From Cayman Islands Flag Football Association

Local flag football has its focus on glory overseas.

The Cayman Islands Flag Football Association is sending national teams to the 43rd annual U.S. Flag and Touch League National Flag Football Championships in Kissimmee, Florida. Games will take place on Jan. 17-19 at the Austin Tindall Sports Complex.

Association president Maggie Ebanks said the goal of the trip is to promote Cayman’s involvement in the sport.

“We have a group of about 60 people, with 30 for each team,” Ebanks said. “The men are doing the nine-man format – which is our home format – and the women are doing the eight-man format. The ladies don’t do that format as yet and the board wants to do that this season. It’s more contact and more physical than the current seven-man style.

“We’re trying to push the sport of flag football, build it and push it internationally to as many people as possible.”

The competition is nothing new as Cayman has participated for years. In 2012, the ladies placed fifth out of seven teams in the seven-man screen format, while the eight-man eligible unit finished ninth out of 18 squads. The men were ninth out of 12 teams in the nine-man ineligible category.

For this year’s event, the association – which is going into its 11th year – has been organizing practices and tryouts at various sporting venues since last October. Ebanks said the result is that the Cayman teams have ample amounts of talent.

“For the men, Perry Levy, Phil Brown and Will Peguero Jr. are among the usual guys in the squad,” Ebanks said. “Guys like Adrian Rowe, Theo Edman, Brian O’Reilly and Avery Ebanks are also playing. We have a good mix of players that have been before and those that are new.

“The women have about 24 players and at least 10 have never gone before so it’s a good mix of players as well. We had 10 women’s teams in the summer league last year and that many women playing the sport leads me to feel that we should focus on doing more with the women. For next year, there’s a chance to send two women’s teams.”

Most of the players took part in the association’s annual adult competition, the 2013 Digicel Summer League. The Burger King Panthers and Androgroup Killa-Panthers emerged the national champions. Burger King, led by star quarterback and league Most Valuable Player Chris Lucas, claimed its first men’s title in franchise history by defeating the Lone Star Mustangs. Androgroup, featuring Finals MVP Shamar Ennis, nabbed the women’s crown for the first time by beating the Lynx.

News of the Kissimmee tournament comes after the association staged its fifth annual beach competition. Dubbed the Beach Bash this year, The Parkers team of Oliver, Cueme and Christsania Parker along with Clay Coleman, Jennifer Cotarelo and Keisha Solomon. The tournament mostly featured dozens of established players such as Baron Solomon, Ryan Smith, Cassandra Bodden and Lisa Malice.

After the Florida tournament, focus is expected to shift to the annual coed league in early February, the youth league in mid-February and the summer league in June. There is also talk of staging another Cayman Classic tournament in March.