Flag Football
My son just (last Saturday) called me up very excited about his
son’s win in an organized flag football game. He is the head coach, and as excited as he was about the win, he was happy about how both teams,
coaches and players, were such good sports.
It was a tough game but the losers took it in stride and everyone was
friendly afterward. He was excited to be
part of teaching children life lessons through sports.
I had a
similar feeling from my youngest son's experience playing flag football. I don’t know why flag football is more
relaxed than other competitive sports for young children but in the two leagues
I know of, they are 2 for 2.
The rules
are simple. It is football with grabbing a tail or “Flag” from a set of three
on each player, instead of tackling.
There is no blocking, everyone is eligible to catch a pass and you are
only allowed one run play per set of downs.
Everyone plays the same amount of time.
Everyone has the chance to run back a kick or play quarterback.
The coaches keep
score. There is a winner and there is a
loser. There is a league standing, but
in the end somehow no one gets too exercised over the final result. No one get a trophy. Everyone gets a nice team sweatshirt at the
end of the year.
The very
first game my son played in I was given a crash course in how this league
worked.
I was
helping out as an “assistant coach” in a game that went back and forth TD after
TD. Near the end of the game, our team
was leading by five points. There is a
clock on the field so it was easy to see the time remaining. Our opponents completed a pass play to our five-yard
line. Time was running out and the other
team used their last time out to have one more play to try and score to win the
game.
Our team
stopped their play. They had one more down, but with the clock running down and only one second left, the win
was clearly in our pocket.
Except.
Our coach
ran out on the field yelling “Time out,
time out.”
I was
screaming to myself, “What…no…no!
Oh, the humanity!”
The other
team had one more chance to score. We
stopped them again. We won a very close,
very exciting game.
After
everyone shook hands and the kids all ran around passing, and catching, and
kicking before the next game started I went up to our coach.
“Coach, the clock was going to run
out and the game was ours. You gave them
one more chance. Why did you call that time out?”
His answer
was simple and it established for me what this league was all about.
“I just wanted to see if we could
stop them one more time.”
In thinking
about it, that is pretty much what we would have done as kids when there was no
supervision in our back yard pickup games.
You had me at: "No one gets a trophy." I'm also glad to see there's a winner and a loser. Makes it even more like back yard pickup games.
ReplyDeleteNice to see a junior sport where the kids have fun and learn to lose gracefully. That really is what sports should be about. None of the current wimpy, no losers, everyone's a winner business.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds fabulous. That's what most parents should want for their children.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about football, but this sounds good to me.
ReplyDeleteI never cared for football much and, while I have heard the term flag football, I never really knew what it was. It sounds like what all kids' organized team experiences should be. I know it's not though -- or at least wasn't when I was growing up -- my own father being the absolute worst example as a little league coach.
ReplyDeleteI always liked flag football better than other sports, rules more like our backyard games makes more sense.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid, I was born with a strong competitive nature and so was my 1st husband who was a big jock in HS where we met. Thus we created 3 competitive boys. My youngest was the big jock- quarterback in HS football for 2 years and he played college football before leaving for the military. I always tried to tell them, about how it takes more character to lose than to win. The only problem was he was always on a winning team that went to championships and such. He learned even more about teamwork when he was serving his country. I can't say enough about how sports can be good for young people; even if it is competitive. Sets them up for the real world.
ReplyDeleteWhat a refreshing post. I didn't know much about flag football but from what you said, I am a fan. Wish all sports could be just fun to play, where winning isn't EVERYTHING and neither cheating nor drugs are deemed necessary evils.
ReplyDeleteWe called it "two-below football"...two hands tapping the runner below the waist instead of little flags. Same principle, same game, same good sportsmanship. Good times!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing for a coach to do. His teak could have lost because of him.
ReplyDelete