Red Deer Minor Football is throwing a hail mary to try and pull young athletes into the sport.
The latest pitch from the organization is spring flag football for kids ages eight to 16 in order to provide a safe environment that also promotes skill development.
“It gets the love of football out there,” said Greg Thompson, President of Red Deer Minor Football. “(This) creates the interest and gets kids loving it. If it’s an avenue they like and they want to try the next phase, it’s a natural progression.
“They can get the skills out of the way first. Learn how to catch and throw a football and run in some open space. It’s not so hard when they move over to the tackle side.”
So far, with the registration deadline around the corner on April 23, numbers are on the low side with about 30 kids committed to a game a week on Sunday’s between May and June.
It’s a first-year initiative for RDMF.
Thompson said ideally, they’d like to have 90 kids between the four age groups (Novice, Atom, Peewee, Bantam) but will likely be able to it work with 60. He noted those numbers would allow the games to be played with five players aside and a few substitutes on each sideline.
He explained that spring flag football idea stems from spring 3-on-3 hockey, where kids develop skills with a smaller group of teammates.
“Flag allows you to work on all your skill sets and not have to worry about getting hit. You can catch a football and all you can do is tug on the flag. It’s good and athletic,” Thompson said.
“The whole idea behind the flag is to allow kids who don’t always play to find six or seven buddies to come out with them and play together as a team.”
Typically RDMF runs a spring camp this time of year for tackle football, so Thompson and the organization view spring football as a way to keep kids engaged with the sport and also develop their skills.
The RDMF president also added that with a flag football directive for kids under 10 likely being passed down by Football Canada in the near future, the push to start pushing the game that direction is necessary.
“With the way Football Canada is kind of mandating things too, flag football will be the norm for some of these age groups down the line for some of these age groups in a couple years,” he said.
“They’re allowing us a couple years to migrate away from (tackle). It’s going to be the norm for kids that are eight and nine.”
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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