Lackland Air Force Base, Texas –
On a cloudy, humid evening Elijah Baxter took a handoff and sprinted 10 yards with the football before cutting left past his defender. Baxter hustled back to the end of the line to repeat the drill. Baxter is not trying to make the practice squad for the Dallas Cowboys, or even his high school football team.
The 6-year-old is one of several children participating in Lackland's first flag football clinic.
"It was good," said Elijah Baxter "I really do like it. It was very fun and it was my first time. My favorite part was doing all the fun stuff like throwing, catching and running - all of it."
The clinic precedes the beginning of the youth flag football league. Practice for the youth league will begin on Aug. 13, and the season will begin Sept. 8.
Lackland's youth league also competes against teams from Randolph AFB.
"The youth program has done a lot for the kids, I really appreciate it," said JoAnn Garcia-Gongora. "It makes me not want to go to work and hang out with the kids."
While the clinic is designed to complement practice and training taking place during the flag football season, players are not required to attend in order to participate in the regular season.
"My son played basketball last season and they went straight into practice," said Army Sgt. Angelo Baxter, 314th Military Intelligence Battalion. "It would have been awesome if they had a minicamp for basketball. This is really a pretty good deal."
Last season the youth flag football league was comprised of three teams for 5-and 6-year-olds, two teams for 7- and 8-year-olds and one team for 9- and 10-year-olds.
Because the emphasis is on skill development and having fun, there are no playoffs at the end of the season, and flag football teams only have five players per team on the field.
"If you are looking for extremely competitive games, you are going to have to go outside the gate," said Youth Program Sports Director Ruben Rodriguez. "We don't even keep score for the 5- and 6-year- olds."
The clinic was run by Rodriguez along with Tech. Sgts. Chris Pierce of the 37th Training Support Squadron, Jimmy Cox of the 344th Training Squadron and Chris Sandlin of the 345th TRS.
All coaches participating in the youth league are certified by the National Alliance for Youth Sports. The certification process focuses on psychology of coaching and sports, working with special needs children, communication tips, injury prevention and hydration.
"Our focus is for the kids to have fun, but to also get them prepared for more competitive sports teams," Rodriguez said.
The weeklong clinic was held at Warhawk Field from 6:30-8:30 p.m. The clinic focused on teaching children ages 5-10 the very basics of flag football.
"My kid has just a great time out there," said Shelly Owens. "My son has played sports for three years and we just keep getting involved."
The clinic covers a wide variety of drills. Some of these drills focus on running, coordination, catching, passing, defense and in-game strategy. The clinic also focuses on developing basic football terminology.
"I got a football at my house; I'm going to bring it to tomorrow," Elijah Baxter said.