Decades-old flag football tournament brings Seventh-day Adventist schools to Healdsburg, California, campus

Standing under white lights strung from the cooking tent at Lodi Academy’s campsite on Thursday night, retired Academy science teacher Don Brassington was all smiles, despite a cranky hamstring he blamed on the long drive. He had traveled thousands of miles and two time zones from his new home in Wisconsin to watch high school flag football games played by a school he no longer works for. “This is my Super Bowl,” he said.

The draw is strong for a tournament many in Sonoma County have never heard of. Each October, Rio Lindo Adventist Academy hosts its annual flag football tournament over four days on its 356-acre campus on the flank of Fitch Mountain in Healdsburg. More than 20 boys’ and girls’ teams arrive, set up camp and create a temporary village on the grounds.

The 2023 tournament, running through Sunday, includes 15 boys’ teams and eight girls’ teams playing on three fields. Play pauses for the Sabbath, observed from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. During that span the school holds an 8 p.m. Friday Vespers service, a Sabbath school session Saturday morning, and church at 11 a.m. A 6 p.m. worship service is held on the football field.

When games resume after the Sabbath, the quiet gives way to noise. Games kick off across the three side-by-side fields and run until midnight. Lodi Adventist senior Madie Johnson said the players are keenly aware of the countdown to the event. “Everyone, on their phone, we have a little timer that’s like ’48 hours to Rio,’ or ’24 hours to Rio,'” she said.

The tournament has been held since the early 1990s. Saturday night, the marquee night of the event, can draw as many as 1,000 people to the grounds of the academy, which has an enrollment of 109. Athletic director Kevin Hardesty, who also coaches the school’s boys’ and girls’ flag football teams, described the event with a word he repeats often. “It’s controlled mayhem,” he said. “It’s awesome.”

Most of the 23 teams are from Seventh-day Adventist schools across California, and the tournament regularly draws a Seventh-day Adventist squad from Ohio. Not every participant is an Adventist institution. Victory Christian and Grace Christian, both from Santa Rosa, are signed on this year.

Kami Nevis first came to the tournament in the 1990s, when she was a junior at Lodi Academy. Years later she returned as a coach of the Titans’ girls’ flag football team. This weekend she is on hand to support the last of her four sons to compete for the Titans in the tournament over the years (Psalm 78:4).

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