Numbers set for youth football team

The process of bringing back youth football to the area is moving forward here, as the Fort Frances Junior Football team had 30 prospective players sign up for the team during a registration night on Monday, June 18 at Fort High.
“Overall, it looks like we are going to have a good core of kids,” Ken Matthews, a former Muskie player and defensive coach with the program who is in charge of putting together the team, explained.

“About three-quarters of the kids (who are in Grades 7 and 8) came out to the spring football camp that the Muskies put on a couple of weeks ago, and they already have experience from playing around in the school yards.
“Going by what the program in Dryden had in their first year, they had about 35 players sign up and brought in a few Grade 6s to round it up to 40, so we’re pretty happy about getting 30 players,” he added.
Those 30 players will be the ones that will make up the roster of the Fort Frances squad this year, as Matthews is now getting equipment ordered for those players.
“We have to order the helmets for the players, and we got the head measurements for those kids already, so we are currently getting ready to send that information away,” he noted.
“Because of that, we’ve closed up the registration for this year, but we are still inviting those that might be interested in taking part in the future to come out and check us out when we get going.
“Also, we are planning to start to go around here shortly to local Rotary clubs and things like that for donations and sponsorships, as we need to pay for things such as insurance and refs,” Matthews added.
In the immediate feature, Matthews has told those that are coming out to play on the team to attend the flag football games at the Fort High football field on Sunday afternoons at 5 p.m., while the plans are getting set for another camp to be held later this month.
“We’re still working on getting an exact date set for that at the moment,” he noted.
“We have some volunteers from the Muskies team who are going to come out and coach to get their volunteer hours, and we are also busy recruiting other coaches with football experience to help out, especially with the offensive side of things,” Matthews added.
Those who are interested in helping to coach the team or support it in any way are asked to contact Matthews at 275-9957 or kenmatthews14@yahoo.ca