Students on the first Unified Flag Football Team at Bridgewater-Raritan High School received a first-hand look at the National Football League (NFL).
Unified Fag Football was launched this spring, with Bridgewater-Raritan High School competing in a New Jersey league of 18 schools.
On Wednesday, March 18, a day after St. Patrick’s Day, 22 student players and four staff members, who are the coaches from Bridgewater-Raritan, experienced plenty of green when they attended the New York Jets Launch Event Clinic at the NFL team’s Training Facility in Florham Park.
Players and coaches from the Jets ran a skills clinic on March 18 that involved all 18 high school Unified Teams in New Jersey.
“The Jets organization is making Unified Flag Football (Flag Football in general) one of their main community outreach programs,” stated Cynthia Wong, the Head Coach of Bridgerwater-Raritan High School’s Unified Flag Football Team. “The Jets sponsored all of the Unified Flag Football Teams in New Jersey. They provided us with the equipment (flags, footballs, Jets practice jerseys) and even our Nike-sponsored uniforms, plus a $5,000 grant to the program.”
Coach Wong, a Special Services Teacher who is also the Head Coach of the high school’s Unified Basketball Team, was joined at the Jets Complex in Morris County by fellow Unified Flag Football coaches—Special Services Teacher Rhonda Fishburn, School Counselor Tito Santos, and Filming and Video Editing Teacher Scott Linzer, who is also the Co-Advisor of BRTV and the Filming and Video Editing Club.
The first practice for Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s Unified Flag Football Team will be held on Monday, March 23, at 2:15 p.m. on the 1000 Turf Field on the high school’s campus.
The season opener for Bridgewater-Raritan will be on Thursday, April 9, on the road against West Morris Central High School in Chester. Bridgewater-Raritan’s first home game is Monday, April 27, against Voorhees High School.