Members of local youth flag football team can accurately describe themselves as a dynasty, having won their third league championship in four years.
Coaches Lenny Hernandez and Michael Molinari led the Lynbrook-based Hometown Boys Ravens to a divisional title in the HTB&G Flag Football League on March 29 with a talented seventh-grade squad.
“I’m so happy for this team — they all give tremendous amounts of effort,” Hernandez said. “The camaraderie and togetherness of this team is off the charts.”
The South Shore-based league gives children and teens from kindergarten through high school the chance to play an alternative to contact sports. In addition to the Ravens, teams also represent Bellmore, Merrick, Seaford and Wantagh.
Flag football has grown in popularity dramatically over the past decade, as athletes steer clear of the potential contact-related injuries that come with tackle football. Flag football has even become an Olympic sport, set to debut at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
“Injuries can happen, but the risk is much less,” Hernandez said. “In a sport like this, we’re able to remain active and competitive, and from a cognitive and mental perspective, you want to keep those competitive juices flowing.”
For the Ravens, the sport, whose six-week season in the HTB&G league ends in March, also serves as an opportunity to maintain the competitive spirit in between other sports seasons. Many players on the team are multi-sport athletes.
“It’s a group of competitive boys,” Hernandez added. “They picked up the sport very easily, and have developed the agility, acumen, fundamentals and game IQ that make them so successful.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, flag football became an option because it is mostly a non-contact sport. “They had eliminated tackle football for the season,” Hernandez said of the height of Covid-19, in 2020. The flag football league was created in 2021. “We just wanted something that allowed us to still compete. One of the few sports that were allowed to continue during that time was flag football.”
Six years and three trophies later, the team is no less determined to continue their winning ways.
“The hard work and drive that all these kids have is truly unbelievable,” Molinari said. “The drive and effort allow them to be so much better than everyone else.”
The journey to the Ravens’ latest championship did not come without adversity. Last season, the team was dominant throughout the regular season — just like it always had been — but lost the Panthers in the championship game in a last-second heartbreaker.
“We lost 14-12, and it had been our first loss in about 30 games,” Hernandez said. “It was difficult. I didn’t see a dry eye at the end of that game.”
But the team was as determined as ever to recapture its divisional title.
“We said to ourselves, we’re going to come in this year more focused, more fired up, and tighten the closeness and togetherness of the team,” Hernandez said. “We were on a mission. They trusted each other, they leaned on one another, and they played as a team.”
In the championship game, at Cedar Creek Park in Seaford, the Ravens played the Titans, a team they hadn’t faced all season. The Ravens took control with a two-touchdown lead at halftime, and held it until the end, winning 24-7.
“We were happy about all of our hard work and talent that we put into winning,” Ravens player Owen Hernandez, the coach’s son, said. “It was a fight, but we were glad that we came through.”
While each championship trophy lifted is an added accomplishment for the Ravens, for the coaches, the true rewards are the lessons of hard work and camaraderie that bond the team together.
“I want these kids to know that their hard work and dedication pay offs,” Molinari said. “These kids work so hard, and they prove it year in and year out.”
Hernandez hopes the championship moments will last a lifetime for his players.
“It’s about looking back and having these fond memories, and walking away with a quality skill set that can help you through life,” he said. “That’s what I want most [for these kids], more than anything.”
