Montreal's Flight School Elite wins NFL Flag world championship in Indianapolis

Montreal's Flight School Elite became world champion after defeating teams from 13 countries across five continents at the 2026 NFL Flag Summer Championships in Indianapolis, July 23 to 26.

The U15 team, made up of athletes from across Greater Montreal, defeated Mexico in the International Division final before knocking off the U.S. Division champion from Miami in an overtime thriller. The tournament highlighted the rapid growth of flag football ahead of its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Flight School founder and head coach Jamil Springer, a Montreal high school teacher, launched the program in 2017 after noticing many young people in the LaSalle and southwest Montreal communities lacked opportunities to stay connected and motivated. "In 2017 I was working in the LaSalle community, Southwest, and at that point in time I kind of found a disconnection between the youth and actually motivating them," Springer said.

The program has grown from camps serving 50 to 60 children to now serving between 600 and 700 youth. Several members of the championship-winning roster were also part of Flight School's U12 team that won the 2025 NFL Flag International Championship at the NFL Pro Bowl Games in Orlando.

Flight School Elite earned the opportunity to represent Canada after winning its regional tournament and then capturing the NFL Flag Canada National Championship in Ottawa earlier this summer. Springer credited the team's chemistry for helping it succeed. "They're very lighthearted. They'd never take anything too serious, which is frustrating at times as a coach," he said. "But that element makes them rise when things get tough, and I'm extremely proud of them for sure."

Many of the players have grown up together in the program, with some joining Flight School when they were seven years old. "For the team that just won it was kind of a full circle moment," Springer said. "To see them all put it together some of them have never won, specifically the 15-year-olds. So it's kind of like a surreal moment for them. But even for me as a proud mentor to kind of see like hey, you've been working for eight years and now you're successful, right? And that proves that hard work pays off eventually."