EDMOND—Philadelphia Youth Camp 2018 flag football instructors Jason Cocomise, Daniel Cocomise, Logan Yoder and Emma Moore were discussing the All-Star lineups when I arrived at the Herbert W. Armstrong College football field on Thursday, July 26. Mr. Jason Cocomise proudly showed me the flag football leaderboard, where my brother, Micah, led all campers with 10 total touchdowns scored. As such, Mr. Cocomise and Mr. Yoder had me flip a “coin” (actually, it was an orange, circular yard marker) to determine who would coach Micah in the All-Star Game that night. Mr. Cocomise won the coin flip. He also won the game.

When the orange-wearing boys of dorm 1B assembled under the white and yellow tent, they were missing their counselor, the Tanzanian Laston Seme. When I had attended 1B’s soccer game against 3B two weeks earlier, he also wasn’t there! He and 1G counselors Brittany Terrell and Callie Cocomise had arranged “counselor swaps” both times. Was he avoiding me?

As 1B and the light-blue 2B warmed up on the field, I tossed a ball around with 1B’s West, Jacob B. and Andrew before practicing some passing routes from the center position with Jacob B.

At last, it was time for the 1B “Browns” to take on the 2B “Titans” (They didn’t choose those names; I did, based on shirt color. They seemed to enjoy pretending to be National Football League teams.) There were some clear differences in gameplay from pyc sessions of years past: Each “kickoff” was actually a throw; quarterbacks were banned from running the ball on first and second downs, although they still could hand the ball off to a running back instead; a one-point, two-point or three-point offensive play was attempted after each touchdown instead of kicking the extra point through the uprights; and field goal attempts were eliminated entirely.

The game didn’t start out well for 1B, as they stalled out on their first offensive possession. Dorm 2B struck quickly for a touchdown and then converted a one-point attempt to take an early 7-0 lead. The deficit seemed to wake 1B up. They executed a long, methodical drive before halftime, highlighted by a scrambling throw from Jordan to Jacob H., a lob pass over the middle to Daniel, and a pass to Jacob H. in the right flat. Finally, Jordan completed a bench route to Andrew, who turned and ran up the right sideline into the end zone. A desperate flag-pull effort by the defender appeared to rip Andrew’s shorts.

Dorm 1B employed an entire bag of tricks to convert the one-point attempt. Jordan threw to Jacob H. on a hook route to the right. As Jacob made the catch, Jordan sprinted past him, received the toss, and ran untouched up the right sideline. Classic hook-and-ladder play. Flawless execution. Score: 7-7.

“This is looking a lot like the Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl,” Mr. Daniel Cocomise joked about the high-quality play.

“Good half, guys,” Mr. Jason Cocomise yelled. “Lick your wounds.” A fitting statement: The first half featured several weird non-contact injuries, and dorm 2B had already resembled a medical tent on a battlefield before the game started.

In the second half, 1B’s Jordan made a diving, touchdown-saving flag pull, ran for a touchdown and, on the last play of the game, threw a screen pass to Evan, who dashed down the sideline, cut back to the middle of the field to evade the last defender, and waltzed into the end zone for a touchdown. Final score: 19-7. Dorm 1B finished the season with an undefeated 4-0 record and a team photo by Mr. Jason Cocomise, who photographs every unbeaten pyc flag football team each year.