The Pittsburgh Elite flag football team will be well-represented at the NFL Flag National Championships on July 18-21 in Canton, Ohio. Three of the organization’s travel teams, the 9U, 12U and 13U teams, all won regional championships.

The organization, which runs an in-house league that plays at Linton Middle School, also has travel teams that will compete at nationals. About 50% of the travel rosters are kids who live in Penn Hills. Pittsburgh Elite commissioner Erik Cooper said that the organization has learned a lot over the years.

This is Pittsburgh Elite’s 21st year as an organization, while they’ve had travel teams for eight years.

“First of all, the teams practice a lot,” Cooper said. “Maybe once or twice a week. We even scrimmage a little bit. In our in-house league, they get gameplay during the spring season, so they are already in game shape and game mode for travel season.”

For this year’s teams, the 9U team won the Cleveland Browns regional, the 12U team won the Steelers region, while the 13U team won the New York Jets regional. Cooper said that they usually have between two to four teams moving onto the flag national championships every year.

Pittsburgh Elite had between 250-300 participants between age divisions during the spring season. For the fall season, Pittsburgh Elite will have between 100 to 150 players.

Pittsburgh Elite’s fall season starts Aug. 3 and they have teams for kids 3 to 13.

“We have a training camp for anyone who wants to learn the game of flag,” Cooper said. “We have a three- to four-week training camp, a 10-game regular season, an all-star game in the middle of the year and go all the way until Nov. 6.”

This year’s national championships will be held at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The games will be broadcast live across ESPN, ABC and other Disney networks.

While the championships this year are close to home, there was some travel involved for the regional championships. The 13U team had to go to New Jersey to play in the Jets regional. The 12U team played at the Browns practice facility.

“I think the kids love it,” Cooper said. “First of all, you get to compete with kids from all over the country and show off your skills. It’s good bonding for the players to hang out at the hotel and go to restaurants and things of that nature.”

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