QB Sage Leffew and receiver Marie Gilbert led Horns to crown

By Ken Jackson

For the News-Gazette

After losing a three-year starting quarterback to graduation last year, how was Harmony flag football coach Paul Strauch supposed to keep the Longhorns’ offense rolling along?

Three words.

Leffew to Gilbert.

Senior Marie Gilbert, a constant force on both sides of the ball for four years, found a new passer to throw her the ball. Sage Leffew, a sophomore who made an impact in the return game last year, stepped up behind center.

And Harmony didn’t miss a beat.

The Longhorns were 12-1, won the district title for the third time, and went two games deep into the playoffs before falling to old nemesis Dr. Phillips. And they did much of that under the radar, with many thinking Harmony was “rebuilding” with a rookie QB.

Actually, it was more like a rebranding.

Leffew, with cat-like reflexes honed playing soccer, may have been a bigger threat running the ball than throwing, using speed and on-a-dime shifts that reminded old timers of the NFL’s Barry Sanders. She tossed 16 touchdown passes and ran for six more. Equally effective on defense, she hauled in five interceptions despite missing a couple of games while playing travel soccer.

Gilbert’s numbers were, as usual, gawdy. She caught 18 TD passes and, as a linebacker, had nine interceptions, bringing two back for scores. Add in seven extra-point catches and she accounted for nearly half of the team’s 284 points.

The two equally-important parts to the Longhorn attack share this year’s Osceola News-Gazette Flag Football Player of the Year honors. Others took notice, too ­– Gilbert, the county Player of the Year in 2011, was a third-team FACA All-State selection; Leffew was an honorable mention.

Coach Strauch’s response to all the attention? “No kidding.”

“What can I say about Marie that hasn’t been already? She did it all. She makes big plays on defense, she can run anybody down and at 5-10 she can out-jump them,” Strauch, who also coached Gilbert and the girls basketball team to the regional final, said. “If she was a guy, she’d be some kind of freak middle linebacker.”

Playing the middle of the field on defense, she shut things down while calling out signals as she identified formations.

“She was able to adjust on the fly, and some of it wasn’t things we taught her,” Strauch said. “As a junior and senior she got really good at relaying those messages to teammates.”

On offense, Gilbert said she moved around to find openings in defenses where Leffew could get her the ball.

“I told Coach to put me in places I could get open, and I’d catch the ball wherever it was thrown,” she said.

And Leffew found her.

“Marie was definitely an option,” Sage said. “But, on the first play of the first game I started, I realized I had all the people around us to be successful.”

Gilbert said she realized the same thing, including her new quarterback.

“We were excited at the start of the year when we started seeing Sage make plays,” Gilbert said. “She’s definitely a dual threat. Her ability to make a play using her feet is something our QB never had.”

Strauch thought Leffew would need a learning curve this year; it was quite short.

“We knew she could throw, and she did an incredible job. When she gets in a groove, she can put the ball wherever she wants. Her feet are amazing, and she might have the best or second-best vertical leap on the team.”

Leffew, an unabashed Florida Gators fan, said those moves come from playing tackle football with a pair of older brothers.

“I knew I had to be fast to get away,” she said. “Soccer keeps me busy, but football is my life. If I could get a scholarship playing flag football in college, I would.”

Gilbert, who will be playing basketball at the next level in a couple of months after signing a scholarship to Rollins College in Winter Park, can make a claim as as the county’s greatest flag football player in the sport’s eight-year history here. During this season, she claimed the career mark for touchdowns and interceptions at Harmony.

“And if we tracked number of receptions, she’d have that too,” Strauch said. “She draws attention, which if she didn’t get the ball it left an opening for girls like Jules (Ingler), (Taylor) Ash(Craft) and Steph (Baur) to make a catch and a play.”

In the District 13 championship game against Gateway, they didn’t have to. Leffew hooked up with Gilbert, a state qualifier at 400 meters, on four touchdown passes in a 27-0 win, including a 45-yard pass where Gilbert used that track speed to get open.

The end of the flag season culminated a Longhorn career that saw Gilbert earn 15 varsity letters.

“It was my last season and my last sport, so it was a special season,” she said. “This team bonded unlike any other I’d been on. It was fun to prove to ourselves again what the hard work could show.”