(11-24) 04:00 PDT Pleasanton -- With sports-related injuries on the rise for young children, it's no wonder a flag football program in Pleasanton has become an overwhelming success.
Started six years ago as a way to introduce children as young as 7 years old to the sport, today's flag football league (part of the Pleasanton Junior Football League) has more than 400 players and 36 teams. With tackling and blitzing strictly forbidden, flag football's supporters say it's a healthier game, one that allows children to learn the strategy and skills of football without fear of getting injured.
Sarah Loranca, 14, played tackle football for one season before a neck injury forced her to sit on the sidelines for the rest of the season. "My mom wouldn't let me play anymore, so I decided to try flag football," she said.
The eighth-grader at Pleasanton Middle School says flag football has turned out to be more fun and she feels she gets even more respect from the boys on the team.
"The coaches do a lot of teaching about the game and everyone's more relaxed, which makes it more fun for us," she said.
The league, which is open to second- through eighth-grade boys and girls, maintains a waiting list because so many youngsters and their parents are interested in joining. Some players come from Dublin, Sunol, San Ramon and Livermore because flag football is still a rarity in the Bay Area.
"The only thing stopping us from getting bigger is the lack of additional playing fields," says Stan Rodrigues, league coordinator, along with his wife, Laura.
Rodrigues got involved in flag football when the league was created. "At the beginning, it was a way to introduce the youngest kids to football and then have them work their way into contact football. But I played flag football as a kid and knew kids could play through eighth grade and even higher," he said.
Rodrigues insists that the league be competitive, but that coaches must focus on the fundamentals of football and ensure that the players enjoy the game. One rule unique to flag football is that every player on the team must get a chance to start each game, either offensively or defensively. No individual statistics are tallied and while there are winners and losers, every youngster takes home a trophy at the end of the season.
"We've definitely had to fight off the image that flag football is only for the youngest kids. There is that culture out there where kids think if they don't play tackle, it's not really football," he said. But, from a football player's point of view, without tackling, there are more opportunities to learn complicated and tricky plays. It's not unusual for coaches to use reverses and double passes to score touchdowns, something not usually seen in a Pop Warner game.
Parent and coach Ed Liu says he was immediately attracted to the noncontact nature of the sport.
"While my son has been able to learn different plays and the ins-and-outs of the game, there is a dramatically lower risk of injury. He's developing all the same skills, how to catch and throw a pass. And as far as I'm concerned, if you're able to pull someone's flag, you're in position to tackle him," he said.
The time commitment involved in flag football -- compared with many other sports for young children -- is another reason the league has grown so quickly.
The teams practice only once a week, for 90 minutes.
The games are always on Saturdays on various fields throughout Pleasanton. "It's wonderful that the kids can play, but it's not this huge burden on the families and I don't worry about kids burning out too young," Liu said. "In other sports, families are traveling all over the Bay Area on weekends to attend tournaments even at a fairly young age."
Shane Manley and his dad, Rory, have been involved in flag football since the league started six years ago. "In tackle, only the best kid is going to get to have the ball, but in flag football, everybody gets a chance. There's lots of time for everyone to play," says Shane, a seventh-grader at Pleasanton Middle School.
His dad, one of the league's coaches, said that giving everyone a chance to play is an important part of the coaches' philosophy.
"We do get some nonathletic players, some kids who will never play football again, but they get a chance to play the game each week and maybe even score a touchdown," he said.