Spartans flag football team sensation, Kate Johnson was full of excitement after helping her side win season two of Showtime Bowl Series in Lagos, but announced her retirement from the sport after the victory.
Sports247.ng reports that Johnson is one of the top female stars in flag football, which took another historic turn last Sunday, with a pulsating final at Meadow Hall in Lekki, Lagos.
The innovative sport, which is a variant of American Football, involves players removing flags from an opponent’s body, instead of tackling them to the ground, while equally aiming to score points with an oval ball.
This year’s competition, which was tagged Super Bowl Series XI, had a long roll call of players spread across 12 clubs, with each of the squads competing as mixed teams.
The competing teams were Warriors, Outlaws Athletics, Spartans, Panthers Sport, Lagos Raptors, Off-Season Athletics, Lagos Rebels, LA Knights, Titans Athletics, Lagos Mavericks, Wolverines and Lagos Hawks.
In Sunday’s final, Spartans defeated Warriors 58-53 to emerge winners of the annual competition’s second edition, and Kate Johnson admitted it was an exciting day for her.
The exuberant lass, who played as a centre for Spartans, declared: “This is our second time in a row, and I feel so good.
“It means the world to us. We’ve been the underdogs for the whole season, but now we have our win.”
She, however, concluded by declaring that winning the competition for a second straight year running was a fulfilment for her, and it was time for her to quit.
“It’s two wins, back-to-back, and I am done with football. I have retired,” Johnson stated.
She will now join her teammates in sharing the winners’ cash prize of N12m from the total package of N20m that had earlier been declared by the organisers, Showtime Flag Football League (SFFL).
Other stipulated cash prizes from the contest that was staged with a 7-on-7 co-ed format were N4m for second placed, N2.5m to third position, and N2m for fourth.
The teams that finished fifth to eighth got N1m each, while ninth took N400,000 and N300,000 went to 10th placed, with N200,000 for 11th and N100,000 to the squad that ended on 12th spot.
