(Photo: Acadia Broadcasting)
It was a record spring season of flag football for the Greater Moncton Football Association.
President Dennis Ronan says almost 300 kids, ranging in age from 5 to 16 came out to learn the sport, “The younger groups that came out in full force. The Tykes and Timbits, ages 5, 6 7 and 8 and 9. But the Peewee program, we had almost 100 kids playing football, and that is the 12 and 13 year old age group.”
Ronan says 35 per cent of the kids registered were new to the game of football.
He says it was perfect timing for the program with kids ready to get out and get active, after the easing of pandemic restrictions, “We are a multi-sport program, and many of the sports were unable to finish their season because of COVID-19. We got lucky with the timing of the program, and we seized that opportunity. Kids who weren’t comfortable because football was new to them, we focused on the fun, kept them moving, teamwork, camaraderie and teaching in a way they were having so much fun with learning all of the skills.”
It has been two years without tackle football with the GMFA, but Ronan says it is coming back for the fall. The hope is to have some component of flag as well with the program.
“With our flag program, we made sure that every week, during practice there was individual skill time and incidentally, 35 per cent of the kids that participated in our spring program were brand new to football. We were able to use the field equipment we have, including Shadowman and tackling wheels, to learn to tackle and block. Every kid that took part in our spring program, now has a working knowledge of every football position, including place kicking, punting, long snapping, that type of thing. We were very aware to implement aspects of the tackle football game during the flag program as well.”
There is an opportunity for summer football as well, “We have the Stewart Fraser Summer camp coming up. That is Tuesday to Thursday July 20 to 22. We have over 100 kids registered and we’re still weeks away. We brought this program back four years ago. The first year we had 24 kids, 35 kids the second year. Last year, we had to cap it at 90 due to COVID-19. It is a three day camp that is meant to introduce football, or to hone your skills for the experienced player. It’s a camp for all skill levels, “Ronan says. “As a side note, the splash pad in Centennial Park is open at that time, very close to Rocky Stone Field,” Ronan joked.
