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Small Fry Indoor Football is Big Success |
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 17 March 2006 |
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to play football in winter. 7:30am, to be exact. If you make it to the indoor Field on East Shore Drive at that time you'll find the Lansing Small Fry Indoor Football Winter Training Camp in full swing. "This is really a recruiting membership drive," says Lansing Recreation Director Steve Colt. "Hopefully we can expose some kids that always wondered about it, but never tried it. We want to expose first-timers to the game, show them how much fun it is and show them how safe it is. It's a great experience."
Colt says some of the coaches from last summer's Small Fry Football program approached him, saying there is a spot between other sports when kids are free. "They said, 'What do you think of doing football like a camp or clinic?' I said that's a great idea," Colt recalls. The result is a six week program for 3rd through 6th graders.
Normally there are two levels of Small Fry Football, 4th/5th grade and 6th/7th. For the past two years the Rec Department hasn't had enough interest to form the older team. So the expectation was that the program would attract 18 kids at most. Instead, more than 50 players signed up. "Getting that many kids is really a shock to us," says Colt. "We've got some great people, Greg Lee, Steve Lehr, John Winslow is heading the thing up. Those three guys along with a host of other people. We had a better turn out than we could ever imagine."
Lehr explains, "The kids are divided into six teams with NFL names. All drills and team performances are broken down into a point system with a team concept emphasized." He and Winslow each supervise a field, with individual coaches working with each team. "The primary purpose of the camp is allow the opportunity to play football in-doors during the winter, to draw interest to the sport with fun, fast-paced action, and envelop the experience with a broad level of basic instructions of the game," he says.
It's a flag football program, with no contact. All players are welcome regardless of experience. The coaches say the purpose is to teach fundamental football skills, improve strength, power, endurance and agility. The most important thing, they say, is for the players to have fun. Each session starts with drills and exercises, and then the teams play against each other. Lehr says, "The last week of the camp will be a seeded playoff day of football games based on these point levels attained."
Colt is excited about the program. "We've had great success the last two years with the junior teams," he says. "A lot of success -- good coaches, great kids, great parents, just a real good opportunity." He hopes the winter camp will lead to more interest in the senior team this summer.
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