New Kensington native James Threatte looking to give area girls leg up in flag football

Five years ago, amidst the covid-19 pandemic, James Threatte of New Kensington noticed an issue impacting local children.

“There were no youth sports programs in the summer for the kids around the New Ken area,” Threatte said. “I knew that needed to change.”

A year later, he established the Skillz and Drillz program that gave children ages 5-14 an athletic outlet.

Fast forward to 2024 and Threatte formed an 8U boys flag football team, named NXT GEN, that competed in the Pittsburgh NFL Flag Football League, which plays its games in Penn Hills.

In its first year in the league, the team won the 8U championship last spring.

At the end of the season, Threatte said he had numerous parents approach him asking if he was planning on starting more teams.

“I explained to them that the season was sort of a trial run just to see how it would go,” Threatte said. “Once I realized I could handle the extra work, I decided to add more teams.”

Threatte is now coaching five youth flag football teams — the returning champion 8U team, a 10U team, two boys 12U teams and a 12U girls team, which was something he had thought about when he first started coaching in the Pittsburgh Flag Football League.

“I was able to catch a girls tournament last year that the league had put together,” Threatte said. “They brought in a few teams from out of state, and I was blown away at how athletic and how equally competitive they were compared with the boys.”

Threatte, who works as a personal care assistant at New Ken-Arnold’s Martin Elementary School, has also been a part of the Valley youth wrestling program, assisting any way he can.

He took notice of how the girls who aged out of the program and went on to wrestle for the high school girls wrestling team were better equipped to handle the rigors of the varsity competition.

“Just seeing how important it was for them to learn and develop early on in the sport,” Threatte said. “Then I began to think that way in regards to a girls flag football team. If our girls can get started earlier, gain some experience and hopefully some success, then they could be successful should Valley get a girls flag football team after the PIAA sanctioned the sport.”

Threatte pointed out that flag football may be easy from a spectator’s viewpoint, but there are a host of different skills that need to be developed early for a player to be successful.

“Pulling the flag, and more importantly, developing the hand-eye coordination to do that, if they practice it now, by the time they get into high school, they will be very successful,” Threatte said, “They will have to go through difficult moments before it becomes easy for them and starting early helps.”

To get a team in registered in the Pittsburgh NFL Flag Football League, Threatte sent a email to director Rashad Colvin, letting him know he wished to put together a team.

It wasn’t difficult for Threatte to get the requisite eight girls to fill out his roster.

Four of the girls are wrestlers in the Valley youth program, two are cheerleaders, one came from the Skillz and Drillz program, one is a boxer and one just showed up for the first practice in crocs.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Threatte said. “It was cold and she was wearing those shoes and she did very well. She wanted to be in every drill and in the huddle learning the plays. I didn’t tell her what to do, she went about this all on her own.

“At the end of the practice I spoke with her mother, and she said, ‘my daughter wants to play football.’ I don’t know if I will get that full potential from all my girls, but from what I’ve seen out of all of them, it’s starting off well.”

Threatte is hoping to repeat the success he had with his 8U team last year and has already planted the seeds in the minds of the girls.

“I told them they could be the first team from New Ken to win the girls flag football championship,” Threatte reiterated. “Putting that in their heads, lets them know they could be a part of history and use that as a bit of motivation.”

The flag football season got underway last week, but Colvin would like for there to be at least one more girls team in the league.

For Threatte, the wins and success are just the icing on the cake. What he enjoys most is giving the youth of the New Ken area the opportunity to have athletics in the spring and summer and putting smiles on their faces.

He even had the chance to bring some of his flag football players along to the Willie Thrower Award presentation in March where they were able to meet Matt Sieg of Fort Cherry who won the award and former Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert.

“Being the type of person that can provide things like that for kids who would never get the opportunity if they weren’t a part of something like this is what matters most to me and gives the kids hope,” Threatte said. “I don’t know what I was put on this earth to do, but it seems like every time I get the chance to work with and coach the kids, I get the sense that it’s what I’m meant to do. It’s also great to get the support I do from the parents of the kids within the program.”