King/Drew senior A’Nia Passmore is a dual-sport athlete, competing in track and field and flag football. Last August, Passmore was named the Maxpreps Flag Football Player of the Game for her performance against West Adams.
Passmore enjoys spending time with the flag football team because her teammates have a great chemistry and a strong work ethic.
“My favorite part about [the season] isn’t even winning games, it’s being able to play with my team because over the past years, they have become my family,” Passmore said. “I feel like it’s a great experience.”
In her third season of playing flag football, Passmore has seen the growth of the sport on her campus. She has also earned rare opportunities, like completing at SoFi Stadium during halftime of an NFL game.
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“That was our first game as a team, none of us knew what was gonna happen. We were all still so brand new to learning each other,” Passmore said. “For us to get out there and for us to score at SoFi, it meant a lot to me.”
Being a leader on the flag football team meant learning to have equanimity in the face of frustrating moments. She learned to accept that not all people are going to like her playing style or her personality.
“You have to keep your cool because there will be people, there will be teams that will intentionally do stuff to get you thrown out the game,” Passmore said. “You just have to be able to say “I’m gonna walk away.””
Passmore knows that academics come before athletics. She noted how colleges will look over talented athletes with poor academic skills.
“If you know you have a big test and you know this teacher isn’t going to let you make up that test any other day, sometimes you got to stay at school,” Passmore said. “You have to choose your academics over everything.”
Competing in both track and flag football taught Passmore how to be quick and how to run properly. A proud track and field moment for Passmore was winning her first 100m event.
“I wasn’t even supposed to run that event that day. I was supposed to do the 200,” Passmore said. “My coach, he asked me “Do you want to run it” and I was like “I don’t think I’m ready, but yeah.””
Passmore aspires to get into real estate as an adult, She also wants to see how far she can go in flag football.
