From the shore of Bridgewater’s LaHave River, Crescent Street travels two blocks into a small, treelined community. It hooks around Kinsmen Field to Oak Street. There, inside a dirt track, is the football field where one of the newest members of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers first fell in love with football.
Since 2012, youngsters from communities stretching across Nova Scotia’s South Shore have traveled in to play on the unassuming field. What started as a tiny South Shore Seahawks football program slowly became something bigger than anyone imagined.
“We went from this tiny little club with 20 kids, to 40 or 50 kids, to more than 100 players pretty fast,” says Sam Dickens, one of the program’s long-time volunteers and coaches. “Sometimes I stand back and think about what it’s become. It overwhelms me, and I get teary just thinking about it.”
Initially, Sam was recovering from a serious car accident, mostly helping from the sidelines. Meanwhile, her husband, James Dickens, a former high school player, quickly immersed himself in coaching for the new organization.
“Gary Linthorne and John Peters wanted to bring football to the South Shore. And one day, Gary handed James a set of pads and basically said, ‘You played football before? Then you know football. Let’s go,’” Sam recalls. “That’s how James became part of it.”
From there, James and Sam became central figures within the Seahawks family, as participation steadily exploded.
Then a boy showed up looking to try the game. He was so big that opposing team parents and administrators constantly asked to confirm his age and even see his birth certificate.
With the ability to boot the ball 50-yards as a youth and playing in the trenches on both sides of the ball, Lunenberg’s Logan Taylor would develop into one of the best football players the province has ever produced.
Growing into a six-foot-seven, 313-pound force along Boston College’s offensive line in the NCAA, Logan was eventually selected in the 6th round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
But if it weren’t for the volunteers within the Seahawks organization, he may never have had the opportunity to learn the game.
“Back then, we only had about 20 kids,” says Sam. “You could see Logan’s potential right from the beginning. Every challenge he faced, he always believed he could do it.”
At the time, however, the South Shore lacked a local high school football pathway. And Logan eventually had to leave home and attend Sir John A. Macdonald High School (now Bay View High), living away from his family during the season to continue pursuing the sport.
At first, James joined Logan, serving as an assistant offensive line coach at the school, located outside Halifax. But soon after, a Virginia-based prep school found the football prodigy, and the rest is history.
Logan’s journey may be the stuff of legend. But today, the Seahawks continue to feed players into a much stronger local football system, including modern high school football opportunities on the South Shore.
Logan also returns home regularly to host free football camps for local youth.
“He became proof for all these younger kids that it’s possible,” says Sam. “Now they realize somebody from right here on the South Shore can make it all the way to the NFL.”
Inside the Seahawks organization, though, football has always centred more around community than elite performance.
“We’ve always had a philosophy: if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong,” says Sam. “We want football here to feel like family.”
That family atmosphere became especially visible during James’ battle with cancer. For more than three years, James continued coaching while undergoing treatments.
“Football became his therapy,” says Sam. “Even on chemo days, he still wanted to go to practice. He refused to let the kids see how sick he really was.”
Last year, after James became too ill to attend the Seahawks’ annual Christmas parade, players and families organized one of their own outside the Dickens family home. With more than 100 people showing up wearing football gear and Christmas lights, accompanied by fire trucks and sirens.
“It was one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever experienced,” says Sam. “It showed exactly what this program had become. It really is a family.”
Last year, just before Christmas, the father of three passed away at 52.
As Sam now takes the lead in James’s honour, his presence remains deep within the culture and community of Seahawks football.
“I promised him I’d keep the dream alive as long as I can,” says Sam. “James would always mention how kids out here need the Seahawks family and an opportunity to play football. I agree with that 100 percent.”
