and 17 scores, according to the Ventura County Star's profile. The Star named her its 2025 flag football player of the year.
@nfl
Across three seasons, she produced 21,827 yards of total offense and 291 touchdowns. MaxPreps lists her 18,115 passing yards as a national high school flag football record. maxpreps.com
Her teammates saw the work behind those totals. "She wanted to be as good as she possibly could be," fellow senior Kaiya Cooke told The Star.
Ortman also made time to slow things down. Jordan recalled her gathering teammates during practice or warmups to pause and take in the sunset over the stadium. They called it an "Ava moment."
The quarterback who arrived hoping to catch passes ended up giving Ventura plenty of moments to remember.
