The weeks race by during the flag football season. Every day is a hesitation between saturdays when I get to watch my boys streak across the fields laughing and feeling great about themselves. This was Jets week. All three boys were playing against the Jets in different age groups and the Jets would all represent the toughest challenge of the season so far, and perhaps at all. Three teams with three different challenges and results I never expected.
The 4-5 yr old games are always fun. It is less about play calling then it is about having the fastest kids and the kids who pay the most attention. I’m fortunate to have a team that has enough of both to remain competitive against the best the age group has to offer. These Jets were the best the age group has to offer, and we managed to survive with a 4 pt win.
6-7 is where athleticism and play calling start to balance out a bit more. The experienced kids can do a lot more than a learning the sport for the first time–no matter their athleticism. We have enough raw athletes to have earned that 3-0 start, but these Jets are more athletic, and far more experienced than our players. Beyond that, they were better coached on both sides of the ball. We suffered a 42-6 beating that was far worse than the score indicated. One of our players completely came unglued, booing at the other team and behaving like, well, an undisciplined 6 yr old. I pulled him from the game and let his parents handle the rest. The trouble is the team considers him a leader and they go how he goes. They fell apart after that. We recovered enough from the early disaster to put six on the board and in that we learned a bit more about the toughness of our players and where the true team leadership lives. It is my job moving forward to cultivate that leadership and start directing my team towards sportsmanship, understanding, and some pretty good football.
8-9 is already playing pretty good football. The problem is the 1st ten minutes of every single game is a disaster. Once we get going we’re tough to contain, but it takes too long to get started. at one point the 8-9 Jets were up 12-6 on us. We recovered to turn in a (44 or 50) to 21 victory. My wife is afraid of our boys getting injured in tackle, but I saw more kids banged up in today’s flag game than I do in the average tackle dust up. One fractured arm, one twisted knee, and several boys with their helmetless heads driven into the ground. We had what the Greeks would call a Pyrrhic victory. The kid with the fractured arm was our top receiver. Now he is the kid who’ll lead the workouts in practice and the honorary team captain for the remainder of the year. Maybe he can be more. Maybe he can be that kid who makes our team function as one and turn into something greater than they are at the start of games; greater than they are as individuals.
There are some fundamental skills the kids still lead to learn in order to be effective players at all levels in the remainder of the season. They need to learn how to carry out play fakes, a fundamental part of the tackle game and the core stunt of the flag game. They need to learn how to be better teammates and communicators. That’s my job as a coach, so it really means I need to get better at what I do.