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Written by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff
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Wednesday, 03 September 2008 |
Prince George Minor Football Association head coach Matt Pearce shows his atom-aged troops how to handle a snap during practice at Spruceland elementary school. The PGMFA season starts for more than 300 players on Saturday. (Brent Braaten photo)
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NORTHERN SPORT CENTRE
A year ago he was there on the field at BC Place Stadium with his Prince George peewee teammates playing a Vancouver team at halftime during the B.C. Lions-Edmonton Eskimos game.
Now, as a second-year peewee, Clark will get to relive that experience on Thanksgiving weekend when he and his teammates join forces with the peewee team from Vanderhoof to play during the intermission of the Lions-Eskimos matchup. Following the game, Friday, Oct. 10, the young players will camp out for the night at the Dome under the shadow of the goalposts.
“I’m really excited about it,” said Clark. “That was cool last year. I’d never played in a stadium and I’d never even been to B.C. Place. I think there were between 40,000 and 60,000 people there.”
Before the game, the Prince George players got to meet some of the pros as they did their warmups and came back with some autographs. The fun continued when Clark and his teammates spent the night on the indoor turf.
“Some guys were up at 3 a.m. throwing the ball around on the field and the announcer told them to go to bed,” he said.
Sending two busloads of players and parents to Vancouver for the game is a $14,000 venture for the Prince George Minor Football Association, paid for entirely through fund-raising by the peewee players and their parents. The experience was so positive for the players it was a no-brainer to accept the Lions’ return invitation, said PGMFA registrar Judy Clark, Jordy’s mom.
“The boy scouts do a camp-out there on their community night and (the Lions) said it would be fine for us to join them on the field for a sleep-out,” said Judy.
For 312 players registered in the PGMFA, the season starts this Saturday with games at Spruceland elementary school field.
The atom, peewee, and junior bantam programs are near capacity, while there is room for growth in the bantam (14-and-15-year-old) division. Last year’s total registration hit 228.
The continuing growth in popularity of high school football (see other story) has kept minor football in spotlight as more elementary school-aged players see the benefits of learning the game early to ease their adjustment to high school ball.
Nearly 100 players got the jump on the new season in February at the Northern Sport Centre at an indoor camp put on by coaches from Simon Fraser University, the Vancouver Island Raiders junior team and the PGMFA.
In May, close to 75 younger and less-experienced players took advantage of the B.C. Lions Practice With the Pros indoor camp to acquire football skills at the city’s newest indoor sports facility.
The one age division to take a hit locally is the bantam division, with only 28 Prince George players registered, down from 40 in 2007. PGMFA bantams no longer compete in the Kelowna Minor Football Association, after being voted out of the league due to travel issues. PGMFA president Grant Erickson said the Kelowna exclusion has reduced local membership in the city’s oldest minor football age group.
“The Okanagan league opted to not include us this year so that left kind of a bitter taste and (the local bantams) are opting to go the high school way,” Erickson said.
“We’re left with one team of essentially Grade 9 players and 15-year-olds who have never played. There’s 28 players registered and if they all come out we’re hoping to have enough for two teams.”
The good news is there are two new bantam teams from Vanderhoof and one from Quesnel that did not exist last season.
The bantam squad is the lone Quesnel team in the PGMFA. The past two seasons, the Correlieu high school team offered the only Quesnel football activity.
Erickson said the league needs to continue to grow before it will be ready to pursue higher competition against other leagues in the province.
“We’re getting closer, but we need to see a bit more consistency with our coaching,” said Erickson.
“We’re dependent on our registration as to whether we’ll play nine-man ball or 12-man ball. There really is no provincial championship for nine-man ball. Twelve-man is where the provincial start, and we could go 12-man, but I think it’s better for us to play nine-man because you have a better player-to-coach ratio.”
The PGMFA season wraps up Nov. 1.
n Coaches, team managers, referees and other game officials are desperately needed to help out out on game-day weekends and to help organize league practices Tuesday and Thursday evenings. If you are willing to help out as a PGMFA volunteer, call 250-964-2207.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 September 2008 )
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