What started as a group of friends playing flag football ended with a trip to the Pro Bowl.
The 8U Northwest Ohio Rockets, a flag football team out of the Toledo area, recently played in the NFL Flag Bowl, a national tournament held in Las Vegas during the NFL Pro Bowl festivities.
The team recently competed in a national-qualifying tournament in Michigan and played well enough — beating nationally-ranked opponents and finishing 5-1 — to receive a berth in the Las Vegas event.
“Our end goal was never really to be playing for the national championship,” said Ed Price, the team’s coach and commissioner of Toledo’s chapter of Football ‘N’ America, a youth co-ed flag football league for children in grades K-10.
“But they're just a very good competitive group of boys, with very little practice together, that ended up in the national championship, which was a pretty cool experience.”
The Rockets’ roster consists of Quinn Price, Andrew Feldman, Cruz Westfall, Kellen Pruitt, Oliver Junga, Jaxon Cusumano, and Luke Huhn. Ed Price coached alongside assistants Jhered Cusumano and AJ Westfall.
“It was super fun,” Quinn Price said.
Each player had prior flag football playing experience, but the qualifying tournament was the Rockets’ first time playing together.
“They go to school together, they're friends, they play other sports together,” AJ Westfall said. “So it just became a natural fit for this particular tournament.”
At nationals, they played teams who had been together for years.
“As their coach, I was extremely proud of them, and I knew that they were good, but they went out there and they played teams that not only you have to try out to be on the team, but have been playing together for four or five years and practice all the time. And they beat a few of them,” Ed Price said. “And the ones that they did not beat, they hung with them the entire time. So they definitely proved that they can compete with the very best 8U teams in the entire world, to be honest with you.”
The qualifying event, the Michigan Open, took place in November. and a month later Ed Price found out the Rockets were chosen to play at the NFL Flag Bowl.
A spot in the Flag Bowl came with recognition from a 13-time Pro Bowler himself. Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, a co-founder of FNA, gave a shoutout to the Rockets ahead of their tournament in Las Vegas.
Participating NFL Flag Bowl teams were given a NFL team to represent, and the Rockets represented the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Rockets also had an opportunity to attend the Pro Bowl.
In tournament play, the Rockets beat Southern California’s All Out (San Francisco 49ers) and Arizona’s Tuscon Turf (Cardinals). They lost to Southern California’s 805 Hurricanes (Los Angeles Rams) and Miami’s Ely M (Dolphins), who were the NFL Flag Bowl runner-ups.
“Seeing those little eight-year-old faces see Drew Brees say their name, and then see Las Vegas and see the lights and see the continuous first time for all of them,” Ed Price said. “...It was continuous to see something, obviously, they've never experienced in their life, that potentially could be like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Westfall believes the Rockets will continue to compete in national flag football tournaments. After the success of the 8U Northwest Ohio team, Westfall and Price agree that the Rockets have high potential.
“To see how well our kids stacked up against that level of competition, it was really cool,” Westfall said. “I think it goes to show that the level of athletes that we do have here in northwest Ohio really can compete with athletes from anywhere.”
First Published February 10, 2022, 5:44 p.m.
