To all who have purchased flag football plays from USA Flag Football, you have made one of the best decisions to improve your flag football  team this season.

In this blog, I will offer tips and ideas for anyone looking to start a flag football team. If your flag football league is about to start in a few weeks, read closely and take good notes. This information will be helpful to anyone looking for ideas to raise money for entry fees, to recruit better flag football players, and to order football jerseys or other flag football equipment.

I am going to share with you an experience I had a few years ago when I put a flag football team together in one week. Not only did I put a team together in one week, we eventually played for the league championship that season. This formula has worked for me every year. It has resulted in 3 league championships and 4 league runner-ups. In the spring of 2004, I put together an undefeated season with a new QB who had never even played flag football before. This method works for me year in, year out.

I am about to discuss how I prepared for a fall season with no players, no money, no jersey’s… no problem. You can do the same if you have faith, luck and a little help from your friends. I know it’s just a few weeks before the season, but if you focus and use these tips that I am about to discuss, you should do well.

Finding Players

Ask everybody you know. Leave no stone unturned. Football is Americas #1 sport. There are thousands of former High School, College, Semi-pro, Arena and NFL players in your city. There are some great athletic guys who have skills in other sports such as basketball, soccer and softball.

For instance, and this is just the opinion of one man… I have found that the better flag football players are the guys who excel in other sports. The guys who have the most trouble adjusting to playing flag football are the guys who played contact football. Give me a good “two” guard or small forward in basketball and I’ll run up the score on offense. Now I don’t want to make blanket statements about players from any sport, but I like recruiting soccer players as well. Softball guys have a great temperament for playing flag football and are usually more patient in learning the game.

Football guys… well I don’t want to rub anybody the wrong way, but it takes a while for football guys to get used to the non contact style of the game. All that aggression that we were taught in Pop Warner no longer applies in flag football. It’s great to bring enthusiasm and excitement to the game, but all the intimidation tactics used in contact sports are useless.

P.S. - For some reason punters and kickers make great flag football QB’s. Go figure?

Raising Funds

Getting the money for entry fees should be a piece of cake. You just divide up the total amount of the entry fee with the number of players. If a guy doesn’t pay … he doesn’t play. It’s as simple as that.
Good teams have matching uniforms. Getting matching jerseys or shirts was also no problem for me. You can do the same thing. Have each guy invest $25—$50 each for a custom jersey at a local jersey shop or online from a web site like footballamerica.com. I prefer to get my jersey’s online simply because you have more of a choice in design and price. If you really want to save money you can buy a set of matching shirts off the clearance rack at your local Wal-Mart or department store. Usually they will have a clearance sale on all summer items.

You can try getting a local bar to sponsor your team. For me… I hate having to call my team “Teddy’s Bar”. When you do that your team will forever be known as “Teddy’s”. On the other hand, my team was once sponsored by the HOOTER’s franchise. We were the envy of the league. For an alternate jersey, have everyone buy a white jersey of their favorite time. Every team should have alternate jerseys.

The best way to get uniforms is to compete in cash tournaments and use your winnings for entry fees, travel expenses or uniforms.

Score More Points, Win More Games

Each year I learn new things that go with the 20 years of acquired knowledge of playing. There are thousands of new players, teams and leagues starting every year. It’s frustrating to see startup teams, leagues or tournaments fold because of lack of money or organization.

The past few years I began to seriously take note to why some teams do better than others. Usually, teams with diagram plays picked apart the teams that didn’t use them. A good team knows what play to call in short or long yardage situations. Good teams have well prepared trick plays and extra point plays that work every time. They can recognize man to man and zone defenses and have plays to counter the opposition formations. I’ve created a series of flag football playbooks with helpful information and tips for managing a competitive flag football team.

Use Coupon Code: 2000 for a $10 Coupon - WWW.USAFLAGFOOTBALL.COM

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under USA Flag Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.