“I just want to give back right now because I have nothing. I’m trying to get more people involved in Carbondale and Marion and maybe play other apartment complexes if they could have a team of 14 to 17 kids.”
After each game, McCoy and his team provide everyone with a little afternoon lunch. His menu of choices normally features hotdogs, snacks, water, nachos, orange slices and Capri Sun pouch drinks to wash it all down.
McCoy has the full support of his family behind him. His mother, Starla Alaman Howard, works as the CEO, director, president and team mom while his sister, Tanesha Marie Davenport, works as a league ambassador.
“My mom provides me with everything, even if I don’t have the funding,” McCoy said. “She was big on the idea of starting this and even ordered the flags to get the stuff going.”
“We just want kids to have a safe environment that they can come out and play in to stay out of trouble,” Howard said. “We want to show them that it’s okay to lose in parts of life, like sports, and still find a positive outcome and have fun with their friends.”
Kids currently play on the backlot of the Field Apartments with cones set up to replicate actual football sidelines and flags fastened around the kids’ waist. McCoy directs traffic with the blow of a whistle with his two-year-old nephew playing alongside boys and girls up to the age of 14.
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.
