Getting To Know You

I want to start this week's post by saying how much fun over the last week or so I had at William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri! Through parenting, blustery weather, and some tornado warnings, we were still able to take in games from a number of different teams. We took in games from WWU, Campbellsville University, Southwestern College, Pratt Community College, Midland University, Graceland University, Hesston College, and Bryant & Stratton College. The kids were a lot and I could only take pictures so often, but those are included on Instagram.

I had a nice talk with Coach Jarrod Pughsley. The former Chiefs lineman is now the coach of Lees’ Summit West High School. The Titans are a prominent program in the Kansas City metro area. He was in town reviewing programs and getting to know coaches. We talked about the need for more awareness of programs nationally and about where players from other sports could be found for certain positions as the sport grows. I also spoke with James Kerwin and Chase Andersen of Midland University. Both showed a lot of enthusiasm and were very excited that their Warriors would be playing during the replacement for the spring game at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln against the Nebraska Club team at an event promoted as the Husker Games, which of course has a huge crowd every year.

As far as the games were concerned, all players showed a lot of grit as the weather was generally unpleasant. There was some great playcalling, clutch plays, and big moments in every game. My favorite moment was a key 3rd quarter touchdown pass from Angel Ioane Kaio as Midland pulled ahead of Campbellsville. Per usual, the teams that defended the pass and held the edge did well on defense. The teams that got to the outside and could throw the ball deep had the most success on offense. It was fun to see my hometown Owls take a big step forward as a program picking up some big wins over the last week or so. I've coached youth flag football now for a number of years and I thought the talent level I observed was outstanding. For being such a new sport, the athletes have a great understanding of the game. The games were well attended in spite of a persistent brisk wind blowing most of the time we were there.

As WCFF moves forward we will be attempting a new format to bring more frequent, near-daily coverage. We made many important site updates this week with more to come. Thank you to everyone for getting back to us with team updates and to some of the friends we have made along the way. We are getting to the inbox, so be on the lookout for us.

Coach Quincy Cooper, the Varsity Flag Football Head Coach at St. Francis Catholic High School reached out with some kind words of encouragement, writing in:

“ …I want to say thank you for this, because for the past 2 weeks, I've been looking up each school by hand… A number of my players have shared their interest in going further with this sport, and because there was no consistent information, I had to do the hard work and send them that information. You having this website is so much easier, and I want to thank you for creating it… Again, thank you so much for your dedication to being the first site to share all this information, and I've already passed it along to our career center and players.”

This is exactly why we built the site! We love getting messages just like these!

Thanks for the love and don’t forget to give us a follow on our social links as well!

-WCFF Shawn