A 16-year-old flag football fan is slowly building a grassroots program from the ground up through his league.

Polo Flag Football League (PFFL) founder Agustin Bartolome said the idea started as just a way for him and his friends to play back in 2021 while waiting for tennis courts to clear up.

Eventually, Bartolome wanted more games and built the PFFL with six teams.

“It actually started off as just a simple throwing and catching with just a few of my friends. We were just throwing and catching because we would wait in the tennis courts because we’re all tennis players,” Bartolome said in an episode of Off the Court, the weekly online sports show of DAILY TRIBUNE.

“We’d play together but then while waiting for a court, we’d throw the football and just play flag football. But then after a while, like after a few years of doing this, I actually wanted something bigger. I really wanted to spread this sport because I really loved it so much.”

Unlike American Football which requires padded gear and helmets, flag football is a non-contact sport with five or seven players on either side of the field.

The PFFL held the Color Bowl III last August at the University of Makati, its biggest staging so far with 70 players aged 13 to 18 years old joining with the Blue Tigers emerging as champions.

More than matches, Bartolome said they have been teaching the sport in Metro Manila.

“I also had two outreaches already.  I went to Don Bosco Tondo, and then I was also able to go to Pineda in Pasig, where I was able to teach these local communities on how to play flag football because it was a totally new sport to them,” Bartolome said.

“So, to add on to that, I want to do more outreaches. I want to go to more cities.”

Bartolome even met with National Football League Filipino-American quarterback Camryn Bynum to continue spreading the sport.

“Bynum has been having many camps here already. I think he’s had a total of like four camps and he’s also teaching flag football so, whenever he comes here to have a camp in the Philippines, he’s always teaching flag football,” Bartolome said.

With flag football introduced as one of the new sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Bartolome’s league could help produce the next set of Olympians.

Aside from Los Angeles, flag football is being lobbied to be included for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, giving the PFFL more time to mold potential world-class athletes.