It’s been two years since the largest flag football tournament in the country made its way back to Tallahassee. Due to COVID-19 concerns in 2020 and 2021, the tournament was canceled, sidelining the annual event for the first time in a decade. However, this spring, the event returned in full force at a new facility.
The FSU Rec SportsPlex in southwest Tallahassee played host to nine Big Bend varsity flag football teams (FAMU DRS, Chiles, Godby, Lincoln, Leon, Rickards, Florida High, Jefferson County, and Madison County) and 50 teams overall in the 11th Capital City Classic (CCC), the largest the field the tournament has ever had.
Not only were there a record amount of teams, but they all showed up to play.
Baby Rattlers bite
On the first day in the gold bracket, FAMU DRS faced off against Robinson in a rematch of the 2021 FHSAA 1A State Championship game. The Baby Rattlers fell to the Knights, 27-19, in that first game, and head coach James Brown is looking forward to meeting them again.
“I’ll be highly disappointed if we don’t see them again,” Brown said. “I’m looking forward to a rematch against them. Maybe it’ll be three times the charm. Two good teams and a little more experience helped them. I think we’ll be ok with this. This was a learning lesson for us.”
The Baby Rattlers quickly responded with a dominant win over Crestview, in which they posted 33 points before halftime. Getting that jump was a part of the game plan, as the Baby Rattler let up on Robinson, letting them back into the game according to senior Ameari Logan. Day two was about executing.
“Yesterday, we were ready to play but it was our fault that we let up and let Tampa come in and do their thing,” Logan said. “Knowing that we could stick with them made us think since we stick with Tampa, we can do our thing with anybody else. We can come out and win against anybody.”
DRS is set on getting back to that state championship game and early on in the year, it has not waivered. Robinson was the Baby Rattlers’ first loss of the season. Playing in a tournament that allows them to face teams that are not just from outside the Big Bend, but some of the top in the state prove only more that DRS belongs with the top dogs. 2A No. 9 Newsome, 2A No. 3 Lennard, and 1A No. 5 Choctawhatchee also played in the gold division.
“We’ve learned that we can play up to a higher level,” Logan said. “We don’t play too many teams in Tallahassee, so knowing that we can stick with upper teams out of town is really good. It’s most of these girls’ first time playing, so them coming out here is giving them a good experience on how the game goes and how it should be played.”
Cougars make run to championship
Another team that had an exciting run at the CCC was Godby. The Cougars rolled off a handful of exciting wins in the silver B division, including a 14-13 overtime win over Windermere in the first game. Godby then topped Niceville to clinch a spot in the championship game.
The defense has been at the core of everything the Cougars have been able to do in the early season and has come up clutch in tight games.
“It’s really just us working together and on defense not letting nobody get past us,” senior Chrissie Jessie said. “They got past us today [against Windemere], but we’re going to fix that. We’re really just taking it to play by play.”
Experience upfront has allowed Godby to flex its talents on offense. With Jessie navigating in the backfield, the Cougars had an impressive showing to put a lot of the state on notice this weekend. Godby has shut out Leon, Chiles, and Rickards this spring, and is looking to do more damage heading into the ladder end of the regular season.
In having a busy, but successful weekend, Godby’s focus remains to get better before jumping back into Big Bend action. They have Madison County and Jefferson County next followed by a meeting with FAMU DRS.
“Our goal at this tournament is to get better,” Jessie said. “I’m not even going to say win, because you can’t win every game. It’s always about executing better as a team. We really just want to get better every game.”
Lincoln ends Classic on high note
In the sliver, A bracket, Lincoln, and Chiles stayed busy against Miami Central and Palmetto to open up the tournament. Lincoln fell in tight games to the Rockets and Apopka, which is a major thing they are working on moving forward.
The Trojans have not lost a lot this season, sitting at 3-2 coming into the weekend, but it’s few losses have been narrow. Trojans head coach Brandon Youmans said that Lincoln has only been one or two plays short of turning its losses into wins.
“Throughout the whole season we’re trying to get better, and we’re playing better each and every game,” Youmans said. “I just told my team that all of our losses this season have been by one or two plays. If we could’ve done something a little different or pulled the flag there, and made the catch there, we’d be victorious. I like our progress, but we want to make sure we can be more successful.”
The Trojans narrowly lost to Apopka, 13-12, but finished the tournament on a high note with a 19-6 win over Palmetto. One of the biggest things that have kept Lincoln competitive throughout this season is its defense. Against the Blue Darters, the Trojans had three picks, giving them a chance all the way to the final whistle.
“Out junior defensive back, Keila Hernandez made some big-time plays and in the secondary Faith Durden had a big interception, and. that’s what we pride ourselves on,” Youmans said. “We make plays on the back end and even at all levels of the defense. We use that to help us do some things offensively. We want to use that to get better moving forward.”
Flags flying high
The wins and losses are important, but coaches and players alike expressed the joy of being back at the Capital City Classic. Not only was their excitement to play teams they normally don’t see, but the spectacle of watching a game rapidly grow.
“When they first had the Capital City Classic it was over at FAMU and it was only two intermural fields,” Brown said. “You see what this has done and how the sport has been popularized by girls just wanting to play football period. Girls do want to play football, it might not want to be tackle, but they want to play football.”
Capital City Classic results
*Some final scores have not yet been reported.
Gold Bracket
FAMU DRS: vs. Robinson L 27-19; vs. Crestview W 39-27
Silver A Bracket
Chiles: vs. Palmetto W 13-2; vs. Bloomingdale L 7-6; vs. Riverview W 20-19
Lincoln: vs. Miami Central L 18-0; vs. Apopka L 13-12; vs. Plametto W 19-6
Silver B Bracket
Godby: vs. Windermere W 14-13 (OT); vs. Niceville W;
Florida High: vs. Pompano Beach W 28-6; vs. Trinity Catholic L 19-13;
Bronze A Bracket
Rickards: vs. Orlando Jones L 13-6; vs. Navarre L 19-13;
Leon: vs. Tarpon Springs L 6-0;
Bronze B Bracket
Jefferon County: vs. Wharton L 27-0;
Madison County: vs. Pine Ridge L 32-0; vs. Wharton L 39-0
Jack Williams covers prep sports for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com, on Twitter @jackgwilliams.
Travis Burnett
A pioneer in the flag football community, Travis helped co-found the Flag Football World Championship Tour, FlagSpin and USA Flag. Featuring 15+ years of content creation for the sport of flag football, creating and managing the largest flag football tournaments on the planet, coaching experience at the youth and adult level as well as an active player with National and World Championship level experience.
