Three athletes from Hawken participated July 29 and 30 in the NFL's first annual All 32 Flag Football Summer Invitational in Washington D.C.
Three athletes from Hawken participated July 29 and 30 in the NFL’s first annual All 32 Flag Football Summer Invitational in Washington D.C.
Standout athlete Helena Yanchar, with her teammates Kate Bolinger and Kate Petersen, were selected to represent Ohio and the Cincinnati Bengals based on their excellent play this past spring in the Northeast Ohio Flag Football High School League.
As a quarterback and receiver as well as a defensive back, Yanchar helped lead Hawken to the championship game and a runner-up finish in the Northeast Ohio league alongside Bolinger and Petersen, both seniors.
For the All 32 national tournament, Yanchar played receiver on offense and was also in the secondary on defense, while Bolinger and Petersen played wide receiver and in the secondary.
In a recent interview, Yanchar described how she was selected to represent Ohio and the Cincinnati Bengals. She said everything came about this summer quite quickly.
The event organizers, in partnership with the NFL organizations, worked with the Northeast Ohio league to select players from some of the spring’s top flag football teams including Hawken, Kirtland, Lake Catholic and Willoughby South.
After players were chosen to represent the Bengals, the team then practiced for four weeks at Mentor High School under Team USA 17U Flag Football Coach Elliot Giles.
Yanchar said that the team left July 28 for Washington D.C. in order to register and check in.
As is the case for most national events, a welcoming event at the local Top Golf allowed players to meet each other and receive greetings to our nation’s capital from the NFL.
The following two days, the Bengals went 3-1 on the weekend.
“Saturday was pool play and Sunday was bracket play playoffs,” Yanchar said. “Each team was guaranteed three games on Saturday for pool play, and you’re in a bracket with four teams. We played three games, and then the top two teams from that bracket moved on to the playoffs.”
Yanchar provided details about how her team performed.
“We went 3-0 in pool play, but then lost the first playoff game on Sunday,” she said. “The team we played (in the playoffs), the Jets, their flag football team that they came from was a big national team. Girls from around the country had come to play for that team.”
Yanchar also mentioned an exciting highlight from the All 32 tournament.
“The first two minutes of our first game on Saturday, personally a highlight play was, I had a one-handed (interception for a) pick-six.”
As flag football continues to grow throughout the nation, more Geauga County schools will most likely begin to add flag football teams. Last year, Hawken and Berkshire were the only schools from Geauga County to participate in the Northeast Ohio Flag Football High School League.
For more information about the league, especially if you are interested in starting a flag football team at your high school, neoflag.net says to contact Hannah Lee with the Cleveland Browns at Hlee@Clevelandbrowns.com.
