The Troy Boys and Girls Club will kick off its first Flag Football League game this afternoon with a match up against the Boys and Girls Club from Ozark.

Boys and Girls Clubs from Troy, Ozark, Dothan, Eufaula and Abbeville are all part of the flag football league. The team that wins the championship at the end of the season will be awarded with a trophy that they will keep at their club until the next football season.

“The Boys and Girls mission is to enable all young people especially those that need us the most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens,” said Wayne Buchanan, director of the Boys and Girls Club in Pike County. “Activities and events like the flag football league helps us fulfill the Boys and Girls Club mission.”

Although Buchanan said the local team wants to come out on top more times than not, the true goal for the football league is to teach sportsmanship and to build character.

“Of course we would like to win but the most important thing here is teaching character, citizenship and good sportsmanship, which also falls along with what we call the Boys and Girls Club code and Core values,” he said.

While playing on the road the football team as well as the counselors and volunteers will be able to participate in the football game but will also be able to tour the campus at which they are visiting. The children will be able to interact with children from other counties.

“This adds another element, another dynamic,” Buchanan said. “This allows our members to interact with the surrounding clubs and this will also allow us to be able to travel. This coming Saturday we will travel to the Boys and Girls Club in Dothan. They will get to experience playing the flag football game in a different facility, at a different ballpark and we will be able to tour a different Boys and Girls Club.”

The Troy club currently has about 70 children enrolled in the after school program.

Even if the children are not on the football team, they will all come out and enjoy the football game and cheer on their fellow club members

The Boys and Girls Club is like one big family to Buchanan and his hope is that this league will help expand the family.

“It builds a relationship between the kids as well as the adult staff that we have here at the club,” Buchanan said. “One thing that I have always said is what we have here is very special and unique to this county. What I call it is the Boys and Girls Club family. It’s because of special events such as the flag football league that we are able to build upon that structure and that family.”

Sports means more to children than the final score and who won and who lost. According to Buchanan it’s more about building teamwork and again learn the importance of good sportsmanship.

“I think it just brings kids closer together,” Buchanan said. “It brings adults closer as well.

There is something about playing a sport and playing together.

What we are striving for is building a strong character and citizenship.”

The Boys and Girls Club will strive to get parents involved as much as possible with these games staring tomorrow.

“We have opened up this league to our parents as well.,” Buchanan said. “We are hoping to get a good parental involvement as far as parents coming and supporting the team.

Troy’s first game will be at 4:30 p.m. today on the softball field right next to the Boys and Girls Club.