AJA Hosts 3rd Annual Flag Football Classic

This year, it just felt a little different.

The first two iterations of the AJA Flag Football Spring Classic (2022, 2023) were largely deemed a success with Jewish athletes from around the country descending on the Atlanta Jewish Academy to participate in a Shabbaton, sandwiched between two rounds of a weekend-long flag football tournament.

But late last month, the third edition of the flag football/Jewish culture festival, one that involved over a couple hundred participants, coaches, volunteers, and hosts, resonated particularly strongly given the global context.

“Given the state of the world right now where Jews are feeling a lot of pressure and there’s obviously a lot going on, it’s wonderful that we have this opportunity to bring kids together from different backgrounds, different locations across the U.S. to feel united together as one,” said Justin Katz, the tireless organizer of the AJA Flag Football Spring Classic and a coach himself of flag football at AJA. “It’s just a wonderful opportunity to come together if everything was just normal, but the fact that everything is heightened on top of that makes it that much more special for us.”

While the tourney and accompanying Shabbaton festivities, hosted by Congregation Ohr HaTorah, galvanized young football enthusiasts from Atlanta to Seattle — Northwest Yeshiva High School was one of the five schools represented, along with AJA, which had both varsity and JV teams, David Posnack Jewish Day School, Flatbush Yeshiva, and Katz Yeshiva — this year’s slate of activities was highlighted by a keynote speech from Texas A&M running back Sam Salz, the only known current Orthodox Jewish player in Division I college football.

Given the state of the world right now where Jews are feeling a lot of pressure and there’s obviously a lot going on, it’s wonderful that we have this opportunity to bring kids together from different backgrounds, different locations across the U.S. to feel united together as one.

A native of Philadelphia who invariably wears his kippa and tzitzit with his uniform and refuses to play on Shabbat, Salz, featured in the Atlanta Jewish Times last autumn, spoke to the participants as well as their younger siblings about his dual commitment to football and Judaism and how he spent over a year fulfilling his dream of suiting up for a D-I program by getting in shipshape condition and mastering the game’s intricacies, all while maintaining an unwavering devotion to his faith. This was exactly what Katz had in mind – an inspiring Jewish role model – when he caught wind of Salz’s journey on social media several months ago and subsequently reached out to him.

“Every year, we tend to try to bring in somebody to speak,” explained Katz, whose wife and kids are also part of the AJA community. “What a perfect opportunity to bring him in and let him tell his story to kids. I think it’s just a very cool story — especially in this current climate that we’re in — to show your Jewish pride in an environment that may not see that many Jews.”

Meanwhile, the actual events themselves proved to be a success yet again. Shortly after they arrived from all corners of the country on Thursday, March 28, the dozens of participants toured Mercedes-Benz Stadium before enjoying that evening’s opening ceremonies. The next morning, the competition kicked off with pool play before giving way to full Shabbat programming, a Torah Bowl that Yeshiva Katz ended up winning, Salz’s speech, Havdalah service, Saturday evening pizza party that offered bull-riding and inflated axe throwing, and the resumption of games the following morning with single-elimination bracket play (both for the championship and consolation prizes) and a punt, pass, and run skills competition.

When the final whistle blew on Sunday late afternoon at Ratner Field in front of hundreds of spectators, including, of course, Freddie Falcon, Katz Yeshiva took home gold by posting a 4-0 record while Posnack was the runner-up with a 3-1 mark. The AJA Varsity went 2-2 while the JV team finished with a 1-2 record in the tourney.

Katz, who is now a veteran of organizing such tournaments (he’s also overseen a similar volleyball competition at AJA in the fall) benefited from specialized groups of volunteers, some of whom were students, ensuring that everything from marketing to meals to indoor entertainment options went smoothly for the event’s first-ever six team edition.

“I think I’ve learned to delegate more,” acknowledged Katz. “I took on probably a little bit too much in year one, but I didn’t know what to expect. It was a lot to balance coaching and this.”

It may be hard to top this year’s event given the record turnout, slate of activities, and presence of Sam Salz, now an icon in the Jewish athletic community, but plans are already underway for the fourth AJA Flag Football Spring Classic, what promises to be another fun-filled weekend of football, Shabbat observance, and social networking amidst (hopefully) more pleasant weather.

“I think the Atlanta community has always been that way in my mind,” Katz added. “And this is just an extension of who we are as a community.”