Local flag football teams earn national championship trip

January 22, 2016 at 12:10a.m.

The meaning of playing for a national championship has changed over the years for Youngstown’s Elliott Giles.

There’s a always a place in his heart for the Youngstown State team that won a national title in 1997 and the one that was the runner-up 1999, but the former Penguins wideout has a different sense of pride for the trophy he’s chasing in 2016. Now the president and founder of the NFL-sanctioned Youngstown Youth Flag Football Association, it’s about seeing others win rather than himself.

“It’s just a different type of excitement and for me it’s much more rewarding because I’m able to touch lives and impact these kids in a way I don’t think they fully understand,” Giles said.

“I think it will take a couple of years once their flag football career is over with when they realize how special this moment was for them.”

Giles is the head coach of two teams, a 9-10 year old coed team and a 13-14 girls team, that will compete in the NFL Flag Football Nationals in San Francisco during Super Bowl week. For his girls team going as the Cincinnati Bengals, it’s their sixth consecutive year attending. For the coed team, the Cleveland Browns, it’s the third straight trip.

“I’m really excited,” Izzy Lamparty, the quarterback that was a part of last year’s nationals team, said. “This year is going to be different. It’s going to be more competitive.”

Giles has had the most success with his girls teams. They’ve won the whole thing in 2012 and in the following years, have done no worse than third place. The coed team is full of Super Bowl first-timers. The kids are heading to California after winning one of the NFL’s eight regional competitions held in NFL cities across the country. Each regional produces four champions with one for each age category. That makes for one team per NFL franchise and the winners get a gift package from their respective team. They get to be part of some of the Super Bowl festivities, including media day and being in the tunnel when the players come out to be interviewed. Last year when the Pro Bowl also was in Arizona, the teams were introduced on the field for that game.

“Those are things you can’t put a price tag on,” Giles said. “This year being Super Bowl 50, a lot of excitement is building for that and I’m sure they’ll have a lot planned for these kids.”

When it comes time to actually compete, the game plan can be a bit involved. Giles’ players wear wristbands with plays on them like an NFL QB and he’s coached them to audible as well. Lamparty said the key to winning will be making sure everyone runs the correct plays.

“He’s cool, he’s a very good coach,” girls wide reciever Kat Partika said of Giles’ coaching style. “He’ll tell [former YSU coach] Jim Tressel stories and sometimes quotes him.”

Giles is proud of how diverse the league has become since its inception in 2007. On the rosters for the two nationals-bound teams, there are not more than two kids per municipality. In addition to the Youngstown area, Brookfield, New Middletown, Girard, Lowellville, Berlin Center and Struthers are represented on those teams.

“It’s great meeting all the new girls,” Partika said.

Giles tells his teams that while they deserve to be there, they aren’t entitled to anything. Beyond the competition, going to the Super Bowl never gets old for the kids or their coach.

“For me, I’ve been doing this for so long and it’s really a joy to me,” Giles said. “People ask me if it ever gets old, does it get boring or tired and I tell them it doesn’t.

“Every year, you have the opportunity to give these kids something that they would never ever have.”