Lucas Punkari
After working for the past few months to get the program off the ground through fundraising and getting players interested, Ken Matthews can start to focus on the actual game of football.
Matthews, who is in charge of the Fort Frances Junior Football team, has been getting back into the swing of coaching this week at the Fort High field as the program began practices Monday.
“It’s been a refresher for the guys since the camp we had in the spring, and for myself, as well,” he joked.
“We had 30 kids sign up earlier this year, and for our first practice we had 90 percent of those players come out, so the turnout has been good in that sense,” he added.
The practices, which are slated to be held three times a week (although the exact dates going forward will be determined by schedules), will be focused on making sure the players know the fundamentals of the game and how to do play safe.
“For all of these kids, this is pretty much their first year of playing football,” co-coach Doug deBernardeaux stressed.
“So right now, we are going through the basics, such as lining up on the line, getting a three-point stance, recovering a fumble, and how to tackle.
“Everyone’s out here to have a good time, but we want to make sure that they do everything the right way,” he added.
With the players set to put on helmets and shoulder pads later this week, the squad soon will begin to get ready to scrimmage with one another while preparing to take on two teams in scrimmages later this year.
“Our first two scrimmages will be with Dryden,” deBernardeaux said. “We will go up there on Oct. 6 before playing here on Oct. 13.
“We also will be scrimmaging twice with Kenora this year, but we are still working on getting the dates set for that.”
