Youth Flag Football has made its way to Littlefield, with the inaugural season underway.
Veronica Perez is the League President, and her Board includes: Veronica Espinosa, Mariah Weaver, Rules and Refs, Chris Espinosa, Vice President, Priscilla Perez, Treasurer, Mckenna Wilkins, Keely Skinner, Chris Skinner, Austin Tyler, Makinzi Tyler and Hailee Saenz.
“All of these folks are volunteers, but we have had our community really step up and want to help in concession stand and coaching,” Weaver said. “It’s our first year, so it is just a learning experience across the board to learn what we can do better next year.”
The League had 150 kids sign up, in addition to four out of town teams, putting the league at about 200 kids total in this first year. Levelland will be bringing a 1st and 2nd grade team and a 3rd and 4th grade team and Anton will be bringing a Pre-K and Kinder team and a 3rd and 4th grade team.
“Those teams have been real good about everything, they’ve worked around our schedule and the Anton Coaches are very excited that they are able to play in our league and don’t have to drive to Lubbock to play,” Perez said.
Perez talked about why she wanted to bring this league to Littlefield, saying, “I feel like because we haven’t had it in so long and nobody was taking the initiative to get it started here, people would rather just travel out of town and support another league. So, I thought that it would be good to have a league here instead of people traveling somewhere else to play, and it would help bring more recognition to our youth and give them more experience and basic knowledge about football that most kids don’t have nowadays.”
The league allows kids in Pre-K to eighth grade to play.
“We did have a shortage of seventh and eighth graders sign up, but we were able to make two teams,” she explained. “They will play each other every Saturday instead of playing twice per week, and then they will automatically be put into the Super Bowl for their division at the end of the season.”
The league will have five fields going at once. Games will be going on the turf and the practice fields behind the field house.
The League is looking at having eight regular season games for each team and then they will end the season with a double elimination tournament leading up to a Super Bowl for each division. The 7th and 8th grade division is the only group who will not have a tournament, they will go straight to the Super Bowl.
Each team will consist of 6-7 kids and the games will be 5v5 on the field.
“Everyone will start at the fiveyard line and they get four downs to get past mid-field and then if they get past mid-field, they get four more downs to try and score, Weaver said. “Teams will get to decide if they want to punt, which will put the ball on the opposite 10-yard line, or if they want to go for it on fourth down. If they don’t get to the line to gain, it is a turnover with the other team getting the ball wherever it is down, just like in regular football.”
She added, “For Pre-K, Kinder, 1st and second grade, coaches will be allowed to be on the field with the kids. Older divisions, the coaches will have to be on the sideline. However, as we progress through the season, if you feel you don’t need to be on the field with your team, you may coach from the sideline. We will also being allowing spin moves, which are not allowed in all flag football leagues.”
League games will be two 20 minute halves, with a five minute halftime. Each team will also get three timeouts.
“Our fields are 40-yard fields, with seventh and eighth grade playing on an 80-yard field,” she explained.
Perez and Weaver talked about their ultimate goals for this first season of the league.
“I just wanted to get kids the experience,” Perez said. “With football being a school sport, you don’t want to throw them into it in junior high and them not know what they’re doing. I feel like it builds character, and the High School Coaches will be watching. It is good for our community and we just want kids to play and have fun. I feel like it builds them in so many different ways.”
She added, “Next year, we’re hoping go with an NFL League, so we’ll be following NFL protocols with their Flag Football League. We kind of just had to have one year under our belt. It will be good for our youth.
Weaver stated, “My goal for the league is just to be productive. Even if you don’t have kids, come out and watch and see what we’re doing. I want to see the kids grow, I just want growth in everything our kids do here in Littlefield. I want all of the kids to know that they have potential. I just want to help better the kids.”
The League got underway with their first round of games on June 10th.