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<\/a>Erik Cooper, co-leader of the Pittsburgh National League, fist pumps members of the Browns team during the Pittsburgh National League flag football draft event on April 17, at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills. (Photo by Sophia Lucente\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n\u201cThis year is even more special because next week the pros are coming and they will be downtown,\u201d Cooper said, referring to the NFL Draft scheduled to start Thursday. \u201cThis gives them a chance to experience a real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper and co-leader Rashad Colvin have essentially created a mini NFL tournament, complete with the draft, a red carpet, training camps and an honors ceremony at the end of every season.<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh National League<\/a> started in 2004 as a YMCA program in Penn Hills. It was nearly orphaned 14 years later when the Penn Hills branch closed during a broader restructuring by the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh, which had filed for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n Recognizing how important the league had become to the community, Colvin and Cooper stepped in to keep it alive. They formed a nonprofit and partnered with NFL Flag Football to make the program an official NFL affiliate.<\/p>\n The partnership tied the league to a national brand and secured official NFL jerseys for its teams.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes you feel like you\u2019re really part of the Steelers team,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n Since then, the PNL has continued to grow and has earned recognition from the NFL Network, including the NFL League of the Year in 2024. Recent developments include the launch of an NFL-focused podcast, a travel flag football team and a news blog.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s spring season will have over 500 students divided into 59 teams competing across four divisions \u2014 the rookie, the co-ed, the all-girls and the high school girls. Most games will take place on the Penn Hills School District soccer field. While players come from across the region, with some even crossing state lines, most attend Pittsburgh Public Schools, Penn Hills School District and are from the Turtle Creek, Swissvale and Woodland Hills areas.<\/p>\n From training camps to drafts<\/p>\n The PNL live draft is modeled after the NFL Draft, setting it apart from other flag football leagues in the region.<\/p>\n Each season begins with a training camp where players learn the drills and skills of flag football, such as running routes or how to position themselves to pull flags. Players then participate in\u00a0scrimmage games where coaches scout players they want on their team. Coaches get to select the NFL team they want to represent.<\/p>\n At the end of the training camp, all coaches meet for a live draft to pick players for their team. Coaches start with the Rookie division, for children between the ages of four and six, and proceed to the co-ed and all-girls divisions for players between seven and 14.<\/p>\n AJ Collins, a teacher at Elizabeth Forward School District, coaches a couple of teams in the PNL. He said each coach approaches the draft differently, depending on what their team needs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really interesting when somebody else takes that person that you really, really wanted coming around to your pick, but you know, you got to make quick adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Steelers player Rashard Mendenhall coaches his son, Mantis\u2019 team, the Eagles. He said the PNL mirrors the NFL, from the commissioner to the way announcements are sent out. He hopes that all his kids participate in PNL to learn discipline and accountability.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s as close to the NFL as you can get,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Richie Lenhart coaches the Cowboys 12-U division in PNL. He joined PNL in 2020 at the insistence of his son, Lucca, who was five years old at that time. He\u2019s been coaching the Cowboys ever since and Lucca automatically gets drafted into his team.<\/p>\n In six years, the PNL community has become a tight-knit family for Lenhart. While he cherishes the close bonds with students and other coaches, he also loves the competition.<\/p>\n \u201cYou really got to pay attention if you want to capitalize on when it comes time for the draft,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not paying attention and you\u2019re not really watching to see, you know, who\u2019s the next quarterback? \u2026 I really want a strong quarterback, or I want a tall wide receiver with good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Colvin formed the Pittsburgh National League because he wanted his then-3-year-old son to participate in sports and share his own love for football.<\/p>\n \u201cSports in general is inherently integrated in Pittsburgh culture and football is so huge here, like, you cannot get away from it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you are born here, you are born with a Terrible Towel.\u201d<\/p>\n He chose flag football to encourage young people to participate in a safer alternative to tackle football.<\/p>\n Two years ago, PNL launched its first all-girls division with just four teams. This year, the league has expanded to three all-girls divisions, with 17 teams competing.<\/p>\n Ann-Marie Bangura, 11, is participating in PNL for the first time alongside her school friend Juliana Seman, 12. She hopes their involvement encourages more girls to get into sports.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can be like one of those girls that you saw playing it and it\u2019s like, really cool to know that you can be someone [that] someone can look up to for playing flag football,\u201d Ann-Marie said.<\/p>\n Colvin and Cooper have personally funded the league to sustain the program. Colvin said the registration fees from the YMCA program weren\u2019t enough to cover the costs of equipment.<\/p>\n After turning it into an NFL Flag program, Colvin and Cooper were able to restructure finances and cover extra costs by charging higher fees and receiving grants, sponsorships and donations. The NFL Flag also provides scholarships to some parents who cannot afford registration fees.<\/p>\n Drafted into friendships<\/p>\n It\u2019s 7-year-old Karlito Gomez-Garra\u2019s first PNL draft. His love for football runs so deep that he struggles to name a single favorite team. But if pressed, he would choose among the Detroit Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers or the Dallas Cowboys. His favorite player is Jaxon Smith-Njigba of the Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n At the PNL draft, he stood on stage wearing a bright blue blazer and matching pants, waving to his mother, Merceda Gomez and grandmother Maxine Claybrook, who came to support him.<\/p>\n That passion for football spans generations. Claybrook, 84, has been a lifelong Steelers fan, drawn to the team\u2019s resilience. She hopes to see her grandson grow into someone just as dedicated and successful as NFL players.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir seasons start rocky but they end up really powerful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For many families and coaches, PNL has become more than just a flag football league. It\u2019s a foundation for community and relationships.<\/p>\n Penn Hills resident Caroline Brucker said the league helped her 4-year-old son Tanner come out of his shell.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of tears at first when he was 3, but the one coach literally would just hold his hand, because when they\u2019re that young, the coaches can stay on the field a little more and just help them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That helped build Tanner\u2019s confidence and he has made many friends since.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like nowadays, kids don\u2019t really play in the neighborhood as much,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t happen as much that you\u2019re just running around with the neighborhood kids. So we didn\u2019t really know a lot of kids from Penn Hills, but now, he\u2019s met so many.\u201d<\/p>\n Collins said the league is especially valuable to kids who are struggling to make friends at school. Participating in PNL gives them a chance to meet peers from other school districts and build new friendships.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re working for each other, you\u2019re working all towards it, which is really what life is,\u201d said Cooper. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter what anybody looks like, either, you know, race, religion, sexual orientation, all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Fifth-grader Jett Mihalick has participated in six seasons of PNL and has especially enjoyed events like the All-Star Weekend games and the draft, which make him feel like he\u2019s in the real NFL. He has made a tight group of friends and never wants to miss practice.<\/p>\n His parents, Emelee and Nik, said the league has not only helped Jett meet new friends but it\u2019s taught him how to navigate the real world. The draft, in particular, makes him feel validated and get excited for the season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not always going to win, and you\u2019re always going to come across adversity, and Jett has learned how to kind of face that and stick to his game and, you know, try and support his team, even if it\u2019s not his best day,\u201d Emelee said.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> by K-12 education reporter Lajja Mistry first appeared on Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source<\/a>\u00a0and is republished here under a\u00a0Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.\u00a0PublicSource is a nonprofit media organization delivering local journalism at\u00a0publicsource.org<\/a>. You can sign up for their newsletters at\u00a0publicsource.org\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The auditorium of Linton Middle School in Penn Hills filled with the excited chatter of 4- to 8-year-olds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,1833,2105,76881],"class_list":["post-171321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-public-source","tag-ymca-of-greater-pittsburgh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Seven-year-old Kayden Cartlidge, from left, on the Cowboys team, receives his team jersey with his siblings, 2-year-old Kash Davis and 12-year-old Kaylie Cartlidge, during the Pittsburgh National League flag football draft event on April 17, at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills. (Photo by Sophia Lucente\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n<\/a>Joshua Clark, left, Chargers team coach, and Rashad Colvin, founder and co-leader of the Pittsburgh National League, talk during the Pittsburgh National League flag football draft event on April 17, at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills. (Photo by Sophia Lucente\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n<\/a>Rashard Mendenhall, Eagles team coach and former Pittsburgh Steelers running back, talks with the parents and kids on his team during the Pittsburgh National League flag football draft event on April 17, at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills. (Photo by Sophia Lucente\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)
\nA safer alternative<\/p>\n<\/a>Tyson Francis, left, and Mantis Mendenhall, both 5 and on the Eagles team, play with a football during the Pittsburgh National League flag football draft event on Friday, April 17, 2026, at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills. (Photo by Sophia Lucente\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n<\/a>Joshua Clark, center right, the Chargers team coach, helps his team get their jerseys during the Pittsburgh National League flag football draft event on April 17, at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills. (Photo by Sophia Lucente\/Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source)<\/p>\n