Tucson Turf Elite Football will represent the Arizona Cardinals at the NFL Flag Championships in Canton, Ohio later this week.
Tucson Turf is a nonprofit flag and 7-on-7 football program started by Toby Bourguet. The elite program is no stranger to the NFL’s national flag football championship tournament. They have taken home five national titles from the event.
At this year’s championship tournament scheduled for this Friday and Saturday (July 19-20), Tucson Turf will have seven teams, representing ages 8 through 18. More than 280 teams will be featured at the tournament, representing all 32 NFL clubs. The tournament will be shown on ESPN.
Bourguet said teams have to win a regional tournament in order to get a bid to the national stage.
“That’s what I love about this flag tournament,” Toby said. “It’s not pay-to-play. It’s an earned bid.”
Tucson Turf will have its boys 8U, 9U, 10U, 13U and 15U teams at the tournament, as well as its 13U and 18U girls teams. The 2024 tournament is being held in Canton, home of the NFL Hall of Fame, for the first time. It's previously been held in Orlando, Florida.
Bourget's children have participated in the tournament over the years, including his sons Trenton and Coben, who play football at Arizona State University. Trenton is a quarterback and Coben is a wide receiver.
Toby said this kind of tournament is not only an opportunity for players to show off their skills on the biggest stage, but do so in front of their idols.
“These kids are walking around high-fiving Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes,” Toby said.
Toby’s daughter, Rylen, will play at this year’s tournament for the sixth time. Rylen was playing beach volleyball for Arizona State, but recently gave up her scholarship to pursue the USA women’s flag football team for the 2028 Olympics. Flag football is growing exponentially, Toby said, especially girls' flag football.
“It’s blown up 1000%,” Toby said.
Before girls' flag football became an AIA-sanctioned high school sport last fall, Rylen played on her brothers’ teams. She even played at the NFL Flag Championship tournament when she was 10 on a team with her brother Treyson, a quarterback who recently transferred to BYU from Western Michigan.
“I was always the youngest and smallest person on the team,” Rylen said. “But it’s always such a fun experience.”
Rylen will play in Canton on Tucson Turf’s 18U girls' team. She played on the same team at the tournament a year ago. Rylen broke her collarbone in April and has been working to reach a full recovery and return to pursue her Olympic dream. She played last week in Los Angeles in the USA football Select Bowl on the 20U girls' team.
This NFL flag tournament will be the last time she plays on the 18U team. “It’s my last time being a part of this team,” Rylen said. “ So I’m just trying to soak it all up.”
Some of the girls on the 18U team have been playing together for more than 10 years, Rylen said, but some of them have only been paired up for a few months. Toby Bourget said many Tucson Turf teams hardly practice together before they take the field because of other commitments, but the chemistry is “undeniable.”
“It’s about attitude and effort,” he said. “We don’t prioritize this program over the player’s lives.”
Making it to tournaments of this caliber gives players opportunities they wouldn’t get otherwise, including national exposure and connections, as well as memories, he added.
“These kids learn lessons for life,” he said. “You can talk about things like that in a pregame speech, but it’s different when you have the receipts.”
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