Marana’s Roebucks straddle line between rivalry, revelry

The freshman tackle football team clobbered visiting Desert View. The undefeated girls flag football team shut out Tempe Corona del Sol. The stands have emptied. Some of the stadium lights have been shut off.

Sean and Monica Roebuck haven’t left yet. This is not unusual.

“We practically live here,” Monica says.

She’s only slightly exaggerating.

Sean and Monica are the parents of three current Marana football players. Junior Dezmen is the best player and a legit college prospect for the varsity tackle team. Sophomore Malaysia is a dominant force for the flag team. Freshman Sean, aka “Little Sean,” is the quarterback for the freshman tackle team.

They were preceded by Isaiah, who’s now a junior receiver at the University of Jamestown, an NAIA school in North Dakota. Their sister, Makayla, also attends Jamestown. She’s a freshman on the women’s wrestling team.

The Roebucks are the family that never stops competing.

“Anything we play — it could be a card game, a pickup basketball game, anything — everybody just wants to win in my house,” Dezmen says.

Big Sean was a three-sport athlete at Marana back in the day who says his involvement in athletics “kept me on the right path.” He currently serves as the assistant coach for flag football and the head coach for boys basketball while working as an interventionist for the MHS counseling office. His job, basically, is to help kids who need it.

The former Monica Flores attended Mountain View and was a member of the Mountain Lions’ state-championship girls soccer team in 1995. She’s a realtor by day, a multipurpose MHS supporter by night.

Dezmen and Malaysia are two of the top receivers in Arizona. Dezmen ranks third in the state in tackle football with 1,045 receiving yards; Malaysia ranks fifth in flag football with 883 yards.

The two played on back-to-back nights last week. The flag football team wrapped up the regular season on Thursday; the Tigers, seeded third in Class 6A, will host Mesa Dobson in the opening round of the inaugural flag football playoffs Tuesday evening. The tackle team improved to 3-5 with a lopsided win Friday over Desert View.

I attended both games to see Malaysia and Dezmen in action. I learned a lot about them and the first family of Marana High athletics.

My first glimpse of Malaysia Roebuck comes well before kickoff. The freshman game featuring her younger brother is running long. She gathers her teammates on the east sideline for a selfie. Her smile is as big as her game.

“She’s an energy player,” her father says. “She brings the excitement. When her teams are down, she knows how to get them up. When she makes a play, she wants them to be involved in it.

“She’s learning how to lead, and she’s doing a good job. She’s only a sophomore. She’s learning fast, and it’s fun. We go 12-0, and she played a huge role in that 12-0.”

Malaysia is a multisport athlete who also plays basketball and runs track. She had a choice to make this fall with flag football becoming an officially sanctioned AIA sport for the first time. It wasn’t that difficult. She likes volleyball. She loves flag football.

Malaysia has been playing flag football since she was a little kid, whether that was on boys teams, club teams or in the backyard with her siblings and neighbors. It’s pretty clear that she knows what she’s doing.

On offense, whenever she catches the ball, Malaysia immediately turns upfield in search of open space. Avoiding defenders is a bit different in flag football than tackle football. Because the objective in the former is to grab one of the flags that extend from players’ waists, avoiding that outcome requires shimmies and shakes.

Malaysia Roebuck’s hips don’t lie. She’s the tallest player on her team but also its most elusive.

“She’s incredible,” Dezmen says. “I think she’s one of the best athletes in Arizona, if not the best.

“She’s fast. She can catch the ball. If it’s thrown up, everybody knows that she’s going to come down with the ball.”

Malaysia scores two touchdowns in Marana’s 20-0 victory over Corona del Sol. On defense, she easily could have had multiple interceptions. She plays middle linebacker, mirroring the quarterback and jumping any pass thrown over the middle.

Sean Roebuck serves as head coach Shaun Lara’s offensive coordinator. Sean’s ability to connect with young people is evident in the way he coaches up quarterback Roxi Singer.

After a drive-killing incomplete pass, Singer seems upset as she comes to the sideline. Sean looks her square in the eyes and says calmly, “Why are you pouting? You’re OK. Trust me.”

Singer finishes with two TD passes.

“He’s very fun to learn from,” Malaysia says. “He’s understandable. If you make a mistake, he will break it down to you.”

Sean rarely stops moving. Even before the game, he helps to get the giant inflatable helmet up that the seniors and their families will emerge from on Senior Night.

Meanwhile, Monica carries an iPhone on a monopod to broadcast the game on Facebook Live — until Little Sean takes over late in the fourth quarter.

Marana High has a true “Friday Night Lights” feel as you approach the campus after sunset. There’s nothing else out here.

It’s especially festive on this night. The parking lot is packed. Music is blaring. Two food trucks are parked outside the gym, which will host the homecoming dance after the football game.

The inflatable helmet is back, the Desert View band is performing and fireworks fill the sky beyond the north end zone after the national anthem is played.

Sean is in charge of the Facebook Live broadcast this time. He also summons Malaysia and the flag football team for an on-field acknowledgment between the first and second quarters.

Monica is working a booth for the Marana football booster club. She’ll come back at halftime before making her way to the sideline in the second half.

On the field, Dezmen and his teammates are carving up the Desert View defense. But this isn’t a case of Dezmen dominating. He often serves as a decoy, enabling his fellow Tigers to thrive.

On the opening kickoff, Dezmen is positioned back and right. The Jaguars kick short and left to Dermain Linen Jr., who returns the ball to the Desert View 30. He scores on the next play.

Five Tigers will account for seven touchdowns in a 49-8 triumph. Dezmen scores one TD as a receiver and another as a cornerback — a pick-six on the only pass the Jaguars attempt in the first half.

It was an easy score and a relatively light night for Dezmen — although he played almost every snap on offense and defense while also returning punts and kickoffs.

Afterward, I ask Marana coach Phillip Steward what makes Dezmen — a three-star recruit with offers from Arizona, ASU and UNLV — stand out.

“Just everything he does,” Steward says. “He works hard when nobody’s looking. He’s very encouraging to his teammates. He’s a yes-sir, no-sir type of guy. Makes good grades. The part that nobody sees, that’s what makes him special.”

Malaysia says Dezmen is smarter than her on the field and is the best football player in the family. Dezmen votes for their dad, an undersized middle linebacker in his playing days.

I get the feeling they’re just being politically correct. The smack talk flows in the Roebuck household.

“Dezmen will come home and say, ‘I had a one-handed catch,’ ” Sean says. “Malaysia will come home and say, ‘Well, I had a one-handed catch over three girls.’ ”