Perfection

In my first coaching job since 2012 I wanted to accomplish something a little different this season. Most of these kids have been playing flag football for years and every season they worked at learning plays and running defenses with a lot of help from the sidelines. Of course they needed lots of help in 4th, 5th and 6th grade and calling in plays was a necessity.

My theory this year was that they could take the reigns and run the team and call the plays from the field. This allowed me to stop looking at a chart of plays and yelling in a string of names and numbers and giving me an opportunity to focus on what the other team was doing and providing strategy advice to the players. This came with some risk but ultimately, it empowered the boys to own the game and develop critical thinking skills. It also turned out that they had more fun taking responsibility.

We struggled during the season but I saw improvement with each game as the testosterone fueled play calling turned into more strategic decisions based on what they were seeing on the field and the advice I was giving on the sideline. We had great athletes but lost some close games because of small mistakes. I believed that over time they would become much more effective than the other teams in the league because they were in control and more capable of adjusting to the game situations in real time.

I'm happy to say that they proved me right. We played two games yesterday and won them both for the NVFFL Championship. The boys were clicking in the first game against the Eagles, winning 38-24. The whole team played well with Sam and Dylan hooking up for two long bombs for scores and Sam getting a pick 6.

The championship games was against the undefeated Saints whom we lost to twice in the regular season. They got to watch our game against the Eagles and were overheard dismissing us as we played. Over confidence is never a good thing and proved to be the undoing of the little flaggers.

The young Vikings played a flawless game and while it was close the entire game, we played calm, cool and collected football while the Saints carped at each other and threw little tantrums all game long. All the Vikings contributed with Dylan and Sam each scoring 2 TD's. The championship was 26-19 with Owen scoring a safety to basically destroy the Saints last real chance to score.

I'm very proud of (from left to right) Benjamin, Owen, Dylan, Avery, Corbin and Sam. Not to mention Braedon (not pictured due to vacation) and Dave (far left who assisted with a couple practices and provided strategic advice on the sideline). It was a fun season. I kept telling the boys after a win or a loss, our goal is to be in the last game of the season and we did even better, winning it.