The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Youth Flag Football League (BYFFL) partnered with the newly formed Barracudas Flag Football Club in Harbour Island to host a successful training clinic last weekend.

The one-day event saw more than 30 kids come out to learn running drills, along with other fundamentals essential to the game of flag football.

Darren Johnson, head coach of the Barracudas Flag Football Club, formed the island’s first youth flag football team five weeks ago as he and coach Tomaz Mackey wanted the kids on the island to be involved in more extracurricular sporting activities.

“The Barracudas is a newly organised flag football team that I am honoured and excited to be a part of.

“Myself, coach Tommy, and coach Brad were talking about doing this for several years now and I was able to make the right connections a couple months ago to put this all together,” Johnson said.

The newest club was assisted in its early stages this past weekend by BYFFL coaches Reginald Munroe, Ulan Dawkins and Inne Marshall.

The trio offered training to the kids between the ages of 4-15 years old at the one-day flag football clinic on the Family Island.

Although coach Mackey and Johnson are no strangers to the game of football, operating a club of this magnitude for the first time was new to them therefore, they decided to reach out to the BYFFL’s programme director Jayson Clarke for help.

The goals of the two parties aligned perfectly as it is the BYFFL’s mission to grow the sport, not only in New Providence but throughout the Family Islands as well.

Johnson is excited for the future possibilities that flag football can bring to the youth of Harbour Island.

“Our main goal is just to teach the kids discipline, team building, conflict resolution, better ways to follow instructions, and also having a great attitude which are life skills they need to make them go far in life,” he said.

The coach added that they plan to use the fun and excitement of the sport to continue to grow the programme and coach the young men and women.

The Barracudas coach also welcomed other settlements to join his team in their beginning stages of expanding the sport on the island.

“We are ready and are getting set up so we want to play with other young individuals and teams. We are starting a torch and want to continue to pass the torch onto other persons who want to pick it up and carry on this programme with us and help us to do something exciting and good for the kids in this area,” he said.

The BYFFL and Barracudas Flag Football Club were both pleased with last weekend’s clinic and are looking forward to continued partnership, growth and success.