The tournament in which Colvin\u2019s team is participating on this particular Saturday is merely a tune-up for the NFL FLAG national championship, set to take place this week \u2014 July 23-26 \u2014 in suburban Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an experience for the kids to be able to travel, play as a team, have fun together, grow, learn the game, learn winning and losing, all that good stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Colvin\u2019s team of 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds \u2014 called the Boyce Park Jets \u2014 qualified for their sport’s big dance in October 2025, when it won the New York Jets\u2019 regional championship in Clifton, N.J.<\/p>\n
With that championship came a $10,000 prize that Colvin said was allocated to the families of the 10-person roster to pay travel expenses to the national tournament.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no cash prize for winning the national tournament, but it brings heavy bragging rights \u2014 Colvin calls it the “equivalent of winning the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like the test is in July, and all you\u2019re doing is prepping, prepping, prepping,\u201d he said. \u201cPrep work. You are prepping for the ultimate test, and you just want to ace it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784716225_743_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The Boyce Park Jets huddle around Coach Rashad Colvin during a practice at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills on Saturday, July 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
The regional tournament in New Jersey and the national contest in Indianapolis aren\u2019t the only opportunities for the team to travel.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh is considered part of the eastern quadrant of NFL FLAG, so teams from Pittsburgh can play in tournaments of fellow eastern quadrant markets, of which there are seven.<\/p>\n
This can make for a grueling schedule, said Bernadette Stickles and Drew Thomas, the parents of tight end Logan Thomas.<\/p>\n
Still, they said their family finds ways to make the trips about more than just football.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did the \u2018Rocky\u2019 steps when we went down to Philly. That was a bucket list check-off,\u201d Stickles said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s almost like a vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Indianapolis is roughly a six-hour trip from Pittsburgh by car, most families will be driving. But Tre Osbey will feel more like the pilot for the Boyce Park Jets.<\/p>\n
As team quarterback, he gave one specific key to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe, throwing the ball.\u201d <\/p>\n
Where did he learn to throw a spiral?<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osbey\u2019s mother, Ryan Glaze, was a star basketball player for Penn Hills High School, so there may be some truth to Osbey\u2019s attribution for his athletic talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know where it came from, but I\u2019ll take it,\u201d Glaze quipped.<\/p>\n
Wide receiver Harley Burton has been playing football for four years. He\u2019s a two-year member of the Boyce Park club, after a year of playing flag football at the YMCA in his home of Wheeling, W. Va., and a year of playing tackle football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like them both, but the thing about tackle, they didn\u2019t let me get the ball at all, and the coach \u2014 I didn\u2019t like his coaching skills, and he wasn\u2019t really good,” Burton explained. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I like flag better.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of Burton\u2019s fellow receivers, Noah McClendon, is also a four-year veteran of the gridiron. And like Burton, he played a year of tackle.<\/p>\n
Which does he prefer?<\/p>\n
\u201cTackle. [Because of] contact,\u201d McClendon said. <\/p>\n
Looking ahead to Indianapolis, Burton said he believes his squad has as good a chance as any of the other 31 teams in their 8-and-under division.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t get first place, I\u2019m pretty sure we\u2019ll get second,\u201d he predicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident with my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Win or lose, running back James Davis III said this national championship will just be a small chapter in what he hopes will be a large book of football memories.<\/p>\n
Asked how long he wants to play ball, Davis III didn\u2019t have to think long to answer.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019Til I die.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a football field at Linton Middle School in Penn Hills, Rashad Colvin coaches his team through its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-249210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249210","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=249210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}