Meilia Altuna is a senior at North Creek, an actor, and a flag football player who is no stranger to adversity. She’s been a part of the flag football team since it started in 2023, before it was as large and popular as it was today. During her sophomore year, even before they were a state sanctioned team “there were barely enough girls on the team in 2023-2024, and people made fun of me for playing during the first year, when we lost every game in the season,” said Meilia Altuna.
Even through the struggles of getting the program off the group the team and she still built up strong lasting bonds through their years together. She played as a linebacker and running back for the first year, and switched over to being a safety during her junior year. She planned to continue as a safety during her senior year as well, but this is where the unfortunate series of events that kept her on the sidelines began. Due to her involvement as an actor in the theatre play Mamma Mia, she had been unable to come to a few practices as the season began, which disqualified her from playing in the first few games. Still through those busy weeks, she still found time to show up to a couple practices, and as the play entered its closing week, she was almost qualified to play in the upcoming games, but during one of these practices she was met with an unfortunate injury; “I went to grab a girls flag and my thumb got stuck on her hip and it got pulled all the way back and then later during practice, I went to catch a football and it hit the exact same thumb and it got purple and bruised, and I wasn’t able to move it,” said Altuna, this injury was a devastating blow not only to her and her ability to play the sport she loved so much, but to the team as well, missing one of their star defenders threw a curveball at the players of the team.
She is an amazing asset on defense as she always gives it her all, and is an amazing flag player. “We have had to adapt to not having her at games,” said Sadie Wright, who is a team captain. Through this tough time, she remained hopeful. However, she was still left unable to play as the season passed her by. “Every time I went to the doctor, I hoped for good news so that I’d be able to play as soon as possible, but each time, they increased how long I had to sit out.”
In the end, Altuna did not get to play a single game during her last year in the program, leaving her disappointed. “I was disappointed because I found the courage to try something new, and I couldn’t play my last year and wasn’t able to leave the mark I was hoping to,” said the senior. Still, at this low point, she found the good in an otherwise unfortunate situation, showing up for her teammates at as many games as she could and still showing up to practice in a brace, and bringing donuts for her teammates.
“I did my best to come show up for the team as much as possible, showing up to games and cheering on the team, I even brought donuts to show my support.” This effort was definitely noticed by her teammates, helping her leave the mark she hoped to. “It was awesome to see her show up for her teammates,” said Wright.
