The Kent Phoenix flag programme for our younger age groups gathered on Sunday to celebrate their end of the season with a special fun day and awards morning at our home ground in Shepway, Maidstone. The children enjoyed a bouncy castle, courtesy of Bellyflops, a BBQ and Krispy Kreme doughnuts but the main business of the day was to hand out some awards.

Club Chair, Chelle Carr, spoke to the players and parents and shared some of her highlights from the season. The Fire and Flame (U11) and Inferno (U14) names for each age group have helped to give a greater sense of identity, the club has invested in new kit and made things more fair with jerseys, wrist coaches, spare flag belts all helping to include everyone while the new training tops and personalised flags have made a good start with more planned for the coming season. Chelle also paid tribute to all our parents and coaches for all their efforts in supporting and encouraging the children all through the last year.

On the field, we took part in two away tournaments in 2025 (the X-Bowl with Kent Exiles and the Dog Bowl with Hellingly) and we hosted our own home tournament – the Fire Bowl. The children also had the chance to try Jag Tag in London with the Ealing Fruitbats. There was lots to celebrate for the awards part of the morning.

Our 2025 rookies were celebrated with Izabelle, Fred, Rayan, Sofia all joining the Under 11s and Alex P, Alex C, Luca, Henry, Thomas, Toby and Josh all joining the Under 14s. The Rookie of the Year awards went to Rayan in the Under 11s and Henry in the Under 14s.

Each year in each age group, there are always ‘graduations’ as children grow older and move up into new squads. This year we celebrated Harry, Oscar, Ilyas, Sofia and Teddy moving up from Under 11s to Under 14s while Henry T, Alex C, Alex P and Thomas P all move up from Under 14 to the Under 16 squad.

A number of special moments and special mention certificates were presented from the Fire and Flame coaches, but for the main awards the full list of honours is below:

Kent Phoenix Fire and Flame teams (Under 11s)

• Offensive Player of the Year: Harry C
• Defensive Player of the Year: Alf
• Most Improved Player: Alba
• MVP: Oscar

Kent Phoenix Inferno (Under 14s)

• Offensive Player of the Year: Alex C
• Defensive Player of the Year: Thomas
• Most Improved Player: Preston
• MVP: Luca

The Flag programme now takes a break for the Summer. The annual AGM will take place on the 7th of September with pre-season training re-starting for flag the following week on September 14th.