The purpose of this program is to prevent young people from acting aggressively toward other children. This will help to stop common misunderstandings between the youths and teens in the south district of Nassau. Implementing a successful program like flag football in the Pinewood Park area could soon lead to an island wide program geared to all youth and teens. These programs can help bring kids
together in a common forte, allowing them get to know each other. The main purpose is to help slow down the aggressive actions of these youths and teens by eliminating common of misunderstandings between kids from various areas. We have noticed that each park in Nassau attracts some of the most troubled kids. They are hanging around the parks causing altercations amongst themselves and other. This program is targeting these kids by getting them involved in a positive sport. Our solution is to build a youth flag football league allowing these kids to not only play each other but get to know each other in a safe environment. These children will be supervised by adults who have been trained to facilitate properly by the NYSCA Coaching Youth Flag Football. Each year our coaches will take the exam to be licensed again in football training drills will be reinforced by Urban Renewal Youth Flag Football League so they will be fully trained and competent. Their website is : http://www.nays.org/nyscaonline/preview/flag-football.cfm
We started his program 5 years ago. It had come to our attention that the majority of the kids on the park were fighting, cursing, or bullying other children. One year later on Pinewood Park, not only did the kids unite, but we won the flag football championship against the Cowboys from Bahamas Faith Ministry. The Bahamas Faith Ministry had been established years before we began with the Pinewood Park kids. It just goes to show you how interested and motivated these children are to be involved in this type of program. The Thanksgiving game is called the Turkey Bowl. This event is where our blended teams play. In this process all team members’ names are put into a raffle and drawn randomly allowing every player the opportunity to participate. This game has our team competing with other players from different teams. This combined Bowl has proven to be very effective uniting the kids from different areas
This program has no closing season, it runs continuously throughout the year. On the second Saturday before the NFL Super Bowl we participate in the Junkanoo Bowl. This is where the two teams with the most wins play each other for the league championship
Our flag football game normal practice starts with the 5 to 10 year olds 4:30pm to 5:30pm and 11 to 17 year olds from 5:30 to 6:30 Monday, Wednesday ,and Friday evenings and Saturdays at 3:30pm. Each game runs about 45 minutes. Each team needs 7 players on the field so 25 kids would be a full team, 7 offensive, 7 defensive , 7 special team for kickoff, along with punt return and 3 backup players. Our Saturday games are estimated 2 game per Saturday on each park at the moment. We are allowed to do this because flag football is considered a non-contact sport allowing both girls and boys to play together.
