Flag Football

I had the privilege of coaching Sarah's flag football team this fall, and although we're a little bit past fall, I decided that I should blog about it anyway.

Our team name was "Brenda Bones!" which is a story in and of itself.  Brenda Bones is what my old roommates and I call our friend Brenda.  Brenda asked Robbie to buy a flag football schedule for her so she wouldn't have to get up super early and wait in a really long line because she knew Robbie would already be waiting in that line to buy other schedules (guys' flag football, ultimate, soccer, etc.).  Robbie got his payback when he got to name the team, so he chose to name it "Brenda Bones!" and Brenda never got around to changing it.  So, at the beginning of each game we would hear things such as "Brenda Bones, come check in" or "We'll have Brenda Bones wear the blue flags" which never got old for me to hear and laugh to myself.

We had some growing pains throughout the season, as I tried to implement a new offensive scheme for pretty much every game.  These varied from options to direct snaps to a player in motion to lining everyone up on one side of the center to telling the quarterback to just run to a side and then either throw it or keep running.  Then I made the realization that defense was the difference-maker in girls' flag football.  I believe my first clue was that I saw as many "pick sixes" (interceptions returned for touchdowns) as I saw offensive touchdowns.  So we made some defensive adjustments later in the season.  These adjustments included coaching such as "try to catch the ball or knock it down when the other team throws it rather than waiting for them to catch it and then pulling their flags."  We saw a considerable improvement in our defense, with Sarah proving to be quite effective at knocking down passes.

Despite our 1-4 record in the regular season, we made it into the tournament.  (Or maybe more accurately, because of our 1-4 record in the regular season, we were placed in the lowest of three divisions for the tournament.)  We then went on a wild run and made it to the semifinals.  I couldn't make it to one of the tournament games, but I heard afterwards from Sarah that she had intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.  To be honest, I had a hard time believing this because although I love my wife, her hand-eye coordination may be a little lacking.  She later admitted to me that she wasn't trying to catch it and that she herself was surprised that she caught it.  At least she knew to run to the end zone after she caught it.

 

Team Brenda Bones! following the semifinal loss

Although we lost in the semifinals, we had a great time.  Unlike the pizza parties that celebrate the end of a little league football season, we had a breakfast party where we enjoyed all sorts of breakfast foods together and reminisced about our incredible journey.  

 

Team Breakfast Party

Thanks again ladies!