Mahwah Man Starts First Bergen County Flag Football League

A Mahwah entrepreneur has started a new league that he says will help fill a void in the Bergen County sports scene.

Carl Susini, who has lived in Mahwah with his wife since 2004, was a coach in the Mahwah Youth Football League for eight years before serving as president of the Bergen Passaic Youth Football League.

Though Susini and his wife could not have any children, he says the impact youth sports had on him as a child prompted him to become involved in the existing programs in the township, and create something new.

“I remember the experience I got,” he said. “It was not only educational, I learned things that were really life-changing. I want to be able to help give kids that.”

In 2010, Susini founded Youth Sports World, a sports promotion and marketing company that runs youth sports camps, offers recruiting services for student athletes that want to continue playing sports in college, and hosts youth sports parties. This spring, Susini said he’s decided to use the company to bring a recreational sport to Bergen County that he says it is sorely missing.

“This is the first organized flag football league in Bergen County,” he said of the program that will start next month. “Right now, if you want to play in a flag football league, you have to go outside the county to do it. I think we needed something like this here at home.”

The YSW Flag Football League will host five-on-five games inside the Ultimate Sports America arena in Oakland. The league is registered with the NFL, and will be open to players from first grade through adults.

“There are so many youth sports teams where a person will join, and train and practice, and then never see a game,” Susini said. “I am trying to change that culture. I want kids to be able to join, have the positive experience of playing as a kid, and then be able to stick with it all the way through.”

And the play, he said, should be both fun and skill-building. Coaches in the league will range from parents to ex-NFL players who live in the area, and the company will offer camps and training programs that will teach flag football skills.

YSW will host an Opening Day for the league this Saturday at Ultimate Sports America. Individuals or teams can register at the event, or online. The league will host games every weekend, starting June 1.

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