KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – For the first time ever USA Football hosted a Talent ID camp at the Chiefs Training Facility on Saturday, giving local kids a chance to showcase their skills as future possible stars in flag football.
It comes as the sport of flag continues to skyrocket in popularity.
“It used to be – you play flag football on the offseason for tackle, but now it’s become its own sport,” KC Shockers coach and camp volunteer Kayson Matthews told KCTV5. “You have your own set of rules, your own set of skill play. Flag football’s one of those sports that anyone can play.”
These camps are part of USA Football’s National Team Development Program. They’re essentially the only way to make the U.S. National Junior Teams.
Typically they take place in flag hotspots like Florida or California, but the organization has taken notice of the growth here in the KC Metro.
“Kansas City gets overlooked for a lot of this flag football stuff, so for them to actually come here and give these kids an opportunity to make the National Team is huge. And actually, even if they don’t make the team, just getting to work with these national level coaches is just huge,” Matthews added.
When flag was announced as a sport in the 2028 Olympics, it jumpstarted the football community to capitalize on the momentum.
“That’s the pinnacle of any sport, is to be on the Olympic platform,” said Darrell ‘DK’ Taylor, the Director of the National Team Development Program.
So there is now a bigger push than ever to start developing these athletes when they’re young – in order for the country to find international success.
“We’re trying to develop the future of the sport. And the future of the sport leads to the worldwide stage, which is the Olympics,” Taylor said. “So having these athletes come in here to get 1% better, that’s our entire goal.”
25% of the U.S. National Team members come out of this development program. Any one of the 250 local boys and girls that showed up on Saturday could be a part of that statistic one day.
“To see the development and growth of flag football throughout the United States, and especially right here in Kansas City, it’s been a tremendous opportunity for us to evaluate, and take a look at this talent that’s right here,” added Taylor.
The organization is also excited to be partnering with the NFL and teams like the Kansas City Chiefs in order to put these camps on in more states around the country.
“You see those banners in the back, that shows the standard that this organizaton and the NFL has,” Taylor said about the Chiefs’ success. “Giving kids the dream not only to compete for the Olympics, and a development program. But to compete at the same location that Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, it’s an amazing opportunity.”
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