YORKTON - Flag football is poised to make its first Olympic appearance in Los Angeles in 2028.
Canada is looking to qualify for a berth in LA, and Football Canada has announced that Paul LaPolice has been appointed Head Coach of the Canadian Men’s National Flag Football Team.
LaPolice brings more than 20-years of coaching experience at the professional level, including head coaching roles with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Ottawa Redblacks and multiple tenures as an offensive coordinator.
LaPolice will need the experience as he builds a team capable of qualifying, but he told Yorkton This Week he is looking forward to the challenge as flag football is a relatively new form of the game for him as a coach.
“I’m enjoying it, but there’s a lot of learning,” he said, adding at this point he is personally focused on “. . . just understanding the game.”
While LaPolice has coached his son’s 7 vs 7 flag team, the Olympics will be a 5 vs 5 game, and he noted that means a considerably different game.
In fact, he said while many Canadian flag programs are 7 vs 7, LaPolice said he believes the country would be better served in terms of flag football if more teams played 5 vs 5 under International Federation of American Football rules.
“For the game to continue to grow” he said to adopt IFAF rules would be a big step.
But that is down the road. For now LaPolice is building a program.
Under LaPolice’s leadership, Canada will begin preparations for international qualification events and the 2026 IFAF Flag Football World Championship, a key stepping stone toward Olympic participation. His focus will include athlete identification, roster development, competitive integration, and fostering a distinct Canadian identity within the international flag football landscape, notes a Football Canada story.
Things have started in a positive fashion.
In late May Football Canada unveiled the athletes selected to represent Canada on the 2025 Senior Men’s National Flag Football Team. The team’s first action was the International Bowl in June. Held in Los Angeles the series of international friendlies saw the Canadian contingent taking on Australia, Japan and the United States.
“We were four and ‘O’,” said LaPolice, adding the big win came over the US “which hadn’t lost a game in eight years.”
The team was led by quarterback Michael O’Connor who has played for the Toronto Argonauts, Calgary Stampeders, and BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. He played college football with the UBC Thunderbirds from 2015 to 2018 where he led the team to a Vanier Cup championship in 2015.
It’s a good start, but LaPolice said bigger steps are ahead, and he is having to learn the game sort of on the fly.
“My job is to adapt what I know best,” he said. “My job is to create systems and processes.”
Beyond systems as a foundation, LaPolice said he is trying to be a sponge to better understand 5 vs 5 flag football.
“Lots of teams do so much,” he said, pointing to Japan from the recent friendly. “They had some amazing plays. So did the U.S. . . . So what can we pull in?”
And he looks for tips and insights too.
“I ask as many questions of players and coaches as I can,” said LaPolice, adding many have “way more experience,” than he does with the flag game so why not learn from them.
