It will be well past midnight Friday when 16 flag and touch football teams at two locations – the Garden City Community Centre and the University of Manitoba’s indoor facility – tightened up their cleats and settled in for late night/early morning battles.
Among the games, all of them scheduled to begin at 12:45 a.m.:
- Damn Yankees vs. Brew Balls
- C’MON MAN vs. Gym Class Heroes
- The Dark Side vs. Chuggernauts
- Jimmy Harris and the Granny Boyz vs. Dem Boiis Hot and
- Hernandez Hit Men vs. Dez Dropped It
Over the course of the weekend, 50 games will be played in divisions ranging in age from high school to the Masters, featuring folks over 40.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the PIT Touch and Flag Football League.
And, in case you haven’t heard of this bunch, it might be time for an introduction…
Founded in 2008, the PIT has grown from a 40-team league to the largest in Canada, with a membership of over 4,000. And over time, this league has grown so adept at what it does Football Manitoba has now called on their expertise to help run their youth flag football leagues this spring.
“Originally it was just a hobby,” begins PIT Football President and founder Jon Franklin, who has been playing for 25 years and is now also on the board of both Football Manitoba and Football Canada. “It was about giving back to the game and I was having a lot of fun doing it.
“Now it’s grown to the point where it’s no longer just a hobby, but a business. And that’s why I’ve just brought on board our first commissioner, Jerome Swarath, who brings 40 years of experience to the PIT. That’s going to allow me to step back a bit from the day-to-day stuff and help at the provincial and national level. But I love doing the league stuff and that’s why I will keep investing the time to do it.”
Franklin, now a professor jointly appointed in both the Department of Sociology and Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Winnipeg, turned to flag football after an injury playing tackle ball in high school with the Maples Marauders. He instantly fell in love with the game, but was frustrated that some of the little things in other leagues – like updated standings and statistics – were either inconsistent or non-existent.
“I just found it wasn’t as good as it could have been and that game day experience was missing all the extras,” Franklin said. “There was some value-added stuff that could have been put in the league and I made those suggestions to the league. They weren’t keen on adding in the extra work that it would take to do that and so we decided that when the (University of Manitoba) facility started up, we should try and run our own indoor league. Right off the bat, it became really successful.
“We were happy to have 40 teams in that first year and then players were saying, ‘You’ve got to keep doing this.’ That’s really how it started.”
PIT Football’s website: http://pitfootball.com/ not only has all the bells and whistles, but a record book and a stats report for each game. And that’s important to players, even those participating simply to get their heart rate up and/or to chill afterwards with teammates over a beverage.
“What we’ve found is a lot of guys chase the game,” said Ganni Maan, PIT Football’s Marketing Coordinator. “When they finish high school they know they can’t play at that competitive level any more but want to play. They can recapture that with the PIT. It’s a little bit of nostalgia for those players who just miss hanging out with the guys and being in the locker room.
“And players love their stats. We have game cards for every single game and so, if you click on the game you can see what happened… touchdown passes, interceptions, everything.
“This whole experience is important to them, from having certified referees to updated stands and stats.”
The league added a high-school division last year as tackle coaches saw the benefit in having their players refining their skills year round. The 10-team division features two teams from the Vincent Massey Trojans and Sisler Spartans while the Grant Park Pirates and St. John’s Tigers are also represented.
The Interlake Thunder, a team of 14-16 year-olds, is also participating in the league’s bottom division just to get the experience of competing against older players.
“We’ve always wanted to just help grow the game,” Franklin explained. “We started at the grassroots/community level and tried to get more and more people involved. So far it’s been working to the point that now we are the biggest league in Canada.
“But we don’t want to rest on our laurels and that’s why we’re so keen to get more people involved. It’s why we’ve started more age categories and are really pushing towards the women’s division and co-ed. We’re trying to push the boundaries to get more and more people playing football.”
PIT Football games are five-on-five, with each team having approximately eight-to-10 players. The registration fee for an individual is $90, which includes insurance, registration and a jersey. A team registration fee is $675. Franklin said ‘free-agent’ players looking for a team can contact the league and they will be added to a squad matching his or her skillset.
“The allure of Pit is it doesn’t matter what your skillset is, there’s a place for you in our league,” said Franklin. “We’ll find a solution to your love of the game. If you want to play, there’s always going to be a division or other like-minded individuals who want to play.
“It’s fun, but it’s still competitive and everyone walks away saying, ‘This is great.’”
