Flag football league a big hit with local kids

PHOTOS BY DENNS SYMONS JR. Above, Ryan Shaw tries to grab the flag of John Masserini during a 9-11-year-olds game at Byron Johnson Park on June 26. Below, Kevin Gallagher gets a step on Timmy Beckett, while at left, Anthony Murphy makes a catch before turning upfield during a 6-8-year-olds game.

The next great gridiron stars have to get their start somewhere, and in the Allentown/Upper Freehold area, it may very well be the flag football field.

Over the past few months, over 80 kids ranging in age from 6-11, helped to launch the Allentown/Upper Freehold Athletic Association’s NFL Flag Football Season. With four teams for the younger kids and four teams for the older kids, this is a league that offers fair, competitive play for boys and girls looking to for a fun-filled introduction to the sport.

The season started in March, with teams converging on Sunday afternoons at Byron Johnson park on Ellisdale Road, but once the weather began to warm up, the games were played on Saturdays as well as a means of speeding the season up, to avoid the sweltering heat of the summer.

The teams would arrive at the fields 45 minutes before game time for a short practice session, the only practices the teams would hold. Then, once the whistle blew, it was game time, and the result was a very successful league that promises to grow next season.

“I see it getting a lot bigger,” said Will Fiordland, head coach of the Bears. “I don’t think John [Masserini, the founder and league president] expected there to be as many kids as there was.”

And as for the reviews from the kids themselves?

“They loved it,” Fiordland said. “I’ve coached Pop Warner football as well, and these kids really took to the league very quickly.”

Sounds like a new tradition has been born.