Peabody Youngsters Claim New England Flag Football Title

In the first ever New England Championship tournament series of flag football earlier this month, Peabody youngsters walked off with the title in the seven- to eight-year-old division.

Bob Maglione, the head coach for the Peabody Saints, says the championships were held at Woburn High School on Dec. 4. The Saints play in the North Shore Flag Football League.

"In previous years, the NSFFL organized the championship series for all the NSFFL league champions to compete at the end of the season to see who would be crowned Champions of Champions," Maglione said.

This year, however, the competition was kicked up a notch by turning it into a regional contest and including teams from New Hampshire and Rhode Island. In addition to Peabody, Salem, Beverly, Lynn, Woburn, Saugus, Danvers, Marblehead and Salisbury, Westford also played Dec. 4, along with Pelham, N.H. and North Kingstown, R.I.

Maglione said the combined records of all the teams that entered the tournament was 278-43-4, and out of the 48 championship teams 24 had not lost a game all season. By the end of the day, 91 games of flag football had been played and only three teams walked away with their undefeated record intact, including Maglione's club.