The coach of the Münster Blackhawks is not easily disturbed, but Alexander Naretz also sometimes has a nauseous feeling: “When they run towards each other like that, I gasp because he is about to crash.” fingers pointing at one of the two red flags attached to the waistband of his sports shorts. Not as discreet as wallets at the Christmas market, but definitely more sensitive and painless than the usual tackle variant of American football, the sport that was long considered the father of flag football, but is now more of a big brother.
A football thunderstorm with lightning but no thunder – the quiet entry-level version of the popular American sport is slowly but surely walking on its own legs. “That was the marginal sport of the marginal sport,” recalls Lara Piesch. 20 years ago, Cologne Falcons ambassadors were on a promotional mission to Cologne primary schools, bringing along toys and a box of ribbons to give the little ones their first taste of soccer but to spare them the bruises.
The first contact obviously left a lasting impression. Little Lara at the time has now become a test athlete, the 29-year-old is an essential player for the national flag football team. Even a short excursion from the sporting niche to the center of German passion for sport, when Lara Piesch played for the B junior of Bayer Leverkusen in the regional football league, did not lead the Rhinelander off course.
Flag football is still a fringe sport, but no longer that of another fringe sport. American football has long been a part of the mainstream: When the Germany women’s national flag football team staged halftime at the NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Buccaneers in Tampa in October, 70,000 spectators at Allianz Arena in Monaco and three million other people were eyewitnesses sitting in front of television screens.
In spring, Münster football fans can also be present live when the strings are pulled on the field: The Münster Blackhawks show their colors and for the first time send a team from the second league of flag football into the competition. Division II football coach Naretz is excited to complete the Blackhawks football family. “We now have the full lineup, great,” says the busy Blackhawks spin doctor. Naretz is not afraid of contact with the non-contact type of sport of him.
Were the football clubs in Münster afraid of losing?
And it is not obvious, as reported by Lara Piesch. During his studies in Dortmund he played for the Dortmund Devils university team. “Flag football is a typical university sport in Germany.” With an industrial engineering degree in her pocket and as an employee of the Eon Group, the 29-year-old had the choice of many locations nationwide and decided on Münster. Not just for the sport, but above all “because my sister studied in Münster and the city is fantastic”. In terms of flag football, however, Münster was initially a flop, the wide range of varsity sports offering almost everything from quidditch to lacrosse, flag football not. To stay in training for the national team, Piesch signed with the Mammuts women’s tackle team and is still active there.
In the future, however, only in timeshares: From now on, the focus is on flag football. “Strangely, football clubs have always struggled with this division. If so, flag football teams were affiliated with handball or track and field clubs. Probably because the football clubs were afraid of losing players,” Piesch reports. “At first glance, both sports overlap a lot,” he says, but “at second glance” – sportswear without helmets and protectors, for example – “they differ enormously”.
Piesch: “It’s just a different sport”
But the professional has long since arrived at the third glance, and “then there are more similarities than differences”. In particular, offensive players, quarterbacks and wide receivers, can easily change the type of play. “There are no collisions, but skills are even more important.” So red flag as white flag for wimps or ladies – or both, because can league teams compete co-ed without numerical specifications? “No, it’s just a different sport,” says Lara Piesch. “With incredible speed and dynamics,” adds Naretz.
In a word: Alexander Naretz
Piesch is the nucleus of the new squad, which is expected to provide a squad of at least 15 active players in the league – there are five offensive and five defensive players on the pitch. No problem for the Blackhawks when it gets dark and freezing on the ash fields of the Sentruperhöhe on Thursday. So about 20 active people get together to hunt down the flag and let it be torn up – without painful collisions …
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