After an absence of two years, award-winning film and stage actress Kelly McGillis will again attend her namesake women’s flag football tournament, Diane Beruldsen, International Women’s Flag Football Association founder and president, announced this week from Norway.
The 23rd annual IWFFA tourney is set for Jan. 20-27, 2014 at its home in Key West.
McGillis first loaned her name to the 9th annual tournament in 2000, which has henceforth been known as the Kelly McGillis Classic. She will be grand marshal of the opening day parade and be on hand to give autographs on Saturday at the field. “We also have a very young junior grand marshal — Bethany Baldwin-Blazetic from DeLand. She is an outstanding young flag football player at the age of 11, soon to be 12,” Beruldsen said.
“This is our first time in January,” she said. “We we did this to accommodate our international teams. Much gratitude goes to Key West Vacation Rentals and Historic Key West Inns; by late November nine teams from beyond the borders of the U.S. had registered: three from Panama and one each from El Salvador, Scandinavia, Canada and Puerto Rico, in addition to over 20 USA teams, she said.
There will be various levels of play and something for everyone. “Some of our teams will be veterans, women in their 40s and 50s who use to play in Key West and want to do it ‘one more time,’ but there may also be a group of women from Norway, who’ve never heard of flag football. We’ll have two players’ clinics and then they’ll play in the Beginner Division. We do this for our international teams who have never played before; they come to us and we train and give them the tournament as their first competition.”
In addition, “We started something very fun: Individual women who want to play in the tournament can do so on our Fairvilla Loose Women’s team. This event is an opportunity to allow girls and women of all ages and skills, whether you have a team or not, to come to Key West in January to compete in a variety of divisions to meet your skill level,” she said.
The sport’s local popularity has grown in its host city over the years, especially within the schools. With the assistance of IWFFA and a bevy of “team owners,” the Monroe County girls’ flag football program is sponsoring many teams from various schools. “A team owner helps financially to support one girls’ team from a local school. “The girls get uniforms, equipment and coaches and get to play against international teams –what a deal!” Beruldsen said. “We have so many girls’ teams we desperately need additional team owners; please contact [email protected].”
She was quick to praise tournament sponsors. “There’s been so much support from Key West businesses and locals. Our top sponsor has to be Key West Vacation Rentals — they’re taking the whole El Salvador team for the entire week.” To date other main sponsors are, in addition to McGillis, Fairvilla Mega Store, Turtle Kraals, Island Dog, Twisted Tea, Historic Key West Inns, Rum Barrel, Shanna Key, Roostica, Angry Orchard, Irish Kevin’s, Samuel Adams, US 1 Radio, Conch Country Radio, WKWF, First State Bank, Key West Business Guild and My Tees.
“A sponsor is still needed for Sunday’s big game, “World Challenge VII, which is our USA All Stars versus our International All Stars. It’s major name recognition — the game is titled after their company,” Beruldsen said.
For a full listing of events and sponsors, go to http://www.iwffa.com/kw2014sponsors.html or to http://www.iwffa.com/KW2014calendarofevents.html
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