NFL training camp

June 11th and 12th we have a football camp coming to Sincock Field in Caribou. This program is open to all area high school youth. This camp is sponsored by the National Football League and will stress on and off the field skills. This is a great opportunity for the youth of this area and hopefully something we can make a regular event. This is the type of activity we need to help make football grow in Aroostook County.

Growth on the state level

Well it was made official this week, the football league is expanding!!! We are going to be adding three new teams to the game rotation. It seems Southern and Central Maine have finally taken notice of the program. the towns of Milo and Gilford Maine are starting teams this year and Bangor Christian Academy is coming on line this year. This will now add six games to the team rotation and there is already talk of playoffs and a championship. More information will be passed on as it becomes available.

Great news and more growth

This weeks preseason practice was the best yet. We have had 3 new players join the team and show up for practice. Some of the coaches have taken these new people under their wing so they can try to get them up to speed with some of our veteran players. On an even better note we were notified that one new team had joined the league and possable two others will be joining. One team is located in the Katadin area and the other two teams are near the Bangor area. This would not only increase the amount of games the teams get to play, but talks are already underway to organise some sort of playoff and championship schedule. hopefully the adding of these three teams is just the beginning for something much bigger.

Still moving foward

Well not a lot has change this week, but some fun changes are on for next week. Right now the Quarterback sessions are producing three very viable candidate for the quarter back position. I feel all three are good candidates and each one has there strenghts and weakness. I am sure all of them are going to see action in this coming season. On tap for next week is the quarterbacks and receivers will finally be working together in the gym, if all things go as planned. For the first time this season the Quarterback will be able to use their skills as we do live drills with the receivers in a local gym. This will be an excellent opportunity for both the Quarterbacks and the receivers to show their stuff and to do some additional team building.

The book work begins

Well we continue to move forward this week by giving all the quarterbacks and coaches the new playbook for this year. The other players will not get there playbooks until sometime in June. It is important for the Quarterbacks to have them now so they can start to get familiar with the plays. Unlike other player who only worry about their assignments in the play the, Quarterback need to know what everyone is going to be in order to recognise when things are not going right and to adjust accordingly. The Quarterback continue to work on their individual mechanics and are progressing well. We also continue to see more and more player at our Wednesday workouts and I hope we have more this week. If we can continue to build on the momentum of the past weeks we will have a large base of players to work with this season. On a lighter side the new team custom Jerseys are starting to come and and they look great. I will try to post a picture of one soon the Huskies colors and red, black, and white.

Reaching out

This week was a real good week for the High school team for a few reasons. First and most importantly they are starting to truly realize they are a team. Comments were made by some of the players, in our team meetings after practice, were geared towards looking after each other and helping each other both on and off the field. This was expressed that if anyone needed help with either school work or bullies that all they had to do was ask and the team have there back. This i found to be very significant because they developed this attitude on their own. No coaching staff brought this up, or made mention of it. For them to find this significant speaks volumes to them realizing the team dynamic of the sport. On a lighter but still significant side we picked up three new people who have never played football in their lives. If this program is to continue to grow and thrive those are the people we need to reach. These individual came because they heard about it and though it sounded like it was something they would like to try. lets see how things work out for them.

more progress

This week was the best week of pre-season practice by far. On Tuesdays practice the quarterbacks are continuing to make good progress. The most surprising thing was the Wednesday practice. Word is getting around because we have gone from about 6 people at practice to 22. We are now starting to emphasis to get more players at the pre-season practice both to train and to start to get the players to bond as a team. We put out to the players to come up with a list of things they like to do so we can look for things they have in common to do as a group activity. This will hopefully allow us an avenue to take a bunch of individuals and turn them into a team.

Moving Foward

Well this week has seen a few more players showing up to pre-season practice. The word finally seems to be getting out among the players. The three quarterbacks are starting to show some signs of improvment. If they continue to improve at this pace they will be more than ready for the comming season. I am starting to get some of the local meadia on board to see it we can start a media campain to get more players and more community support but more on that later as things develop.

Things are starting to roll

With the rosters starting to grow and parent meetings in the works things are getting ready to kick into gear for the Aroostook Football League. Tonight with be the first formal practices for the quarterback and those who would like to try to be a quater back. Tonight will consists mostly of looking at body mechanics of the prospective quarterback and doing some agility drills. Hopefully we will have a good showing and maybe pick up a player or two who have good potental.

From the beginning

For two years now i have been involved with a program that i feel is living in obscurity. I am talking about the Aroostook Youth Football League. This program is open to both boys and girls from 6th grade up threw high school age. The league is broken down into three teams, middle school, junior varsity, and varsity league, with a possibility of starting a 5th and 6th grade league in the works. This is an actual tackle football league with teams in Madawaska, Presque Isle, and Houlton Maine. The program was started about 8 years ago at just the high school level and found great success expanding to the middle school level.

The program has suffered many growing pains due to the fact that the area has never been exposed to football other than television. That's has caused some problems with parents not wanting there kids to play because they do not want there kids getting hurt. I have to admit when I first started I was a bit sceptical but I soon found they are using excellent top of the line equipment, and many safety precautions are in place. I have worked as a coach and the middle school level trainer and I can assure many parents that there are very few injuries. I feel the risk far out weighs what the kids get from the program. Every time I step on the field I can see it in the kids faces. I see them growing physically and mentally, the physical is obvious, but the mentally growth is amazing. I see kids who were withdrawn or shy becoming more self confident, and more responsible. I have even seen the occasional poor behavior kid become more polite and have better self control.

Through out this blog I am going to post weekly news and information about the league and what is happening in hopes of generating more public interest in the growing program.