Ardent Flag Football: The Pursuit for Perfection

Poli · 08-16-2005, 04:21 PM

I hinted a while back that I would run this dynasty, and with our first game yesterday, I'm ready to give it a whirl.

The team is much like my student softball team, made up of young sailors going through my schoolhouse, ATT (apprentice technical training).

At the end of the last softball season, a flyer was given to each coach talking about the upcoming flag football season on the base. I went recruiting in the schoolhouse, and had tremendous interest. So much interest, in fact, that I had to make a big disqualifier. I could only keep players who weren't in some sort of trouble and those that were going to be in the school until August 15.

By the time the first practice started nearly a week later, I had over 30 people. Some left after the first couple of days, and a few more showed up. By the end of the first week, we had 32 players.

Unfortunately, during one practice the base Safety office's Master Chief stopped by and counselled me on having too many sailors on the practice field at one time. Base regulations state I can only have 25 sailors per staff member, and I was the only staff member there. I was left with two choices. Bring another staff member into the fold, or cut players. Considering we were pretty fat player wise, I went with cutting players. I did make it out to be that I couldn't get another staff member out there, so as to put my sailors more at ease.

Cut were: Sullivan (borderline academics), Smith (injured, lack of ability), Beltran (good kid and good size, just not talented), Thomas, Schulz (missed a few practices). That got us down to 25 players, and within regulations.

It also gave me 13 offensive players, and 12 defensive. Since my offense is a little out there, I figured I needed an extra body on that side of the ball.

The ATT team (starters in bold):
Offense:
Boultinghouse (QB) captain
Marks
Murphy
Romanucci
Lopez
Hurley
Robison
Nowden
Pamperin
Toombs
Axe
Pino

Defense:
Holsey, LB, captain
Hooker
Holland
Soper
Newsome
Jones
Hughes
Lewis (collegiate football player)
Trent
Baker
Marshall-Strother
Santiago

Poli · 08-17-2005, 12:23 PM

Practices to this point have been pretty good. We practice from 9:15am to 10:30am. I'd like to practice more, but the base limits the amount of time I can work with them.

Basically, our offense uses a lot of playaction, though not necessarily what you're thinking. The base league is no contact, so we really can't block defenders effectively. Instead, we focus on making two or three plays look very similar, but with one critical change. We also have planned pitches in the plays as well.

Defensively, we're very vanilla. We're strictly zone, with about 4 different coverages. We will be adding a few blitz packages in, where we're bringing an additional body on the inside or outside...but that will start next week.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 12:33 PM

Our first game was Monday, and we met on an adjacent field to stretch and warm up. The team was really excited, and it was hard to mask that I was as well. I'd have to say we're easily the most organized team right now.

Our first game was at 1730 and was the kickoff of the season. We played BEQ 6301's "Port" team, which is just a way to label one from another. The other team is "Starboard". I went out on the field with my captains and met the officials. We won the toss, and after talking quickly with the captains, we elected to "kick". I groaned when I realized we made a mistake in doing so. That meant we'd be kicking to start the second half as well. No matter, I thought to myself. We head off the field and I send in the first team defense to the 20.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 12:41 PM

We start out with "ET" which is our base defense. 2 rushers, 4 short defenders, 2 deep defenders. We force them back, and into the endzone, where Hooker nabs the quarterback (former softball player Meppelink, from the other dynasty) for a safety. The team goes wild! 2-0!

The offense comes out and we quickly complete two passes, but one is called back due to flag guarding. An incomplete pass sets up a 3rd and moderate yardage. We run a pitch play, where the receiver catches the ball and pitches to a guy in the backfield...kind of a hook and ladder but slightly different. It works beautifully, but we're called back for an illegal forward pass. BS, but it doesn't change the penalty. We're forced to punt. Axe is our punter, and he punted in high school. He nearly pins the ball on the 1, but it bounces into the endzone.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 12:45 PM

The defense holds, and Lewis goes back to return the kick. It's actually a nice high punt...which Lewis bobbles but recovers around the 40, or midfield. We run a short out play to the far side, but Hurley gets open deep. Boultinghouse hits him for the touchdown. Murphy, normally a blocker, catches the extra point on an out pattern on the goal line to make it 9-0.

Lewis intercepts a deep ball in the endzone to end the half.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 12:53 PM

We start off the 2nd half on defense again. I've been subbing in my four backups every two plays. Trent and Baker go in for Hooker and Holland, my rushers. Santy and Marshall typically go in for short defenders, but sometimes for Hughes, one of the deep guys.

We make a critical mistake at one point, when I told Holsey to accept a penalty, and he thought I meant accept the play. It set up a fourth and short, and they went for it. They got it, and kept driving down the field before another interception stopped them. This one was by Hughes, if I'm not mistaken.

Again we drive down the field, and another deep ball guy gets open. We hit Lopez for the score. We tried to run an overload play, where our fastest guy goes in motion to get the ball, but the defense was ready. We end up lobbing it to our overloaded side, and it falls incomplete. 15-0.

That would be the final score. One other interception of note happened at the end of the game, and our defense played great. I was a little disappointed in our offense in the end. We threw an INT late in the game when I told Boultinghouse I wanted to run the ball.

We have a game tonight at 1930.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 10:56 PM

I went out early to watch other teams to see if there was any sort of organization among teams. Just as I feared, the top two teams from last season appear to be the only teams with any sort of organization.

The team we played Monday was stomped by the Red Ropers, who appeared to have recruited a few athletes to play for them. The good news? They're playing both ways, at least it looks like it. The referees called such a horrible game that I called our team away from the stands to warm up early.

For example, RTC's ball 1 yard shy of the 40 yard line, and it's 4th down. RTC needs one yard for the first down. The center snaps the ball 20 yards back and over the quarterback. It should be BEQ 6301's ball. But the Side Judge comes running over saying, "I should have blown the whistle". One player on RTCs squad didn't have his flag on properly. Way to screw over the barracks, bud. Where do you work? 5 bucks says it's at RTC.

I'm getting angry just thinking about it. On to our game.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 11:00 PM

We take the field at 1930, facing BEQ 633. I'm not sure if they won their first game or not, and I'm not overly concerned. I'm a little peeved with the refs, and I make some jokes with them about it when I go to meet them.

I let them call the flip this time, and they win. They defer, and we take the ball. Six plays. That's all we needed. We score on a Lopez deep ball. The defense was playing man under, with 1 deep. That's all I needed to see. I bunched the receivers to one side and ran Lopez down the sideline. We run our goalline play, and it works...7-0 right off the bat.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 11:07 PM

The defense comes out and shuts them down rather easily, and they punt the ball away. Lewis is back and it's a high punt. It appears the ball hit him, and the punt team recovers the ball on the bounce and runs into the endzone. Mass confusion ensues, but we're eventually given the ball. We don't do much, and it appears the offense is a little confused. Axe sends the ball through the endzone.

This time the defense allows some yardage, but we stop them on downs. With 2 minutes and change, I call "Nimitz" and no huddle. Nimitz is a nasty play where we have two backs behind the quarterback, and two receivers to each side. We have a run/pass option with every play and each back. We run the option twice for big yardage, each time lining back up to run the option. On the third time, with no signal whatsoever, Boultinghouse lobs a ball down the left sideline to Murphy, who scores untouched and easily. Nowden takes us in for the extra point on our goalline play and that's the half.

ATT 14, BEQ 633 0.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 11:13 PM

This time it appears I am getting a healthy rotation of my subs in. Pamperin and Doswell concern me slightly. I'd like to get them on the field more.

We start the 2nd half on defense, and this time Lewis stops them with an interception. On offense, we go back to Nimitz. This time they stop us twice on the run and we find big man Pamperin over the middle. They must have been scared of his size, as he rumbled about 40 yards downfield, right down the middle.

This time, our goalline play doesn't work. 20-0, ATT.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 11:17 PM

The defense bends, but Newsome comes up big with an interception. We drive downfield, but eventually stall. I send Axe out to punt again when a penalty forces us about 20 yards from the first down marker. Axe punts it out of bounds at the 2 yard line. What a punter!

On the next play, Hooker sacks the quarterback in the endzone, 22-0. The referees called the game at this point, stating the other team had no chance to score 4 touchdowns in under 3 minutes of the game.

That's the final. I'm pleased. There wasn't much garbage talk this time out of our guys. I'm very happy.

Poli · 08-17-2005, 11:19 PM

ATT: 2-0.
37 points for, 0 against.

The quest for perfection continues Monday, against BEQ 835, the team the ATT staff team tied.

08-17-2005, 12:23 PM	#2
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	Practices to this point have been pretty good. We practice from 9:15am to 10:30am. I'd like to practice more, but the base limits the amount of time I can work with them. Basically, our offense uses a lot of playaction, though not necessarily what you're thinking. The base league is no contact, so we really can't block defenders effectively. Instead, we focus on making two or three plays look very similar, but with one critical change. We also have planned pitches in the plays as well. Defensively, we're very vanilla. We're strictly zone, with about 4 different coverages. We will be adding a few blitz packages in, where we're bringing an additional body on the inside or outside...but that will start next week. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 12:33 PM	#3
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	Our first game was Monday, and we met on an adjacent field to stretch and warm up. The team was really excited, and it was hard to mask that I was as well. I'd have to say we're easily the most organized team right now. Our first game was at 1730 and was the kickoff of the season. We played BEQ 6301's "Port" team, which is just a way to label one from another. The other team is "Starboard". I went out on the field with my captains and met the officials. We won the toss, and after talking quickly with the captains, we elected to "kick". I groaned when I realized we made a mistake in doing so. That meant we'd be kicking to start the second half as well. No matter, I thought to myself. We head off the field and I send in the first team defense to the 20. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 12:41 PM	#4
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	We start out with "ET" which is our base defense. 2 rushers, 4 short defenders, 2 deep defenders. We force them back, and into the endzone, where Hooker nabs the quarterback (former softball player Meppelink, from the other dynasty) for a safety. The team goes wild! 2-0! The offense comes out and we quickly complete two passes, but one is called back due to flag guarding. An incomplete pass sets up a 3rd and moderate yardage. We run a pitch play, where the receiver catches the ball and pitches to a guy in the backfield...kind of a hook and ladder but slightly different. It works beautifully, but we're called back for an illegal forward pass. BS, but it doesn't change the penalty. We're forced to punt. Axe is our punter, and he punted in high school. He nearly pins the ball on the 1, but it bounces into the endzone. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 12:45 PM	#5
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	The defense holds, and Lewis goes back to return the kick. It's actually a nice high punt...which Lewis bobbles but recovers around the 40, or midfield. We run a short out play to the far side, but Hurley gets open deep. Boultinghouse hits him for the touchdown. Murphy, normally a blocker, catches the extra point on an out pattern on the goal line to make it 9-0. Lewis intercepts a deep ball in the endzone to end the half. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum. Last edited by Poli : 08-17-2005 at 12:45 PM.

08-17-2005, 12:53 PM	#6
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	We start off the 2nd half on defense again. I've been subbing in my four backups every two plays. Trent and Baker go in for Hooker and Holland, my rushers. Santy and Marshall typically go in for short defenders, but sometimes for Hughes, one of the deep guys. We make a critical mistake at one point, when I told Holsey to accept a penalty, and he thought I meant accept the play. It set up a fourth and short, and they went for it. They got it, and kept driving down the field before another interception stopped them. This one was by Hughes, if I'm not mistaken. Again we drive down the field, and another deep ball guy gets open. We hit Lopez for the score. We tried to run an overload play, where our fastest guy goes in motion to get the ball, but the defense was ready. We end up lobbing it to our overloaded side, and it falls incomplete. 15-0. That would be the final score. One other interception of note happened at the end of the game, and our defense played great. I was a little disappointed in our offense in the end. We threw an INT late in the game when I told Boultinghouse I wanted to run the ball. We have a game tonight at 1930. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 10:56 PM	#7
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	I went out early to watch other teams to see if there was any sort of organization among teams. Just as I feared, the top two teams from last season appear to be the only teams with any sort of organization. The team we played Monday was stomped by the Red Ropers, who appeared to have recruited a few athletes to play for them. The good news? They're playing both ways, at least it looks like it. The referees called such a horrible game that I called our team away from the stands to warm up early. For example, RTC's ball 1 yard shy of the 40 yard line, and it's 4th down. RTC needs one yard for the first down. The center snaps the ball 20 yards back and over the quarterback. It should be BEQ 6301's ball. But the Side Judge comes running over saying, "I should have blown the whistle". One player on RTCs squad didn't have his flag on properly. Way to screw over the barracks, bud. Where do you work? 5 bucks says it's at RTC. I'm getting angry just thinking about it. On to our game. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 11:00 PM	#8
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	We take the field at 1930, facing BEQ 633. I'm not sure if they won their first game or not, and I'm not overly concerned. I'm a little peeved with the refs, and I make some jokes with them about it when I go to meet them. I let them call the flip this time, and they win. They defer, and we take the ball. Six plays. That's all we needed. We score on a Lopez deep ball. The defense was playing man under, with 1 deep. That's all I needed to see. I bunched the receivers to one side and ran Lopez down the sideline. We run our goalline play, and it works...7-0 right off the bat. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 11:07 PM	#9
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	The defense comes out and shuts them down rather easily, and they punt the ball away. Lewis is back and it's a high punt. It appears the ball hit him, and the punt team recovers the ball on the bounce and runs into the endzone. Mass confusion ensues, but we're eventually given the ball. We don't do much, and it appears the offense is a little confused. Axe sends the ball through the endzone. This time the defense allows some yardage, but we stop them on downs. With 2 minutes and change, I call "Nimitz" and no huddle. Nimitz is a nasty play where we have two backs behind the quarterback, and two receivers to each side. We have a run/pass option with every play and each back. We run the option twice for big yardage, each time lining back up to run the option. On the third time, with no signal whatsoever, Boultinghouse lobs a ball down the left sideline to Murphy, who scores untouched and easily. Nowden takes us in for the extra point on our goalline play and that's the half. ATT 14, BEQ 633 0. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 11:13 PM	#10
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	This time it appears I am getting a healthy rotation of my subs in. Pamperin and Doswell concern me slightly. I'd like to get them on the field more. We start the 2nd half on defense, and this time Lewis stops them with an interception. On offense, we go back to Nimitz. This time they stop us twice on the run and we find big man Pamperin over the middle. They must have been scared of his size, as he rumbled about 40 yards downfield, right down the middle. This time, our goalline play doesn't work. 20-0, ATT. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 11:17 PM	#11
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	The defense bends, but Newsome comes up big with an interception. We drive downfield, but eventually stall. I send Axe out to punt again when a penalty forces us about 20 yards from the first down marker. Axe punts it out of bounds at the 2 yard line. What a punter! On the next play, Hooker sacks the quarterback in the endzone, 22-0. The referees called the game at this point, stating the other team had no chance to score 4 touchdowns in under 3 minutes of the game. That's the final. I'm pleased. There wasn't much garbage talk this time out of our guys. I'm very happy. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

08-17-2005, 11:19 PM	#12
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	ATT: 2-0. 37 points for, 0 against. The quest for perfection continues Monday, against BEQ 835, the team the ATT staff team tied. __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

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