The Irvine Flag Football team consists of (from left to right) Collin Clarke, Aditya Sheth, Adam Harper, Nathan Sasaki, Jake Ramirez, Patrick Bassily, Eddie Murphy, Andrew Penrod and Ashton Kanegae.
A local Matt Leinart flag football team from Irvine will represent the Los Angeles Chargers at the annual NFL Flag Football Championship Tournament during the 2019 Pro Bowl festivities in Orlando.
The team is coached by head coach Jeff Harper and assistant coach Daniel Penrod.
The flag football team is made up of mostly eighth graders from local Irvine schools. Coach Harper said, “The success of this core group over the past several years has given them this opportunity and I’m just happy they can be rewarded with this experience.”
The boys were invited to attended a LA Chargers practice in December and meet the players and coaches at the LA Charger training facility in Costa Mesa.
The team will now fly to Orlando to participate in the NFL Flag Football Championship Tournament held during Pro Bowl week.
“We’ll be playing teams from all the NFL cities representing all the NFL teams so we expect a battle but this competition will only make these boys better football players going forward into high school,” Harper said.
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