Northwest Wisconsin Champions Flag Football Teaches Fundamentals...

Northwest Wisconsin Champions Flag Football Teaches Fundamentals the Fun Way

NFL Flag affiliated program now open to boys and girls in the Chippewa Valley

Thursday Aug. 22nd, 2024

If your kid wants to stay fit, have fun, and learn America’s favorite sport, the Northwest Wisconsin Champions flag football program is inviting boys and girls to join its roster this fall.

The organization is an affiliate of NFL FLAG, the official flag football program of the NFL. Last year, more than 80 youths were involved in the league, playing on teams geared for 7-and-under and 14-and-under kids.

This fall, the goal is to draw 100 boys and girls who want to learn the rules of flag football, practice the sport, compete as part of a league, and potentially prepare for regional and even national competition.

“First off, they have fun,” says NWC President Art “Bobby” Diaz, a veteran Chippewa Valley football coach who founded the NWC in 2015. “Flag is non-contact. They’re having fun, everybody can participate, and it’s five on five, so even the center can catch the ball. They improve their skills in football: catching, throwing, defending, and most importantly they’re learning how to tackle without tackling.”

NWC is open to players in the 7U to 14U age brackets (in other words, kids born between 2009 and 2016).The program serves kids in a 75-mile radius of Eau Claire, and draws participants from Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, Menomonie, Cadott, and elsewhere.

Kids interested in playing this fall can attend free “draft day” camps on Sunday, Sept. 1, and Sunday, Sept. 8, at Memorial High School in Eau Claire. The six-week fall season officially begins Sunday, Sept. 15.

“These kids are developing the proper skills needed to play football at the next level.”

Thanks to a grant from the Green Bay Packers, the fee for the fall is just $75, which covers the six-week season, two jerseys (an NFL jersey and a “superhero” jersey), flags, as well as entry into a fall “Turdy Point Buck” tournament on Nov. 3. The tourney will feature an open division that will draw teams from around the Midwest, as well as a school division, in which kids will be able to form teams with friends from their elementary or middle schools.

In addition, kids who play with NWC this fall will be eligible to participate in regional competitions next year in the hopes of earning a bid to the NFL Flag Nationals. This year, teams playing under the NWC banner competed in Kansas City and Green Bay.

Diaz is especially exciting to offer flag football opportunities for girls: Nearly a dozen states now sanction girls flag football as a high school varsity sport, and a growing number of colleges are offering the sport as well – complete with scholarships!

Diaz has more than 40 years of football coaching experience. Among many other things, he was a defensive assistant for the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds; head coach of the Eau Claire Crush, an adult amateur team; and an assistant coach at Memorial and Regis (where he was defensive coordinator during the Ramblers’ 2003 state championship season).

“Having coached in the area, and having numerous conference titles and one state title, I see in Eau Claire a need for youth organized football,” he said.

The skills kids learn through NWC are transferrable if they go on to play tackle football, Diaz says: “These kids are developing the proper skills needed to play football at the next level.”

Diaz says he’s exciting for the coming season and the opportunities that Northwest Wisconsin Champions is creating for future champs.

“The more we can get kids off the couch, competing,” he says when asked about NWC’s goals. “Football’s a great sport.”