Sierra Vista’s Amaya Wusstig – Las Vegas Sun News

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The middle school flag football team needed a quarterback, so the coach lined all the girls up and had them throw the ball.

Amaya Wusstig’s heave traveled the farthest — a clean 20 yards.

She hasn’t stopped throwing since.

Now a junior at Sierra Vista High School, Wusstig passed for 3,038 yards and 43 touchdowns this winter, leading the Mountain Lions to the Class 4A state title.

In the championship game against Green Valley, she was nothing short of dominant, throwing for 403 yards and five touchdowns in a commanding 44-7 victory.

The game was played at Allegiant Stadium, giving the players a chance to compete in an NFL stadium. They dressed in the same locker rooms and took the field where the Raiders and UNLV football call home.

“I looked up and saw the jumbotron,” she said of the massive in-stadium video board. “That was pretty cool.”

Wusstig’s development into an elite passer didn’t happen overnight.

She worked her way up through the lower levels as a freshman before finding her footing on the varsity, where she threw for 40 touchdowns last season as a sophomore.

Along the way, the playbook has expanded with more plays and more formations, coach Daniel Bagwell said. Sierra Vista finished with a 19-3 record this winter.

“We set a standard,” Bagwell said. “The girls did a good job of holding each other accountable.”

Sophomore Rylei Mazzola had seven catches for 155 yards and three touchdowns in the state title game. She had 1,128 yards and 19 touchdowns on the season.

“From the beginning of the season I knew we had the team to win state,” said Wusstig, who also rushed for 869 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season. She had just seven interceptions.

Las Vegas was one of the first areas in the country to offer flag football for girls, dating back to the late 2000s. The sport has grown so popular that many schools now field three teams.

Shadow Ridge and Desert Oasis have each won Class 5A state titles and consistently develop some of the valley’s top talent. Sierra Vista more than held its own against both, losing 19-13 to Desert Oasis and 25-8 to Shadow Ridge.

Next season, with Wusstig back for her senior campaign, the Mountain Lions project to be one of the valley’s premier programs — regardless of classification.

“Every play is available,” Bagwell said of the Sierra Vista playbook. “With (Amaya), there are a lot of things we can do (offensively) to be successful.”