Salisbury Mens Athletic Association's flag football league hones community relationships

The Salisbury Mens Athletic Association was formed in 1990 by Salisbury residents Jeff DeLuca and Kirk Castro just to get men involved in sports. What started out as men playing softball, basketball, and other sports has now transformed into a flag football league for kids.

“It was all for men’s athletics just to have the men have something to do,” Castro said. “But one year Jeff (DeLuca)’s son wanted to play flag football so we put together a league and the rest is history.”

Before it turned into a kids league, though, all of the money raised from the league in the 90s early 2000s would go toward fixing the schools fields. Bowling Green Elementary School, East Meadow High School, and Woodland Middle School all got a little TLC from the funds.

“Any money that was extra,” Castro said, “went right back into the community.”

The co-ed league started out with around 300 adults playing softball back at its inception. “We had a lot of adults,” he said. “We played at Bowling Green, the Salisbury field and the Carmen Avenue field.”

Everyone involved was from East Meadow and Salisbury. The league creators wanted to have a tight-knit community organization that people wanted to be a part of.

“We wanted to help the community,” he said. “We never realized how big it was going to get. It was just for fun.”

Now, the flag football league has roughly 319 kids playing. Pre-coronavirus pandemic, about 350 kids signed up, according to Dave Schwarz, the head director for the league. “I think we’re going to hit that number again next year,” he said excitedly.

Schwarz, who’s been in charge for about 18 years now, said that he got involved because he loves that it incorporates both East Meadow and Salisbury and gives the kids the opportunity to play together.

“It incorporates both sides of town, and it’s the only sport that we all play together,” Schwarz said. “It’s organized, and it’s fun and it’s a friendly game.”

The sport is similar to mainstream football, but rather than tackling players, the defensive team removes a flag from the ball carrier’s flag belt to achieve a down.

They are affiliated with the NFL Flag, so each team name is named after an NFL team. The nonprofit league gives students from kindergarten through 12th grade an opportunity to compete in a friendly environment.

The season starts every year in mid-September, and finishes around the weekend after Thanksgiving. All games are played on East Meadow elementary school fields, except for the playoffs which are usually played at local fields, but this year the East Meadow School District gave the league the OK to play on the East Meadow High School turf field to help keep the East Meadow league local.

All referees and coaches are former players, many of whom graduated from East Meadow or W.T. Clarke high schools and wanted to remain involved.

“It’s all about keeping it in the family,” Schwarz said. “The majority of our directors have sons that are coaching and or refereeing, and now some of us even have grandchildren participating.”

The league is trying to revamp their adults league as well. For the past three years there has been an adult flag football league that runs May through July, coached by Tim Ferdinand. And, if the turn out is greater than expected, they might bring back basketball.

“It’s a great inclusivity thing,” Ferdinand said. “Even if you’re not the best athlete, you get to play.”

The SMAA Flag Football championships took place on Dec. 11, after being rescheduled from the weekend before. The Vikings were the champions for third and fourth grade, the Falcons were the fifth and six grade champions, the Colts won for the seventh and eighth grade division, and the Eagles reigned supreme for the high school division.