It doesn’t have the tackling and padding of traditional football, but organizers of a new flag football program say it’s not missing any of the fun.
October is flag football month and about 100 Ottawa-area schools are getting a chance to try out the sport, thanks to Football Canada’s new flag football program.
The program is in its first year and will reach about 150,000 students in four Canadian cities. As well as reaching about 40,000 students in Ottawa, the program has been started in Hamilton, Montreal and Toronto.
Football Canada started the program with the help of sponsors like the CFL, the NFL, Adidas and Gatorade. The sponsors hope the program will help create a new generation of football players and fans, according Greg Johnston, the program’s Ottawa-area co-ordinator.
“It’s a great way to get football in the hands of the kids at a younger age,” says Johnston.
“Right now, by the time kids get to high school they haven’t been exposed to it at all and we’re hoping this program will change that.”
The program is co-ed and can be run during school gym classes or as an intramural sport which means it isn’t affected by any cuts to extracurricular activities. Participating schools receive a package with footballs, flag belts, certificates of participation for the students, and teaching aids for the instructors.
The kits cost about $700 each but are free to the schools because of the big corporate sponsors.
Since the schools don’t have to foot the cost, many of them were very eager to participate.
“The response has been unbelievable,” says Johnston. “We were about two weeks late delivering the kits because of shipping problems but the schools were very happy when we eventually got the kits to them.”
All schools in the Ottawa area were contacted about using the program and about half responded with an interest to participate.
Although the sport has no tackling or blocking, the students still manage to get a good physical workout, if a recent Grade 10 boys gym class at Immaculata High School is any indication.
The students ran through a series of throwing and catching drills before playing a pick-up game.
“It’s awesome,” says Elmer Caceres, a Grade 10 Immaculata student. “It’s really lots of fun.”
“It’s great, the plays are good and it’s fun to play,” echoed Nuno Cabral.
Their instructor, Denis Couturier, shared their feelings.
“We just started the program but from what I’ve seen, I like it,” says Couturier. “The drills are really easy to follow.”
However, the students did come up with one possible problem with the kits.
A few of the flag belts provided in the kits seem to be breaking.
“That’s a big problem,” says student Paul Dion. “We’ve broken three of them already.”
Perhaps it is something Football Canada can look into before it plans to expand the program for next year.
“We wanted to see the response from this year and get an idea of what is involved,” says Johnston.
“Our goal is to reach even more students here in Ottawa and expand across the country.”