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Outlaws celebrate successful flag football season with championships

November 13, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

They played most of their games under cloudy and rainy skies, but the final day for Orangeville Outlaws flag football turned out to be unseasonably warm.

Both Junior and Senior divisions held a championship day on Sunday, November 8, after playing a fall schedule for several weeks.

The Outlaws regular season was cancelled and it looked like Club members would have to find another sport to enjoy. However, the list of sporting activities currently going on is very limited.

It wasn’t until late summer the a club executive looked into the possibility of hosting a flag football season that would get players out on the field and also allow them to maintain a distance between themselves and other players.

The quickly assembled mini-league turned out to be a big hit when over 60 players signed up.

Club executive weren’t sure that players who normally play full contact football would be interested in a flag game, but they had an immediate response from interested players when the put the word out.

“We thought the kids needed to be out on the field and they needed to see their teammates,” explained Club executive member Sue Ellies. “We had Nick Shortill from the Toronto Argonauts contact us and ask if we were interested in throwing the ball around. It was a lot of training and conditioning. The kids were starting to wane a little bit in their enthusiasm. We want the kids to have the best possible experience.”

The executive weren’t sure that senior age players would be interested in playing flag football, however they got an enthusiastic response when they let them know what they were planning on doing.

“We thought we would put it out there and see what we get,” Sue said. “We ended up with 63 kids – 32 juniors and 31 seniors – so there was a big need for it at the senior level as well. We divided them up by age. Our youngest players is seven.”

The only thing the Club had to do to get flag football going was to get the belts and flags and they found a sponsor to help them out with that.

The Club is now looking forward to next season. They usually begin training indoors during the winter, however at this point in time they have no idea if they will be able to do that this year.

They are also looking for a little help. It’s a big challenge to run a sports club and the Outlaws are looking for volunteers to keep the Club operating smoothly.

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