2018 State of the League Address
Welcome to year four of Southeast Texas Flag Football League. We have held fifteen events (tournaments and leagues) in the past three years. During our first season, we had eight teams, and I can remember being very relieved that we had enough to begin the league. Skip forward to the last Spring League – we had fifteen teams – and I found that we potentially had a new problem: There are too many teams to fit the games in on one day. That is a problem I never thought we would have. Flag football is going strong in Southeast Texas!
Through trial and error, we have developed a good formula for success:
Make the games fun.
Make the games fair.
Video and photograph everything.
Add in some social media.
Give out awesome championship belts.
There have been a lot of unnecessary ingredients along the way, but they have slowly been eliminated or replaced. No matter the circumstance, it seems, organization and professionalism make the league what it is. This was demonstrated so well by the “Jersey Rule” in Spring League 2018. This required teams to wear shirts of the same color or suffer a large penalty at the beginning of each half. I thought that it would fail, and that the teams would be upset about the penalty. I was wrong, and Troy was right – it was his idea, after all. Almost all the teams suddenly showed up with matching shirts, and it made our league that much better.
If you want perspective, check out our website – www.setxffl.com, or the YouTube channel, or the Facebook page. Look at the first events, and the most recent events. We have vastly improved. We will continue to do so because we owe it to our players, and we just plain enjoy it.
Lastly, I would like to thank the board members (especially Troy Maddox, Walt Durham, and Aaron Ward) for their dedication to the league. From important rule decisions to cleaning up trash at the end of the day, those guys have been indispensable.
I look forward, now, to our best year yet. The summer is already upon us, and August is approaching fast. And as always, you know what that means: FOOTBALL IS COMING!
Cody Courts
President
