Ilai Rozenblum and Guillaume Beland come from opposite ends of the Americas and from nations with very different histories and experience in international flag football competition.
The Argentinean wide receiver and Canadian defensive back have numerous contrasting experiences in the sport, as might be expected for two people living more than 9,000 kilometers apart, but plenty of similarities too. Naturally, they both have a passion for flag football and are both converts from the tackle game.
“People like to think that when you’ve played tackle football that flag football would be an easy transition, but that’s not so,” says Guillaume, who played at McGill University. “What you do bring is technique, the footing which is pretty much the same and so are many of your reads. But overall, it’s very different.
“Tackle guys on contact like to brace the ball and tuck the ball in and run and have impact, but here it’s free and you just want to go fast, move your hips, dip, or make some jukes around the field. The technique is definitely transferable but otherwise it’s a different game.”
Ilai has represented Argentina at the national team level in both the tackle and flag disciplines. Besides helping his country to a fifth-place finish, his focus at the tournament in North Carolina included gathering experience and knowledge to take back home to aid the development of the sport that he coaches at youth level.
“I never thought I would be here in the US where football was born, playing this sport I fell in love with when I was 19 or 20 years old,” he admits. “I hope this event can leverage the work that we’ve been doing with the kids and adult teams to get more people into the sport to get flag football to be better known in Argentina.
“We are learning more about the game from those who have more experience than us. We are working on improving our structure and setting down the bases for the next few years.”
Those next few years include the target of playing at the 2024 IFAF Flag Football World Championship in Finland. Ilai will hope his performances in helping his team finish ahead of rivals Brazil and Chile will earn a selection to Argentina’s 12-man roster next year.
For Guillaume, however, the dream of playing for gold at the worlds ended the weekend before the continental championships even kicked off due to Canada’s unique selection process. Canada’s squad is chosen from the team that win’s its domestic nationals, so Guillaume and teammates from the Braves in Montreal pulled on the jerseys of Team Canada as the 2022 national champions. Only a few days before heading to the Americas event, they were beaten in the 2023 finals by a team from Saskatchewan who will be Canada’s representatives next year.
Guillaume added: “Of course, we would love to be Canada’s team in Finland, but we worked hard to be here in the continental championships and for most of us it’s our first international competition and an opportunity to learn and grown and play flag football and have some fun.”
Despite having played nine games in three days the previous weekend, Guillaume and Canada’s men’s team finished in fourth place behind the US, Mexico and Panama, finally running out of steam in the bronze medal game. Argentina were fifth place finishers, despite their team having only come together late as a unit in the selection process.
“We’re all from Buenos Aries, where the players are the strongest, and won the national state championship, but we really only started practicing together as a group in April,” says Ilai. “We have also played tackle football together for the national team and we played in the South American tournament in Brazil, so I don’t feel that it’s been difficult for us to come together as a team.”
The transition to 5-on-5 flag football has also presented a learning curve for both players. Guillaume’s Braves play 6-on-6 in Montreal with an extra wide receiver to cover, while Ilai has played games with seven players per side.
“The 5 on 5 game is much quicker and the schemes are different and the moves are different,” explains Guillaume.
When they weren’t on the field, Ilai and his Argentinean teammates tapped into the experience of some of their opponents and took advantage of the camaraderie that is strong among the athletes housed together at the University of North Carolina Charlotte during the competition.
“We talked with the US and Mexico about how they run routes, gaining as much information as we could,” Ilai explained. “They are more experienced at this level, so they can help us to improve. It was really good to talk to all the other teams at the dorms.”
