CONKLIN, NY (WBNG) -- Former New York Giants players Jonathan Casillas and Ryan Nassib attended a Section IV girls flag football kickoff event Saturday at Susquehanna Valley High School.
All 17 Section IV flag football teams participated in the event despite frigid temperatures. The former NFL players helped with drills and provided instruction to participants.
Casillas, a former linebacker, said about 400 girls attended the event.
“Flag football is the number one growing sport in the world,” Casillas said. “And it’s good to see that it’s growing in this part of New York. A lot of girls stepped up. These girls were getting after it, they were having fun and it was cold. The positive attitudes that I got from every single team and every single player, it was tremendous today.”
Nassib, a former quarterback at Syracuse and with the Giants, said he was happy to return to an area he knows well.
“I’m so happy to be up here and also pushing this sport and expanding it to both boys and girls to be able to play a sport that I grew up just loving and really dedicated a big part of my life to,” Nassib said.
Members of the Binghamton Patriots flag football team said the former players brought energy and confidence to the event.
“They brought a lot of energy and I feel like we needed that today, on a super cold day,” one player said. “And they gave us a lot of confidence.”
Vaughn Labor said the Giants have been key supporters of the sport in Section IV since the beginning.
“The Giants have been key members of this since the beginning. They were around day one, providing support in different ways,” Labor said. “They come up here, they bring the energy, they bring their players. They’re one of the reasons why this sport is the way that it is here in Section IV.”
Flag football continues to grow in Section IV and throughout the country. More colleges, including Binghamton University, have added the sport.
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