Continuing an annual tradition which originated in 1989 and has been taking place locally since 2017, the 2023 Walsh Football League Super Bowl became the largest gathering in its history.

After being contested the last two years under snowy skies, this year’s event was played in relatively balmy conditions on a partly cloudy day with enough visibility to allow for a helicopter fly-over near the conclusion of the National Anthem.

Local musician and teacher Dr. K strung classic tunes on his ukulele such as Fly Like An Eagle and Start Me Up during the Eagles and Chiefs respective player introductions. He then continued into a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner as Martin Walsh, a combat veteran of the Vietnam Second Field Force, presented the colors.

The coin toss then took place, not from the traditional position at midfield, but rather from 50 feet up — as the same helicopter which performed the fly-over hovered above the 50-yard line while the coin was dropped by Lucas of HTX Helicopters.

For the second straight year, the event began with a skills competition, comprised of 41 players, ranging in age from 8-16 years old. With 21 players choosing to represent the Eagles and 20 the Chiefs, the match-up appeared relatively even on paper, and it played out that way — at least until the game began.

The first skills event was a target toss in which 10 targets were positioned on a goal post cross bar. With each player receiving at least one turn, the Eagles scored a narrow victory as Captain Brayden Walsh knocked out his team’s last target just as both teams had gotten down to one remaining.

With over half of the players also on their school soccer team, the Field Goal Kicking Contest turned into a very competitive battle. After successfully making their first four kicks, each subsequent one from a further distance, the competition came down to four players who had already split the uprights from beyond mid-field. In the end however, after the first three players missed their final attempts, Chiefs Captain Kaiden Walsh drilled one right down the middle for the victory with a kick that would have been good from another 5 yards back.

Next followed the “Pin the Punt” competition, in which each competitor attempted a punt from mid-field, with the goal to have their ball land as close to the goal line as possible without going into the end zone. This year’s victor was Luca Orsini, brother of Cole Orsini, the co-MVP of last year’s game. Luca’s punt landed at about the 10-yard line before taking a couple of hops and settling within an inch of the goal line in an unbeatable position.

The last (somewhat) individual event was the football toss, in which teams of two continued to move further apart after each successful pass completion. The winning representatives from the Eagles — Remy Walsh and Eliah Rivera — faced off against the top team from the Chiefs, Julian Allard and Lillian Luurtsema. As the final four each approached throws covering half the field, it was Allard and Luurtsema who emerged victorious.

The penultimate competition was a game of dodgeball. While Brayden Walsh was the last one to stave off elimination on the Eagles side, he ultimately couldn’t avoid a knockout throw by Daniel Hess.

The final event was a new addition this year. Inspired by a scene from the recently released film “Top Gun: Maverick,” Dogfight Football turned into organized chaos as both teams began by snapping a ball from mid-field and simultaneously playing both offense and defense.

There was no off-sides, and players had to quickly decide whether to attack or defend, so the action was fast-paced and intense. In a moment of serendipity, just as the Eagles took to the air for the game-winning score, a score of another sort — “I Ain’t Worried,” by OneRepublic — began playing across the in-house SiriusXM satellite radio, just as it did during the Dogfight Football scene in “Maverick.”

The Prime-time Event

As for the game itself, the Chiefs team scored early and often, jumping out to a 20-0 lead and eventually prevailing by 25 points for the 55-30 victory.

The Chiefs won the aforementioned helicopter coin toss and chose to defer to the second half. However, similar to their mindset in Dogfight Football — beginning play on defense — the Chiefs quickly transitioned to offense, as Kaiden Walsh intercepted the Eagles first pass of the game and took it back for a pick-six, before tacking on the PAT himself for a 7-0 advantage.

After a turnover on downs, the Eagles returned the favor as Landon Walton intercepted a pass for the birds. However, the Eagles were once again unable to mount much offense before giving the ball back to the Chiefs, who ended the first quarter with a touchdown reception by Derek Synnett, as last year’s other co-MVP, Rylan Sodhi, tacked on the extra point for a 14-0 lead.

A three-time WFL Super Bowl MVP, Kaiden continued the scoring into the second quarter, with a touchdown pass to Luca. While the point after attempt failed this time after a change in kickers, the Chiefs increased their advantage to 20-0.

The Eagles got on the board with a touchdown pass from Connor Sodhi to Aiden Walton, but the Chiefs quickly answered with another touchdown pass, this time from Justin Dooley to Rylan. The two-point attempt was no good, but the Chiefs continued their dominant air assault with their third different quarterback throwing a touchdown pass on their next possession. Lillian connected with Cayden Berry ahead of a successful conversion pass to Jayden Allard for the first two-point score of the game, as the first half drew to a close with the Chiefs leading 34-6.

The second half began with another two point score, but this one coming in the different form of a safety for the Eagles. For the first time in WFL history, both halves began with defensive scores. In a bit of trickery, the Chiefs attempted several laterals upon receiving the second half kickoff. However, these only ended up pushing them back into their own end zone, which is where Kaiden ended up being taken down by the Eagles Cole Bray.

Bray then showed he could also convert on the offensive end with a touchdown pass to eventual game MVP Ethan Hitchcock, as the Eagles began to build a bit of momentum, closing the gap to 34-14.

The Eagles would get no closer, though, as the Chiefs closed out the third quarter with another touchdown pass by Football Toss co-champion Luurtsema, this time to Avery Guernsey, who also ran in the subsequent two-point conversion, for a 42-14 lead.

The versatile Luurtsema also showed that she could catch a touchdown pass as well as she could throw one, as she scored the Chiefs first touchdown of the fourth quarter on a pass from Luca, who demonstrated he could punt and throw with equal aplomb. Kaiden continued his kicking perfection on the day by knocking through the PAT to make it 49-14.

Eagles players would not go down without a fight, however: Gregory Bourdon connected with Connor Hawkins in the back of the end zone and Davaughn Stone converted on the two point try.

The teams would trade touchdowns on the next two possessions as Hess became the fourth Chiefs quarterback to throw a touchdown pass, with Guernsey catching his second of the game. The Eagles then responded with Connor Sodhi, who rushed for a score before closing out the scoring on the day with a two-point pass from Brayden.

While Hitchcock garnered the game MVP trophy for his play on the field, the MVP off the field could have been Sarah Thielbar. Along with the help of Kristen Martin and Colleen Walsh, these amazing mothers spent countless hours hand-crafting the customized game shirts worn by all 41 players. With less than two weeks to complete them, they took 54 feet of five different colors of HTV vinyl and 33 feet of printable vinyl to create the highly detailed shirts, each personalized with the player’s name and number.

In fact, while the kids were the main focus of the event, none of this could have taken place without the contributions of the parents who also acted as announcers, game officials, videographers and pyrotechnic engineers, many of those roles performed with the assistance of Dave Lunt.

Once again, various members of the community happily obliged when asked to contribute. Many thanks go out to Greg Keith, principal of Franklin Elementary School; Darryl Sebastian, from Norwich Nightmare Football; and Ron Vigue, of Recognition Products in Lebanon, who created and provided the engraving for the MVP Trophy of an event which continues to create excitement and memories.