San Quentin’s All Madden Flag Football team is sorting through new talent to gear up for another winning season.
With the opening of West Block as a general population unit, the “quality of players has improved” and “the new talent will make us even better this year,” said coach Abdur Raheem Thompson.
Tryouts/preparations include pre-training camp, a five-on- five Flag Football tournament and an even more intense training camp for the season scheduled on Saturdays, starting Sept. 7, says sponsor Vernon Philpott.
The pre-training camp consisted of rigorous exercises and drills, which were “just a taste of what they are going to get at training camp,” said Coach Thompson.
0A five-on-five tournament was made up of four different teams that had a one-day playoff. The winner was “Beast Mode,” made up of J. “Smac” Carr, R. Moore, E. Johnson, J. Fahrner, J. Lee, Markus Pettit and Granval Hunter.
Standouts such as John Windham, Hunter, Alias Jones and Carr “can make us swift and athletic,” said sponsor Philpott. Carr said he plans to bring “good work effort, great wide receiving and leadership” to the team. Hunter says he plans to be “a team player …ready to help my team and be a weapon when needed.”
Who actually makes the squad will be decided during training camp, but with so much available talent, sportsmanship, teamwork and attitude could be the deciding factors, said Thompson and Philpott.
It’s planned for All Madden to play six different teams from the outside, as well as the San Quentin Seahawks.
Last season’s All Madden team “only had one loss and that was to The Chosen, which we also beat in our fi rst match that year,” said Philpott. The Chosen player Andre Jackson said, “We plan to bring it to them again this year.”