UNDERDOGS FROM QUEENS DAC Panthers will take on older teams in NFL Flag Football World Championships in Germany

After struggling early, the De Phillips Athletic Club (DAC) Panthers clawed past an older opponent - in overtime - using their quickness, stifling defense and flag swiping in a friendly football scrimmage at Cunningham Park in Fresh Meadows. That was hardly the most impressive aspect of the evening.
While their opponents, also from DAC, needed their coach to go through plays with them in the huddle, Panthers coach, Jimmy Gavalas, just stood on the sideline, watching his son and star quarterback, Yianni, lead the game-winning drive.
Gavalas understands on-field leadership will be paramount to any success the Bayside team has in the NFL Flag Football World Championships scheduled for August 22-26 in Cologne, Germany. The Panthers, who are comprised of 9-12-year-olds, will be facing decidedly older opponents, 12-14-year-olds, from nine other countries and three continents.
&#8220I think we'll do well,” said Gavalas. &#8220There may be a couple of teams that can outclass us, but that's why you play, you never know. They're very well prepared. I'm not giving credit to myself. It's a credit to them. … We have 20 plays that can be optioned two ways, so you have 40 plays and the kids know them all by heart.”
The Panthers, winners of the NFL Flag National Tournament of Champions title in the 9-11-year-old age group at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida last November, were chosen over the 12-14-year-old winners from Las Vegas to represent the U.S. because that team had too many soon-to-be 15-year-olds.
&#8220We didn't think we were going to be selected,” Gavalas says of his group that includes three 12-year-olds and three 11-year-olds. &#8220We assumed they would take the older team.”
&#8220It's a great honor,” Eddie Roscigno says, &#8220because we get to represent our country.”
Amazingly, this is just the second year the Panthers have been in existence. All six of the Queens youngsters - Gavalas, Roscigno, Nicky Athanasopoulos, Anthony Libroia, Kostas Akoumianakis and Brian Kruger - played A.A.U. basketball with the Long Island Lightning; in fact they took part in national tournaments this month, three of them going to Kentucky and the others to Florida.
Yianni Gavalas, an accurate southpaw, served as the impetus for the Panthers' creation. He played four years of tackle football with the Massapequa Mustangs until deciding to try flag football. At his urging, his father formed the team midway through DAC's 2005 season. Many of them had never played the sport, but the team did well, surprisingly reaching the league semifinals.
This year was quite another story; they won titles in three different leagues - DAC, the New Jersey Flag Football Association in Wayne, New Jersey and HTB in Wantagh, Long Island. &#8220We're really not that amazing in any specific thing,” said Roscigno, an Astoria resident, &#8220but when you put us all together, we're really good.”
The upcoming tournament won't be the first time the team will be considered underdogs. When they first arrived in Orlando for the Nationals, opposing coaches scoffed at the smallish Panthers; Athanasopoulos, who stands at 5-foot-8, is the lone Panther above five feet. &#8220They asked if we produced them all the same size - small,” Jimmy Gavalas said. &#8220It seemed everybody else came down there with big kids on purpose. We went down there with what we thought was the most prepared team.”
The team's confidence, they all maintain, hasn't been diminished by the ominous prospects of facing older opposition; they've been playing in an older New Jersey Flag Football Association league this summer, where they finished third, and scrimmaged several other older teams. In fact, they seem to relish their status.
&#8220We're going to thrive on that, being the underdog,” said Roscigno, adding the United States' dominant football background will only underscore the advantage. &#8220The other teams are going to be like, ‘why are all these kids so short,' and they're going to take it easy on us. I think we're going to do pretty good, because we are going to use that as an advantage.”
&#8220It motivates us to win,” Yianni Gavalas added.
Jimmy Gavalas actually feels their youth, ironically, which would seem to be their biggest obstacle, will aid them once the games begin. &#8220This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. &#8220But they are too young to even realize what's going on. That may be why they play so well against tougher, more experienced competition. They're so nave because they're so young.”