Return to Football : flag football picks up steam in New Brunswick amid pandemic

By Mike Still 

When Football New Brunswick Executive Director Micah Hesman was hired in March, it was a perfect fit. The Ontario native had a post-secondary football background, and was in the process of completing his MBA in sport management at UNB when he got the job.

What he wasn’t expecting, was that his first task would be having to postpone the football season.

“During the three weeks when I got the job, I was going to nationals for track, I was in midterms for exams, I had started this job, the pandemic had closed everything down and I was in the process of buying a house,” he says.

“It was three of the most interesting weeks of my life. My first week we were talking about getting stuff taken care of for the summer, and a week later it was like well, we’ve got to close everything down and see how things go.”

Hesman was aided by a diverse return to play committee, which got to work right away on getting back to the sport. A 16-page breakdown was released to the public at the end of June, which detailed four phase. Phase three included flag and touch competition, while phase four would mark a complete return to the sport, tackle included.

“I think there were nine or ten different categories. We were talking about contact level, sanitization, screening, and we were establishing a four-phase plan based on different expectations. It was definitely good to have that committee there. There were various backgrounds. A couple of people were parents, a couple had been coaches, a couple of administrators. It was good to have that variety and I think it helped eased the process along in terms of our operational plan.”

New Brunswick’s case load jumped to over 100 between mid-March and early April, but by the time May 2nd rolled around, all 118 active cases had been reported as recovered. This was a trend that continued through the summer, including a span of 15 straight days without a case from late July into early August.

With this in mind, Football New Brunswick was able to move forward with phase three for the fall.

“Originally we had a perspective where you had the option of doing flag league play across the province, or doing inter-squad contact practices,” said Hesman. “We kind of shifted [inter-squad contact practices] into a phase 4A, and we’re having discussions about when we’re going to move into that stage.”

As a province, New Brunswick typically sways more to tackle, with flag programming catered towards a younger age of 7-9. With contact sports off the table however, the province’s three associations were able to see the value of flag for skill development. Provincials were a success, with strong feedback reported overall, while a few associations also put together a big men flag league for offensive linemen.

“All the feedback I heard [about the big men flag league] was that they were having a tonne of fun. They’re not doing what they’re used to, but they’re having fun playing football and tossing a pigskin. That’s just the kind of news that I want to hear about what’s going on in our province with football,” noted Hesman.

“[Provincials] also went pretty well according to plan. I think that most of us who get involved in football really do love the contact aspect of it, but what we at Football New Brunswick have realized is that there’s a lot of value in flag, not just to contribute to the development of contact, but also as a sport within itself.”

Flag football has picked up steam all though the Maritimes. Prince Edward Island for example, is set to host nationals in 2021 and has seen an increased presence in flag participation at both the community and high school level.

“Ironically in a long-term sense, this might actually be beneficial for the sport of football in New Brunswick and the Maritimes,” added Hesman.

“We’ve definitely been putting in efforts to establish a flag league or flag involvement in New Brunswick over the past few years, and if this can actually get that established, where in a perfect world we would have some sort of a spring season to complement a fall contact season, that would be excellent.”

This post is also available in: French