NFL Flag football league kicks off in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — Breaking around to the outside, Taejon Baker sprinted with the ball.

He just got a block from one of his linemen, and was breaking to the corner of the field with the end zone in sight.

Finally, he crossed the goal line and dropped the ball. The Detroit Lions had scored a touchdown.

No, Baker isn't a professional football player, and the NFL team wasn't in Cedar Rapids on Saturday morning.

Baker scored for his team, named after the Detroit Lions, playing in one of its first regular season games in the brand-new Iowa Flag Football league at LaSalle Middle School.

The league is a part of NFL Flag, a national organization through USA Football that provides flag football leagues across the country for children ages 5-17. The league is one of just three of its kind in Iowa, and the first in the Corridor.

Arnold Smith, a co-founder of the league, started it this year through the Cedar Rapids Entrepreneurial Program. Smith did it not only to give area children the chance to play and learn the game of football, but to keep them entertained while they are on summer break from school — a time when they could be getting into trouble.

'It's just to give kids something to do in the summer time, to keep them occupied,' Smith said.

The league is set up in two divisions, one for kids in first and second grade, and one for kids in third, fourth and fifth grade. There are 80 kids playing in the league, with 10 on each team.

They hold practices twice each week at various elementary schools, middle schools and parks around town, and then gather on Saturdays to play regular season games at LaSalle Middle School.

Those practices, especially with the younger division, is truly where the kids make the most improvement. Smith said when they first started, many of the kids didn't know much about football at all.

Some didn't even know how to hold the ball.

Yet one wouldn't be able to tell that on Saturday. Players were running plays, throwing and catching the ball well, and seemed to fully grasp how to play organized football.

'From the beginning of the season to where some of these kids are now, it's a vast improvement,' Smith said. 'A lot of them didn't know where to line up. A lot of them didn't know where the running back position was at, where the quarterback position was at. A lot of them didn't know where that was at all. It's really exciting to see them grow.'

Following the regular season, there will be a playoff within each division. For the final game, or their Super Bowl, Smith is working to get the game played at Kingston Stadium to give the kids a chance to play in a bigger setting.

And, because the league is run through NFL Flag, there is an opportunity to send one team to the regional tournament in Indianapolis this fall. Should the team win that tournament, it would get to travel to the 2018 Pro Bowl in Orlando to play during that game.

'The winner that we're taking, because we want to make sure that it's a team that gives us a fighting chance to win, we're taking the one who wins our Super Bowl,' Smith said. 'We want to be able to compete with other teams, since this will be the first year ever that a team from Iowa will be at that tournament.'

But it's not performing well at the regional that's the most important thing to Smith. He just wants to teach children the game of football and grow his league to impact as many kids as possible.

While it's still the first season, Smith has big aspirations. He hopes to grow the league immensely, expanding in teams and include age groups as old as 17.

That, though, is in the future. For now, Smith said he is just happy with what he built.

'You have to start from somewhere,' Smith said. 'I'm OK with having just four teams (per division) this year, because at the same time ... this is plenty of games for kids. And for us to have 80 kids this first year, it's pretty amazing. The future looks very, very bright.'

l Comments: ryan.young@thegazette.com