Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010

Football isn't just for guys anymore

Kiera Peoples has just completed her second year playing wide receiver for the Raleigh Dragons football team, and she's already addicted to winning.

She should be; in December, her coed Dragons team sewed up a flag football league championship for the second season in a row, and they're gearing up for another round this month.

"I love playing," she said. "It's mostly for fun, but I am serious about winning."

Peoples, 26, who is a payroll specialist for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, joined the Dragons in 2008, after her boyfriend, Leslie Epps, encouraged her to start playing.

Epps, 32, is a charter member of the MOC Sports League, which Marcus Cole started in 2003 to give adults and kids a fun outlet for sports and recreation, and a good old-fashioned way to meet new people.

"We're not playing for bowl rings, but for the love of the game and bragging rights," Epps said.

Epps, a teacher at Moore Square Middle School in downtown Raleigh, came to the Triangle by way of South Dakota, where he played football on a scholarship for South Dakota State University.

South Dakota was a long way to go for a young New York City kid with a lot of talent but not many resources.

After graduating, he played arena football in South Dakota for a year when his teaching job opened up in Raleigh.

He started playing flag football as a way to stay in the game and meet people.

It's a bonus that he's able to play wide receiver, the same position he played in high school and college.

Epps started out on an all-male team, but when Cole invited him to join a coed team, he jumped at the chance to get Peoples involved. He has come to enjoy co-ed football so much, he would play on the Dragons team even if Peoples didn't play.

"Hopefully she won't leave to play on another team, because I'd have to play against her, and that would cause a big rivalry," he said, laughing.

No tackles

The basic rules of flag football are similar to those of tackle football, but instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag from the ball carrier to end a down.

The league plays on Sunday afternoons in the spring and fall wherever they can find a field. More often than not, they can be found on the fields at Biltmore Hills Community Center.

After graduating from the UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1999, Cole, 33, launched a career in marketing and advertising. He had a longstanding dream of starting a sports league, and after he formed MOC Sports in 2003, he quickly became successful. Today, he offers flag football, basketball, kickball and softball.

Participation has grown to 1,100 players, and it's now his full-time job.

"When I first started the league, it was just for guys," Cole said. "In 2007, I started hearing about some interest from the ladies. They'd come out with their boyfriends and husbands and toss the ball around, so we formed a coed league."

David Downey, 32, has been playing flag football for five years. He got involved through his job at GSK. He now works for BD Technologies.

"It's definitely a lot of fun. Sometimes it's tough to get enough exercise, and this helps you get active," he said. "I also enjoy the teamwork aspect of playing. It adds joy and rewards to my life."

Downey plays center mostly. His wife also plays football.

"The women put forth a lot of effort on the field. They are studious and thoughtful, definitely more coachable than a lot of the male players," Downey said.

Peoples considers herself a student of the game. She plays wide receiver and enjoys that position. She admits that some plays are tough.

"The hardest part is learning to run routes," she said. "It's one thing to learn what the quarterback wants you to do and then actually do it. But the quarterback expects you to be in a designated area so when he throws the ball, you are there to catch it."