The Town of Fort Frances has added flag football for players in grades seven and eight to the fall recreation schedule.
From Sept. 13 to Oct. 6 the Town of Fort Frances will be running a flag football league as a way to introduce young players to the game of football.
Tyler Young is the Recreation and Culture manager for the Town of Fort Frances. He says the idea was brought to him by some residents, and he was on board with the town lending a hand.
“Shortly after settling in, this particular program idea was actually brought to me so it didn’t originate with me,” Young said. “Individuals from the community had been talking about the possibility of organizing some kind of football program or football league for children in grades seven and eight, they thought there was a gap there, and they were right, so the discussion began quite holistically.”
Young says a few different stakeholders came together to pool ideas and resources. Those involved included members of the community, and others involved from Fort Frances High School and the North Western Health Unit.
The program is sponsored by the Town of Fort Frances meaning the Town gives supplies and helps with organization and administration.
“As the town we take the program on and we coordinate registration, we coordinate purchasing equipment and registering lists,” Young said. “We ensure that the program is going to be offered at a high standard that is reflective of Town programming.”
The only cost to players for the flag football league is $20 and then, soccer or football cleats and a mouth guard.
The hope is to get players interested in football earlier than before, give kids an opportunity to exercise and learn a new sport and help them to know the rules if they want to join the highschool football team in the future. The season will take place before hockey has really ramped up in October.
This is the kind of opportunity Young was hoping to see when he came to Fort Frances. Seeing community members offer ideas and expertise to advance recreational programming in the town.
“For us it’s exciting, because it’s the first time we’ve offered something like this in quite a while,” Young said. “We see it as one of many more programs to come, and not just for kids. There are a lot of programming opportunities for adults, youth and children.”
Young wants to hear from people interested in starting new activities that the Culture and Recreation Department can help with.
“I think of my role as more of a facilitator,” Young said. “I men there’s times I will create a program because I think it needs to be created, but I think one of the big pieces of the role when you’re doing community recreation at a municipal level, you’re a facilitator. So if people were to come to me and say, ‘what about this?’ Or ‘I think we should do this.’ My job then is to try to help create that if it’s feasible if it’s possible. I’m completely open, my guiding principle is recreation for the people by the people.”
