2 Flag Football Teams From Brick Win National Playoff Berths

BRICK, NJ — A pair of flag football teams from Brick Township is headed to Indiana next week for the NFL FLAG Championships.

The teams — one girls team and one boys team, both 10U in the Brick Elite flag football program — earned the right to compete in the national tournament by winning regional championships sponsored by NFL teams.

The teams will be headed out early next week for the tournament that runs July 24 through July 26 in Westfield, Indiana.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip," said Michael Gutenski, coach of the boys team.

The event treats the kids like professional athletes, giving them bags of gear, uniforms for the tournament, and announcing them individually by name at the start of the tournament, Gutenski said.

Matt Coder, coach of the girls team, said seeing girls playing flag football in video highlights during the Super Bowl in February 2025 inspired his team.

The girls said, "Oh, we want to do that," Coder said.

It's been a year of hard work by both teams, who play in the South Jersey NFL Flag League, the coaches said, and the kids all love to play the game.

Gutenski said of the 10 boys on the team, five had played together for four years, including three in the recreation league. Five others had come from other teams to join the travel team. Nine of the 10 players on the boys travel team are from Brick and one is from Point Pleasant, he said.

"They're great kids," he said, who are always up to play. "If I called them right now they’d be 'give us 10 minutes, we’ll be there."

Coder said the girls, who have been playing together on the travel team since they were 8 years old, have a similar passion.

"It started off as just something fun for the girls, an opportunity to hang out and get together," Coder said. But as the girls team started competing in tournaments, "It lit a fire," he said.

The players start out in the league's recreation program, where the teams are co-ed, Coder said. Some of the girls showed some ability and the travel team was created.

On the travel team, the girls have thrived.

"They’re willing to soak it all in," Coder said. "They understand routes and patterns. Even their defensive awareness — now they've been together so long they trust each other on the field. They know where they’re supposed to be."

Both teams had to compete in regional tournaments hosted by NFL teams to win their way to the 32-team national championship tournament.

The boys team won their regional tournament hosted by the New York Giants, while the girls won the regional hosted by the Philadelphia Eagles.

"It's three days of games," Gutenski said. "Three pool-play games and then playoffs."

Gutenski said a couple of the boys had been to the national tournament in 2025 and have shared some of the experience with their teammates, he said.

"I just told them to go out there and have fun," Gutenski said. "They're going out there with some of their best friends. Five years from now when they see each other they’ll have this experience."

Going to the national championship is "big for the girls because football is primarily a boys' sport," Coder said.

And it has elevated the way the girls are seen in the co-ed games. Before they were seen as just a girl on the team, and now they are viewed as key players, growth that happened bedause the girls, who are best friends on the field, push each other like enemies in practice.

"They use each other to get better," he said, and have grown from being ranked 25th nationally in 2025 to reaching No. 5 this year.

"People don’t necessarily understand flag football," Coder said. "Now they can say, 'that on TV, that’s what we’re going to do.' "

The teams