Flag football has always been a staple of our community. The Westfield PAL Flag Football program has “been igniting the flame of football passion in kids from first to ninth grade since 1998.” However, that passion doesn’t just dissolve once you reach high school. So, 15 years ago students brought flag football to WHS. Today, seniors Jake Park and Jack Conrod run the league for high schoolers.
Every Sunday morning Park and Conrod set up the field behind EIS for a league of around 80 high school boys. Park is no stranger to the league, he said, “The league has been around for about 15 years. 6 years ago my oldest brother, Alex, ran the league, then 3 years ago my cousin ran the league, and 2 years ago it was my other brother and now it’s me.”
The league consists of six teams all assigned different colors and each coached by two players from the varsity football team. At the beginning of the year, all the coaches got together and drafted their teams. Senior coach Owen Williams said, “I picked the best team I could, some of my friends and some kids who I just thought would help us win.”
Given that it’s a league full of highschoolers, run by highschoolers, you might think that the games are dull. However this couldn’t be further from the truth, in fact the intensity of these flag football games could rival varsity sports. Player Karl Kane said, “The competitive nature is different, everyone is giving it their all and going for the win.”
Nevertheless, the undisputed favorite part of the league isn’t even playing football. One of Conrod’s favorite parts of the league is, “just showing up, picking everyone up and driving over to Edison, watching all my friends compete, just a great way to fill my Sunday mornings.”
Park added, “Watching everyone give it their all on the field every week, some kids get angry and there is a lot of trash talk but I love to see that because it shows you that they care.”
Even for kids who don’t participate in games themselves are drawn towards flag football just from the environment alone. Williams who just coaches and doesn’t play himself said, “I enjoy watching football, but just coaching my friends and going out trying to win, there is nothing better, this team means the world to me.”
After every week Park and Conrod rank the teams, along with selecting players to be awarded numerous different honors such as, overall player of the week, defensive player of the week, play of the week and even the most disappointing player of the week. The league even has an Instagram page, westfieldflagfootball2024, where highlights, interviews and live updates of the games are posted.
The season consists of five regular season games, and then a single elimination style playoffs. Playoffs amplify the trash talk and intensity to a whole new level.
While the league is extremely entertaining to play in and be a part of, it’s not all for fun. In fact the main reason for the league is to raise money for charity, specifically the Special Olympics Charity. Park said, “It’s not about us it’s about the bigger cause, it is 30 bucks to join the league and we get around 80 kids every year, 100 percent of the money goes to Special Olympics and it helps them with their events, improve their facilities, gets them new equipment, it’s really just bigger than the game.”
Both Park and Conrod manage to officiate, set up the field and organize the charity all while still playing themselves and enjoying the competition like everyone else. As the league is coming to a close Conrod’s favorite moment was, “Our overtime winner against the green team, it was electric and really just showed how much fun this year was gonna be.”
Between the healthy competition and charitable cause, there is really nothing not to like about this league. Over its 15 year lifespan, it has donated thousands of dollars to organizations in need while also letting high schoolers create memories they will have forever.
1 comment
This is awesome.