Clarke Family News

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Quinn Plays Flag Football


Quinn started his first season of flag football this April. While not his first forray into the realm of organized sports, it is his first try with football, and like most everything else he's tried, it's his favorite. He played for the Broncos (in orange) and seemed to enjoy offense and defense equally. The season is pretty short, with three practices and a couple weeks of Saturday games, it's all over too fast. The season is much shorter than Mini-Mite hockey. Hopefully there will be another round in Fall.

Quinn's coaches did a great job teaching the kids fundamentals of the game, keeping them interested on and off the field and making sure everyone on the team got equal playing time and opportunities to touch the ball on offense. Keeping the players on the sideline interested appeared to be the biggest challenge. There are lots of distractions when you are 5 or 6. Scoring is kept very loosely, though I think the kids have a firm grip on their own individual stats. Quinn loves to talk about how many tackles and touchdowns he's scored. As Grandma Blomberg told me, you've got to toot your own horn.

If you get a chance to go to one of these games, you have to be aware of the rules. At this level, two coaches are on the field at all times. One plays quarterback while the other directs (and sometimes carries) players into position. Five kids are on the field on each side of the ball (well, sometimes they have to be reminded which side of the ball is their's) and there are rules dictating whether you must pass or run depending on where you are on the field. The first week it was fortunate if, in the heat of the moment, players could remember which way they were supposed to be running. They seemed to figure out that pretty quickly, and by the last week they all thought they were Barry Sanders - spinning, cutting back, reversing direction - basically running 50 yards in order to move the ball ahead three.

Each team seemed to have it's own superstar, either offensively or defensively. I don't think it was planned - probably just the forces of random distribution at work. Quinn's team's superstar was a third down specialist. Like I said, the coaches did an excellent job of spreading the ball around on offense - every kid got to play - but if it was third and long there wasn't too much doubt who was going to get the ball or what was going to happen. More often than not if he was on the field and running the ball it was a long run for a first down or a touchdown.

Fan support is critical in today's ad-revenue driven world of sports, and the Broncos had a regular cheering section. Rain or shine - it was mostly rain - fan turnout was strong for all games. Mom, Frank, Miriam, John (when the bees weren't too bad), Elroy Dee, Josie and I all made it out. Mom's desire to encourage everyone (even the other team) drew the ire of her fellow Broncos fans. Quinn decided to limit the number of times she yelled "Go Broncos!" to three per game. I still don't know what that was about.

See you at soccer practice...

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