RFH Celebrates 10 Years of Tiny Touchdowns

Thursday night, before the Varsity football players took the field to play the Monmouth Regional Falcons, the littlest football players in the area ran out on the turf at Two River Times Field at . 

The entire community came together on this special night to celebrate the anniversary of Flag Football in Rumson-Fair Haven. Kevin Kelly, Flag Football Commissioner, began the program ten years ago. His own two children played flag football and even though they are now grown, he has remained a vital part of the program. 

Kelly said he enjoys watching former flag players grow and attain great things on and off the football field,  “I have hundreds of sons now,” he said.

With the help of the Rumson Recreation Commission, the program became a great success. “This program is Mom approved,” said Kelly. “The kids have the opportunity to play a little football before they join our Rumson-Fair Haven Pop Warner program and the parents have responded with all positive feedback.” 

The Flag Football program has grown to over 230 boys and girls and nearly 30 volunteers this season. On game day, you will find a crowd of nearly 500 people on and off the turf cheering their players on.

Below is a letter from Kelly about his experience with Flag Football:

RFH Flag Football was created so that our kids could experience a safe, fun, structured activity that also teaches the fundamentals of football. Rumson Recreation started the program as an experiment ten years ago. It was the first new sport added in some years and the first joint program with Fair Haven.  

For the first year just under 80 boys and girls signed up and we formed six teams, each with one coach to play a schedule of eight games with no refs during the months of September and October on the dusty fields of in Rumson. Ten years later we have over 230 boys and girls playing on 16 teams (two divisions of 8) coached by nearly 30 volunteers. We still play eight games but now all of the games have refs and most are played on the Turf at Two River Times Field when we are not playing on the newly renovated fields of Piping Rock Park.

The success of the program is due to two main factors; we have great volunteers to help run it and it is fun, both to play and watch. Rumson and Fair Haven parents have been tremendously supportive all along, both as coaches and team parents. Without the volunteers this would never have been possible.  

It may come as a surprise to people outside these two communities, but there are a lot of former college football players itching to get back in the game among the dads, and they know their football. This year alone we have Rutgers, Princeton, Brown, Harvard and Lafayette represented (all supervised by a Yale man). We also have coaches with nearly a decade of youth football coaching experience working alongside guys doing it for the first time.

As for the game itself we stress safety above all and then scoring. The result is a game that Mom’s feel comfortable letting their boys and girls play while producing exciting long runs and pass plays (and even the occasional goal line stand). We keep score and games are competitive but we have no standings or championship.

Along the way we have seen our share of distinguished alumni move through the ranks of the program. Our very first referee became the starting QB for RFH and is now is playing his last year of college football for Middlebury. Our coaches have included 2 Presidents of RFH Pop Warner, 3 Presidents of the RFH Touchdown Club, 2 RFH varsity head coaches (girls basketball, girls track), and scores of RFH Pop Warner coaches. Among our players we count a number of current RFH varsity sports; two members of the starting 5 for the boys basketball team, one starting defender for the girls soccer team, 3 players on the boys soccer team, 4 on the hockey team, more on the boys lacrosse team including an All-Shore selection. We even have a former player who is now a professional surfer! And on the RFH Varsity Football roster we count over 30 former flag players, a number of whom are starters.

It has been a great run and special thanks should be given to the members of the Rumson Recreation Commission and former Chairman Scott Thompson for his early support. John Hird of Rumson Recreation has been instrumental in keeping the program organized over the years. Thanks also to the Gooch family for donating the turf field which has been a wonderful place to play for the last 4 years and both the and Martello family for their donations to improve the fields at Piping Rock.