player
Jan 03, 2008
11:35 AM | Why Contact Flag Is In Jeopardy
Roster Control is important to growing flag....
Controlling and monitoring rosters, player movement and preventing teams from competing in lesser divisions have always been major issues within flag football. Add to this the issues of having too many styles, too many independent tournaments, no true national governing body and contact teams needing the equivalent of 3 teams on their rosters to compete in (1) National tournament and you have a problem.
Top flag football teams now carry rosters damn near the size of a NFL team and if you average out the number of players with the number of positions on the field, the rosters in many cases are equal or larger!
The gap between top-level contact teams (A) and the lower division teams continue to grow wider by the minute. The resources (teams) in contact flag are being depleted and there is no solution or system in place to replenish them once they are gone or protect them while they are there.
Now, in order for a team to successfully compete at the highest level, it has to pass through 3 stages: Infancy, adolescence and maturity.
Infancy Stage: Teams here develop their desire to play the game and goals and expectations are set low. This is where the decision is made to either continue competing or that this is not for them and they return to other extra curricular activities or to the couch. League play is satisfying enough; tournaments are not much of a thought.
Adolescent Stage: This is where teams make the decision that this is what they would like to do in their spare time, form their identities, bonds are made, systems are designed to fit the teams strengths, chemistry begins, practices become important, goals and expectations are set higher and objectives are itemized. Tournament play is now on the radar and key decisions are made after failures to make the team better. This is where most of a teams experience is gained; a true understanding of competitive flag football is learned.
Maturity Stage: Here teams have had several years under their belts together and are truly battle tested. They have survived the worst performances, accomplished the most as a unit, they’ve learned how to win from the neck up, systems need no more adjusting, team execution determines the level of success in tournaments, and league play is now practice and life long relationships are formed off the field. The team name (brand) now has equity, a national reputation is formed and the need to be more and win more begins.
Thousands of teams enter the infancy stage each year (in all styles), with a small fraction of them making it to the adolescent stage; only to have their strengths (top talent) stripped from them by teams with bigger, stronger reputations looking for a quick fix to avenge their last tournament or league debacle.
The remaining percentages of teams that remain after having their vital pieces removed (which is extremely small to begin with) never make it to the maturity stage. Now teams in the maturity stage are forced to play each other over and over every month while they continue performing “player stripping techniques” on each other!
Some venture out to find new teams to conquer, to add notches to their belts and strengthen their national brand and reputation. But find that they have to travel further and further to have that itch scratched and costs begin to mount.
Successful teams, as with people, are never satisfied once they develop a taste for success and must compete frequently for the “Alpha Team” status. But the lack of new teams moving up has left contact flag (9-Man and 8-Man) in a severe drought and the only solution is to have more teams survive the adolescent stage and make it to the maturity stage and the one main solution - is roster control.
5 REASON WHY CONTACT FLAG FOOTBALL IS IN JEOPARDY
Why should flag football monitor rosters? Check out youth baseball, fast-pitch softball, slow-pitch softball and other amateur sports with thousands of teams competing in their elite divisions. They do not share any of the issues that flag football currently has. They can play the entire year within a 4 state radius and still not see all the elite teams.
You can see most the elite teams in contact flag in 1.5 major tournaments. What organized competitive amateur sport does not have high security roster control and roster management outside of flag football and the Boys and Girls Club’s of America?
Flag Football is the ONLY sport where you can just ask a team if you could “ride” with them in the championship tournament at the end of the year and everything is OK. When was the last time your son’s team let some of his friends just “ride” with them for a tournament? Case closed. So why do we accept it in flag?
If rosters are limited and monitored, and severe penalties are handed down for breaking these rules and guidelines, it will at least, aid in the movement of creating more competitive teams that can at least begin at the adolescent stage.
A group of experienced, skilled flag players left off a championship team’s roster will not wait to see if they can take someone else’s place next year.
If you look real close, you will see that competitive flag football is years behind other amateur sports – structure wise, technology wise and other wise. Flag football does not want to change, but sooner or later it will have to.
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