Messageboard
subject: "Nationals - Allentown, PA 12/1 (*article update*)"
Tom - IFFL
Nov 16, 2007
2:26 PM | |  ANNOUNCEMENT:
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3 teams from the IFFL PG County, Maryland League are heading to Nationals: Sharks, Bad Boyz, Playmakers.
I`d like to answer some FAQs I get about Nationals:
There are 7 states who compete in the USFFA Nationals (http://www.usffa.com). The USFFA is the original National Organization and its not "pay to play" - you have to qualify for it. They only play one style - the same style you all play. Each state sends teams who finish in the top 4 for that state. Maryland has 2 USFFA Leagues: IFFL PG County and IFFL Montgomery County, but this will change soon as we might add 2 more non-IFFL leagues to the MD State Organization this Spring.
If you are wondering about VA league teams and Nationals, VA issues bids to Nationals based on the State Tournament "A" results, which takes place a week after Nationals. So, VA teams going to Nationals qualify a year in advance, whereas Maryland (and other state) teams qualify during the same year. VA has by far the most teams (300+) of any state organization in the USFFA, thus the early qualification process.
In order to qualify for a Nationals from Maryland, you must play in a Maryland league and finish in the top 4 in the state for the year (or have higher seeds pass up a bid). The teams in the IFFL-PG County league do not recieve bids to the VA state tournament, because even though the IFFL combines states for the playoffs - the VA teams are qualifying for States, the MD teams are qualifying for Nationals (for now - for MD States once the MD Association swells in numbers). A MD-based team who plays an entire season in a VA league can qualify for VA States that way (like some do/did by playing in the Arlington League).
So, lets wish the best of luck and an injury-free roster to our teams heading to Nationals representing the IFFL: Sharks, Bad Boyz & Playmakers! I have a feeling one of those teams will be bringing home some hardware. I`ll be there taking plenty of pics for the website and will update the board in this thread on the tournament progress Saturday and Sunday.
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Tom - IFFL
Nov 26, 2007
1:57 PM | | | ; |
themorningcall.com
Flags, footballs to fly in the Valley
Flag football national championships will be held next weekend in Bethlehem.
By Gary R. Blockus
Of The Morning Call
November 26, 2007
In November 1982, former area football stars such as Bobby and Bill Fredericks, Jeep Bednarik, Mike Reiker and the Malone brothers were running around Percy Ruhe Park in Allentown in what looked like a congregation of men playing sandlot football.
In reality, they were competing in the United States Flag Football Association Championships, the first time the event was held in the Lehigh Valley.
Now, 25 years later, the area is hosting the tournament for a fifth time, only this time, modern era-area stars such as Bryan Kish, Eddie Scipio, Fran Volpe and Matt Zaun will be strapping on the two-flagged belt as the 2007 USFFA Championships take place at the Bethlehem Steelers fields off Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem next Saturday and Sunday.
``It`s been a lot of years,`` said Mike Feigley, one of the former players, who, along with Roland Plante and Ray Roche, brought the national tournament to the Lehigh Valleythe first time.
The names for the teams and the players all have changed, but Feigley, who now lives in Virginia and helps organize that state`s flag football association, will be in Bethlehem this weekend. So will Roche and Plante.
This time, Jim Gillespie, a 32-year-old who quarterbacks for the Stahley`s team, is organizing nationals, which also have been held in the Valley in 1983, 1987 and 2002, in addition to 1982.
Lehigh Valley teams have won three USFFA championships, the last in 2005 by F.E.D.S. of Allentown, a team whose players are now split up among the rest of the Allentown Flag Football League. Shoey`s Jeep won nationals in 1994.
Jawn Contracting from the Lehigh Valley won the first USFFA national title back in 1976, and that team included Plante and Frank John.
``The last time it was here was in 2002 at Alton Park [in Allentown],`` Gillespie said. ``That was the year we got seven inches of snow three days before we were hosting it. You couldn`t even see the fields. I had to put sticks in the snow to outline them. I`m hoping the weather holds up this year.``
Flag football is a hybrid game between touch football and tackle football. It is more like touch in that no pads or helmets are worn, but in order to ``tackle`` or down a player, an opponent must successfully pull off one of the plastic or cloth strip flags on either side of the ball carrier`s hips that are attached to a belt. Ordinary tackling is a penalty.
In 1982, the USFFA fielded seven- and nine-man teams, but it switched to an eight vs. eight format several years ago. Every player is eligible to receive a pass.
Gillespie, a former football player at Allen High and Robert Morris College, said 22 teams will compete in the national championship, including six local teams. The top seeds from five states plus the defending national champion -- D-Mob of Richmond, Va. -- receive first-round byes in the single-elimination tournament.
Teligon Gunz, the No. 1 team out of Virginia, is the favorite to win, according to Gillespie. Teligon has a wide receiver, Bryan Still, who played for the San Diego Chargers from 1996 through 1999.
``He`s the best player I`ve seen on a field,`` Gillespie said. ``Three of four years ago when nationals were down in Virginia, they beat one of our local teams 56-20 or 63-20, and he scored every point except the extra points. He was uncoverable.``
Gillespie said that Ohio teams usually have former Ohio State players, and that Virginia teams are loaded with former Division I college players, which makes the tournament highly competitive.
``If you lose in the first round, you drop down into a `best of the rest` bracket,` `` Gillespie said. ``Whoever comes out of that gets an automatic bid to nationals for the following year.``
Besides Pennsylvania, teams are coming from Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia and New York.
FLAG FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
What: 32nd annual U.S. Flag Football Association Championship
When: Saturday and Sunday
Where: Bethlehem Steelers fields off Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem. Games on four fields begin at 8 a.m. each day. Last games scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. each day.
Who: 22 teams from five states, including six teams from the Lehigh Valley.
Local teams: Shoey`s Jeep, Stahley`s, Haldeman Ford, The Scorpions, The Saints and The Hawks.
The game: Flag football is an eight vs. eight format. All players are eligible to receive passes, no downfield blocking is allowed and no blocking on kick returns is allowed.
Tournament director: Jim Gillespie of Stahley`s.
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Tom - IFFL
Nov 26, 2007
1:59 PM | | | ; |
Besides Pennsylvania, teams are coming from Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia and New York.
...and Maryland. Guess we`ll have to remind them of that on the field Saturday?
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