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Giles looks to bring home national champion
By Curtis Pulliam
Youngstown
Elliot Giles has been running the Youngstown Youth Flag Football Association for seven years but the trip to the national championship doesn’t lose its appeal for him.
“It never gets old,” said Giles who will be making the trip for the fifth year in a row. “Any time you can compete on this stage and give these kids and their parents an opportunity to experience something like this, it makes it worthwhile.”
This year, Giles has three teams competing in Phoenix, Ariz., for a chance to be national champions.
The league produced teams from the 9- and 10-year-old co-ed division, 11-12 co-ed and the 13-14 girls division.
“We are excited for the kids and what they have in store for them.”
Eight teams nationally qualified for the different divisions.
The teams will be divided into two groups of four and each team will play the other teams in their group once. The first games are set for 11:30 a.m.
For Giles, this year will be different on a couple of levels.
This will be the first time for Giles at the Reach 11 Sports Complex in Phoenix.
“I’m as excited as everyone else,” Giles said.
Plus, his daughter Alexis is the only girl on the 9-10 co-ed team representing the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I’ve been coaching my daughter in flag football since she’s been seven,” Giles said. “The one thing I respect about her so much is that she doesn’t act like a girl when she’s around the boys.
“When she’s on the field with them she plays like a boy and she’s very aggressive and I think the boys respect that.”
The 11-12 co-ed team will represent the San Francisco 49ers and the 13-14 girls team will represent the Cleveland Browns.
Even though Giles coaches all three teams he does have some help traveling with him.
James Alfano, father of Oilvia on the 13-14 girls team, says he’s thrilled to have the chance to go to Arizona.
“I’m very much looking forward to it,” Alfano said.
And though people think that football is just for boys, Alfano says think again.
“You would be surprised at how competitive they are,” Alfano said. “They take it just as seriously if not more than the boys do.”
Alfano first got involved with the league years ago with his son but was shocked to have his daughter come up to him and ask him to sign her up.
“I couldn’t be prouder of Olivia,” Alfano said. “This is her fourth season in the league and I would have never anticipated this.”
Though the experience is meant to be fun, Giles hopes to cap off the season as champions.
“If we are able to win it will have a more special feeling to it,” Giles said. “But just getting there is an accomplishment.”