After moving to town in 2016, Ted and Nevin Pallad said they were only looking for a side gig when they launched their youth flag football league, Friday Night Lights. 

The industrious duo employed their four kids, some of whom were still sour over the move from their childhood home of Palos Verdes, to run around the summertime carnivals and festivals of Santa Barbara and plant flyers on cars to advertise FNL.

“They called it child labor,” laughed Ted, FNL co-commissioner. “I just said, ‘No, it’s a family business.’”

What the Pallads didn’t envision was that within a few years, their “side gig” would revolutionize and make the most popular American sport inclusive for an entire youth community.

Within the past year, flag football became a girls CIF sport. Four Santa Barbara-area high schools had teams this fall: Santa Barbara High School, San Marcos High School, Dos Pueblos High School, and Bishop Diego High School.

Within the past month, flag football also became an Olympic sport.

The program has become a community conduit throughout Santa Barbara, bringing together the families of 700 kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds, genders and ages on Friday nights. And now, more athletes want to participate. Adamant in their desire to accommodate every request to join FNL, one barrier keeps the Pallad family from widening the gates to their blooming program: limited field space.

Kick Off: How it Started

Ted was in his late 40s, living a fast-paced life as a corporate career man. He spent hours a day commuting in Los Angeles traffic. 

“People I loved were lost, like my Dad losing his battle with cancer, and my kids were getting older,” said Ted. “It’s not easy for anyone in their late 40s to decide to leave a career, pack up the family and relocate, not knowing what’s next. I took the chance.”

Nevin, a Santa Barbara native, said the closing argument for their decision to move was to be near family and to have a better quality of life.

The co-commissioners of FNL replayed the dinner table scene where Ted had to translate this family-oriented decision to their four children, at the time ages 14, 12, 9 and 6.

Ted said within one year post-LA he got to attend his first parent-teacher conference, participate in school fundraisers, watch an afternoon play, and finally have breakfast with his kids and drive them to school – “simple things that I never had the opportunity to do.”

Nevin’s brother-in-law, Chris Ketcham, co-founded the original Friday Night Lights organization in Los Alamitos in 2006, The Pallads decided to  start their own FNL branch in Santa Barbara. 

It was born in 2016 when around 200 kids suited up and came out to play flag football under Friday Night Lights on the fields at La Colina Junior High School.

“I’ll never forget, we would check our numbers every day and it was so exciting,” said Nevin, remembering the summer leading up to their first season.

“We’d be like, ‘We got three players!’” Ted added with a victory fist pump.

“And when we hit 100, it was like, unbelievable. I could not believe we had 100 kids that were gonna play,” said Nevin. “And then we got to 200 that very first season.”

This fall, around 700 kids played flag football under the lights at San Marcos and Dos Pueblos high schools.

Fumble: The Bumps in the Road

The drive to create flag football on the South Coast has experienced a few fumbles.

Santa Barbara lacks field space. Youth sports organizations such as AYSO, Little League, Pony League and a variety of recreational youth and adult sports have been around long enough to establish places to play and practice. Introducing a new sport into the mix proved difficult.

The FNL program grew fast. And people noticed. The Pallads have been forced off fields on multiple occasions.

At La Colina, the problem was traffic congestion, noise and lights.

At Santa Barbara Junior High School, the problem was neighborhood impacts.

“We want to show the community that this is a sport that’s going to go somewhere and it’s not just going to end. And I mean, look at the turnout here. The kids love this. It’s awesome,” coach Amy Oliver said.

Before getting kicked off of the Santa Barbara Junior High field, the Pallads said the school district held a board meeting. They expected to be the only ones at the meeting.

“And then we look behind us and there’s kids that are wearing their jerseys and these families showed up that we did not know about,” said Ted. 

“They would come up to the podium and use their three minutes to address this board who really had no idea what FNL was about. And to hear some of these parents talk to the board about how important FNL was to their family, and what it meant to the children. And we got choked up because all of a sudden we were hearing the support that sometimes you just don’t know about how much of an impact you’re making. And that was a life changing moment for us.”

The school board on that night, however, opted to halt games at Santa Barbara Junior High School.

FNL scrambled and played at Pershing Park, Dwight Murphy Field, and, in some cases, had games on Saturdays and Sundays.

The two FNL moms explained their journey with the program while sitting side-by-side in beach chairs to watch Nunn’s son, first-grader Walker, play on a Friday night at San Marcos High School.

In 2023, the Pallads were able to secure field space between San Marcos and Dos Pueblos high schools for the fall, but it still resulted in the occasional Sunday games.

It was a common theme amongst the coaches, staff and parents that the goal of Friday Night Lights is to serve one community above all else: the kids.

Juan Aldana was one of the FNL community members who showed up during the board meeting with SBUSD to help fight for field space and explain how much the program means to him and his family.

Interception: The Pallads Regain Control of the Game

Throughout the Pallads’ determination each season to find a temporary “home” as Aldana put it, their resilience did not go unnoticed by the FNL community. 

“I mean, what parent doesn’t like coming out on Friday nights to and then having the rest of your weekend to just chill and hang out? I mean, it’s pretty great,” said Oliver.

Sharing that vision, FNL mom Michelle McMahon said, “It’s fun for us because we work all week and we’ve got children and life is crazy. And then, you know, then you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we got Friday Night Lights,’ we get to just relax, catch up.”

To ensure their vision became a reality, Ted and Nevin are always the first to arrive and last to leave the FNL fields. In the earlier seasons, Nevin even striped the fields herself.

“I retired from striping,” laughed Nevin, not missing that part of the early FNL days. Now for game days, Nevin oversees the FNL cheer program and the snackbar, making weekly trips to Costco to account for all the snacks and drinks for every player, parent and staff member.

On game days, Ted and Nevin set up the tents for the snack bar and administrative tent, and Ted spends the nights between the tents and roaming the fields. Ted is in charge of damage control, setting any disputes that arise.

“Through all the struggles, I feel like we just constantly are bouncing ideas off of each other on how to continue, what do we do next,” said Nevin.

On occasion, the parents employ their kids on game nights, the kids who are now far less opposed to their “family business.”

Ted said whether their kids are living at home, playing in FNL or just visiting from college, they’ll be put to work. 

“This is a family thing, and we need you to support it,” said Ted, explaining how they motivate their kids to participate.

“And all of them have done that. They pick up trash or work in the snack bar, or throw on a ref jersey. They’ve all stepped up because I remind them I’m, like, ‘If you want me to be here for breakfast in the morning or if you want a ride to school or be picked up at 3:15 or whatever,’ … I don’t think they realize the impact that the program has.”

Touchdown: Everyone Plays

Otis Jones comes every game night to watch his daughter, Dylan. Their involvement with FNL started with the coach that was currently sharing the sideline with them but for the team on the neighboring field, said Mark Warkentin, coach of the fifth and sixth grade Miami Dolphins.

“She’s the best athlete in FNL for her age,” said Warkentin. “I coached Dylan, I coached her at AYSO, and then I recruited her to play Friday Night Lights and so I’m not coaching her this season but she’s on a trajectory towards dominating the town of Santa Barbara in any event and any competition she wants. She’s good. She’s legit.”

Friday Night Lights in Santa Barbara was the first FNL program to start an all-girls league in addition to a co-ed league.

“With tackle football, I wouldn’t even think of it, but flag football, yeah,” said Jones. “It gives them an opportunity to try a sport that normally they wouldn’t get to. So, yeah, just getting out here and watching my daughter playing it and enjoying it and doing well. So it brings me a lot of joy.”

The joy Jones talked about seems to be spread far throughout the fields, especially with girls coach Amy Oliver.

“For the most part I have it all down and it’s so fun coming up with plays and seeing the smiles on their faces,” said Oliver. “I feel, you know, when we lose the game, our girls are walking off the field happy and it’s awesome.”

Oliver talked about how her favorite memories are the “long bomb throws” that go deep and the girls catch and “fly into the end zone,” but also the flag pulls.

“We have goals for every game. ‘Let’s get this many flag pulls.’ It’s never really like, hey, let’s win – we want to win, of course, but we want flag pulls. We want them out there having fun. We want them being positive. And they have been crushing it,” said Oliver. “Every one of our girls got a flag pull tonight.”

“Girls flag football should have happened a long time ago,” said Warkentin. “Santa Barbara is at the forefront of girls’ flag. And there’s going to be some really good flag football players that are going to come out of this town.”

The Pallads have also created a cheer squad, run by Nevin, who used to be a cheerleader at San Marcos.

Now, there’s flag football for girls in CIF, and flag football is going to debut as an Olympic sport in the 2028 LA Olympics.

“I would love to go to the NFL one day and play tackle, but I would love to play if there becomes one of those flag football leagues,” said 6th grader Max of the FNL Miami Dolphins. 

“If this keeps on going, I’d be down to play flag high school football here at SM,” added 6th grader Wyatt, also of the FNL Miami Dolphins.

Ted said one of his favorite memories of Friday Night Lights was in 2018 when two teams coordinated a play so that one player, Jett Castillo, who has autism and is non-verbal, could score his first touchdown.

FNL recently celebrated the end of its “lucky 13th” season with another round of its championship games. Hundreds of families gathered one more time as their kids competed for the prestigious FNL championship and trophies.

It’s a celebration for the competitors, but the perhaps the greatest winners are the Pallads, who have put everything on the line, personally and professionally, to make the league work. They have developed a good working relationship with Santa Barbara Unified, and they’re in talks with Earl Warren Showgrounds about finding a permanent home at a newly created sports facility.

“I guess my reaction nowadays is, ‘everything’s okay.’” He pointed to a string bracelet made by his daughter, Maddie, on his wrist.  

“Maddie bought this string thing, and I forgot what it meant because they all had little sayings on it, and it was ‘all is well.’”

“My dad was a surgeon here and he always felt it was very important to give back to the community,” said Nevin. “When he passed away, I made a promise to myself that I’m going to try and give back to the community the way he did. So that’s an important piece of FNL, as well as just seeing how much good we’re doing with these families, just them thanking us and the kids being super happy. We’ll do it until we can’t.”

“If something happens, and we get kicked off of high school football fields,” laughed Nevin.

“All is well,” added Ted.

“All is well,” agreed Nevin. “We’ll do it until we can’t.”

Spring 2024 Registration for the FNL Girls League, COED League and Cheer opened Nov. 15 at www.santabarbarafnl.com.