Steamboat Flag Football along with coach Jeff Sublett hosted its annual flag football summer camp this week where young athletes from 5-12 years old had the chance to practice, learn the sport and prepare for fall football coming up in six weeks. 

More important than football abilities however, is helping players discover important life values — specifically leadership, discipline and teamwork. 

“We’ve been coming to the camp and doing a lot of drills to get ready for tackle football,” said Skai Knapp, who will begin in the local tackle football program as a seventh grader this fall. “We do fun drills to get us better at running, flag pulling and being more respectful and having better teamwork.” 

With several adult coaches helping to lead the camp, in many ways the most integral part of the camp was having local middle and high school football players acting as coaches to help teach the young campers. 

The children look up to the older players and have the opportunity to see what level they can reach if they stick with the game for just a few more years. 

The camp, which was held at Gardner Field beside Steamboat Springs High School, even had a reach to young players outside of Routt County. Liam Sullivan, a 12-year-old from Parker, is visiting town for a few weeks and had football at the top of his priority list upon arrival. 

“Football is awesome, I love coming to this camp,” Sullivan said. “I wish we could live here, but I’m just here for the summer, and it wasn’t easy to find football in Steamboat, but I’m really happy we found this camp because I love football.”

The camp began Monday and will conclude Friday afternoon with a pizza party and water war.

Signups for the 2024 Steamboat Flag Football season are still available for all children in kindergarten through sixth grade. The season runs Aug. 26 through Oct. 16 on Monday and Wednesday at Whistler Park from 3:45-5:45 p.m. 

To register a player, visit SteamboatFlagFootball.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1464584.