(Submitted photo/Moise Lalonde)

By Ben Tompkins

Flag Football

Zenon Park native competes at national flag football event

Jul 23, 2025 | 5:21 PM

A local football player had the opportunity to try something new last week, in a high-level competition in Quebec.

Zenon Park native and Tisdale Tornado, Moise Lalonde, was playing flag football with EquipSask (Team Sask) at JeuxFC (Les Jeux De La Francophonie Canadienne).

Moise had previously never played flag football, prior to this past week, and it was also his first time competing at JeuxFC, which only runs once every three years.

“It was good, long days, but enjoyable. I had a decent idea of what it might look like going in, but it was a little more structured than I anticipated. This event had a lot of different things you could choose from, and I figured flag would be similar enough. I didn’t even know all the rules when I left for Quebec, I was anticipating that it would just be football without the contact, but it was a little more complicated than that,” he told northeastNOW.

“I think I did a decent job, it took me a little bit to get used to, I was still accidentally a little bit more physical than I was supposed to be, but by the end, I think I had it down decently enough, the basics were still there. I definitely enjoyed it, but I still think I enjoy regular football a little better, being able to tackle guys and shed blocks and stuff.”

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Lalonde learned about JeuxFC through school, and at first wasn’t too interested. Eventually, he had people reaching out to him because they were looking for more people who played football.

By the end, though, they had more applicants than they realized, which forced Lalonde to send in a highlight tape, which they watched and eventually selected him because of it.

Lalonde is also in French Immersion at school, however, he doesn’t speak it at home, so the sports aspect interested him more than the language side of things.

“The sports side was definitely the more intriguing aspect, but that’s not to say that I wasn’t looking forward to the French aspect too, because obviously, not a ton of French people around here. I had been to Montreal when I was younger, for a spelling contest, and I don’t go to the city much, even like Regina or Saskatoon, so places that are huge are interesting to see,” he added.

“I won’t be able to do this again, so it was super cool. Like I said before, I wasn’t super keen on going at the beginning, but in hindsight, I definitely would have felt like I missed out if I didn’t. I think I exceeded my expectations, personally, I went there as kind of a backup, I wasn’t starting at the beginning of the week, but then by the end, I was out there for almost every snap.”

(submitted/Moise Lalonde)

Lalonde played the role of a typical defensive lineman by continuously rushing the quarterback. Flag was a little different for him, though, because there was no one in his way to block him.

He and Team Sask were performing quite well in the round-robin until their quarterback got hurt and they didn’t have a replacement.

“I definitely enjoyed flag more than I thought I would, and we had a good team, just disappointed that we couldn’t capitalize on that potential. I quite enjoyed the free run at the quarterback, it felt nice not having a bunch of guys try to stop me, but I still do miss the contact. I had to focus on getting fast instead of being strong,” concluded Lalonde.

“After playing, I definitely didn’t mind the open field with my long arms, so having the quarterback there trying to escape me without any blockers, it was entertaining. I’m not the strongest defensive lineman, typically, so just being able to be quick and shifty instead was a nice change.”

Lalonde, who will enter Grade 12 in the fall for his final season of high school football, said he’d consider coming back to JeuxFC in 2028, which will take place in Regina, as a coach, as he’s not yet sure what his future in the sport will contain.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8