This past weekend, Whitman saw the first leg of the first-ever women’s Intramural Flag Football Spring Invitational. The invitational is of a round-robin format consisting of five teams: F-yeah, Multiple Scorgasms, Switchblades, Top Lovin’ and the regular-season champion, Munchers.
The first weekend of action saw plenty of ups and downs. The invitational kicked off last Friday, April 23, at Martin Field with a match-up that pinned Multiple Scorgasms against Switchblades; the senior cast of MS held on to win 14-12. On Saturday, April 24, the Switchblades rebounded, smacking the reigning champion Munchers 27-6. The ‘blades kept it rolling, having their way with Top Lovin’ to the tune of 33-0 in game two of the Sunday, April 25, double-header. The Munchers returned to form in the first game of the double header, as they handily dispatched Multiple Scorgasms 26-13.
The inception of the invitational was brought on by senior Lewis Silver. As coach of Top Lovin’: and as someone entrenched in the culture of Whitman women’s IM flag football as humanly possible for someone of his gender: Silver’s idea for a spring invitational sprang from two problems he saw.
First was the seeming disparity between the Greek-organized and conversely “indie” teams. A crucial part of every year’s Greekend, the flag football tournament got teams out and practicing in the spring when they otherwise wouldn’t be.
“[Sorority-organized teams] get to have a spring round robin and a chance to practice,” Silver said. “The main goal was, I wanted to create a similar system for indie teams.”
Secondly, Silver hoped that by putting established senior teams F-Yeah and Multiple Scorgasms with the younger squads, the tournament would provide more experience and an opportunity to learn.
“I wanted teams with fourth-year seniors that have played the right way, with a fun attitude,” said Silver. “F-Yeah and Multiple Scorgasms are prime examples of that, I wanted to give them a last hoorah.”
With the invitational part-way completed, Silver has overseen logistics that normally take an IM committee to execute. Each team must provide referees for two other games. However, this first-ever invitational has seen such huge support that most of the officiating is done through self-regulation.
“Organizing teams and figuring out a schedule was simpler than I expected,” said Silver. “The only difficult time I had was getting field space.”
Unable to contact the groundskeepers to utilize Harper Joy or Ankeny, Silver resorted to Martin Field as the site of this year’s tournament. F-Yeah will play two games this weekend on the soccer fields. Due to scheduling conflicts, they were unable to play this past weekend, and will commence this weekend’s action on Thursday, April 29, at 4:30 p.m. in a match-up with fellow senior team, Multiple Scorgasms. The same time on Friday, April 30, F-Yeah take on Silver’s Top Lovin’.
This weekend boasts plenty of action and story lines, with two scheduled double-headers. On Saturday, May 1, game one features F-Yeah versus the rolling Munchers at 11:30 a.m., while the 1:30 p.m. game pits Multiple Scorgasms against Top Lovin’. On Sunday, May 2, Top Lovin’ returns for a 1:30 p.m. face off against the Munchers. Afterwards, F-Yeah will complete their fourth game in as many days as they take on a dangerous Switchblade team to close out the round robin.
