17th flag football awards ceremony at St. Ephrem

Commissioner credits league’s success to coaches and parental involvement

February 6, 2018 By John Alexander Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Johnny Alexander and Adam Nash played on the Bantam Royal Flag Football and All-Star team. Eagle photos by John Alexander

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While the country was gripped with Super Bowl fever this past weekend, Brooklyn had its own reason to celebrate the sport as trophies and honors were awarded to members of the St. Ephrem Flag Football League on Friday, Feb. 2 in the St. Ephrem School auditorium at 7415 Fort Hamilton Parkway.

Awards were presented to MVP’s, Rookie of the Year, championship teams in the league and All-Stars.

The league has grown over the years and just celebrated its 17th winning season. “We started, in year one, with 38 players and played a weather shortened three game season,” league Commissioner and program director Joe Guarino told the Brooklyn Eagle. “We didn’t think that there would be a second season. However, we have now grown to 17 teams in our two upper divisions.”

The teams are Novice and Bantam, with nine to 11-year-old kids on Novice and 12 to 14-year-olds on Bantam, plus an additional 65 younger children ages six to eight on the league’s developmental squad.

In total over 260 active members played a 12-week schedule, from the first Saturday following Labor Day to the last Saturday before Thanksgiving.

“Although we are a parish sponsored activity, we draw players from all ethnic and religious backgrounds and from all across Brooklyn, plus a few from Staten Island, Queens and Manhattan.” Guarino said.

“Our goal is to offer the children of our community a safe, friendly place to get together; to experience the fun of playing outdoors, to fairly compete and to experience the joy of victory and to learn the lessons of losing as well.”

Guarino said that the goal of the league is to also make flag football a family experience and to encourage everyone to come to the field and be a part of the activity. The have food and soft drinks available at each game with coffee and bagels for earlier matches and sausage and pepper sandwiches and hamburgers for afternoon games.

“Our teams usually consist of 11 players, with seven per team on the field at any given time,” Guarino said. “We play two 20-minute halves, running time except for the final two minutes of each half.”

Bantam Royal team coach Ryan Nash enjoys working with the players. “I love teaching the kids the game of football and helping to create a lifetime of memories for them,” Nash said.

This year’s Novice Champion team was Novice White, and the Bantam Champion was Bantam Silver. The Novice MVP was Jaiden Cadotte, the Bantam MVP was Nicholas Boccadifuoco and Rookie of the Year was Max Szymanski.

The St. Ephrem league currently uses two fields in Bay Ridge at Shore Road Park and 94th Street.