The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

American football will grab headlines this weekend for what happens on the field as some of the best teams in the country vie for flag football supremacy.

The Bahamas Flag Football League is scheduled to host the sixth edition of its annual Fall Invitational October 10-12 at Winton Rugby Centre.

A total of 21 teams, including 11 male and 10 female teams from New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Cayman Islands are expected to take part in the event.

Jayson Clarke, president of the BFFL, said the inter-island rivalry presents an added dynamic to the action on the field. “It really helps the appeal tournament. The reason is because Freeport has won the Nassau tournament, Nassau has won the Freeport tournament over the past few years and that just creates intense competition. This year a Nassau team won the Grand Bahama Flag Football League tournament in August, and I’m pretty sure Freeport will be coming to reclaim the same title as a result of that,” he said.

“All the leagues coming together is beneficial because you have a much broader spectrum and much broader reach for the exposure of the sport as well as the competition between the islands. This is the sixth year we are doing this tournament and this is the biggest one yet. We are looking for some real strong competition, particularly because Cayman is back after a two-year hiatus.”

Participating men’s teams include the Predators, Spartans, Wreckers, Alliance, Rams, Lions, Bears, Avengers, Falcons, Warhawks and Cayman Islanders.

Women’s teams include the Bobcats, Eagles, Lady Avengers, Piranhas, Panthers, Lady Lions, Lady Spartans, Coyotes, Crushettes and Wildcats.

Tournament play is slated to begin 8am Saturday.

In the 2014 edition of the tournament, a total of 11 teams participated - seven men’s and four women’s teams from the New Providence and Grand Bahama leagues. A pair of  New Providence- based teams kept the trophies at home for a second consecutive year.

In the women’s division, the Johnson’s Trucking Lady Spartans won over the Bommer G’s Bobcats, 7-6. On the men’s side, the Finlandia Predators won their second consecutive invitational title after a 17-14 overtime thriller over the visiting Freecon Alliance.

Bianca Lee, BFFL public relations officer, said this year’s tournament will be important from an administrative standpoint because executives from leagues in New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco will be in attendance and will discuss the steps necessary to host the sport’s first national tournament next year.

“We are really excited this year. What’s really great as well is that all of the leagues will be here during this tournament to discuss the way forward and it’s exciting that we are growing the way that we are,” she said. “Next year we are assured to have teams from South Florida coming down, especially with the new fields being built where we can manage more games.”

Tim Roberts, president of Abaco Flag Football League and Youth Football League, said his league looks to expand and add more players in an effort to compete against the larger leagues on more populated islands.

“We are a new league, we just completed our first season this year and we are looking forward to the growth and development of our league in Abaco as well as seeing the unification of all leagues in the Bahamas so we can take part in tournaments.,” he said. “We currently play 5-man standard rules so there will be challenges to how we are adjusting to play tournament wise. There are a few solutions we can look at because with Abaco being a small island, and the communities teams formed out of are smaller, makes things a little tricky in trying to develop a larger league.”

For both the adult league and youth leagues he said the goal is unification and national tournament participation.

“Certainly we will try to encompass all types of football. Abaco started just over two years ago with a youth league and it has grown tremendously. We actually have more kids that we can reasonably coach now. We are constantly looking for coaches and for referees. The programme is phenomenal, the kids love it and we are hoping to see this programme replicated in GB and in Nassau. Hopefully the road to both the adult and youth leagues can lead to national championships.”