By Jody Jewers, Editor, The Sport Section
Football can be an expensive sport to play and can come with significant physical risk. But the Valley Bulldogs Minor Football Association is showing another path for youth to participate.
The association partnered with area schools to form a flag football league, which has generated significant interest, according to association vice-president Danny Frame.
“The flag football middle school league (Grades 6 to 9) started last year with teams from Pine Ridge, Berwick, Central Kings and Coldbrook,” says Frame, who was an offensive lineman at Acadia University for five seasons and went on to play professionally with the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. “And we ended up having more kids sign up than we thought, so Pine Ridge ended up having two teams. We started in late April and went until early June with skill-building sessions throughout the week and would play games on Saturdays.
“This year, we were also able do a Bulldog-linked flag football eight-week program in the Bridgetown area that involved kids in the Gaspe area, Bridgetown, Middleton and Annapolis. We had 40 kids registered there and we were around 100 kids this year in Central Kings.”
Flag football retains many of the skill elements of the sport while minimizing physical contact. Mouth guards are required, but players can show up in shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers to play. Games usually involve seven players per side, but some were five-on-five, and last 30 minutes with teams switching from offence for a half to defence for the other half.
“By doing it that way, you’re not just learning how to run patterns,” explains Frame. “You learn things like backpedaling and tip drills and how to change direction.”
The special teams component (punts and kickoffs) is not used, also primarily for safety reasons. In case of injury, registration fees go toward insurance coverage through Football Nova Scotia or area schools.
Frame also noted the willingness of the tackle football programs in the area to become involved.
“There’s people who have identified this as an opportunity for kids to learn a new skill, which has been great to see,” says Frame. “We had some high school kids help our as refs, coaches were able to bring in other people who had some football background who could work with the kids, so it’s been a lot of positive word of mouth in getting people out and when you get that level of buy-in, good things happen.”
Frame is hoping that more people will step in as the program continues to grow.
“We have minor tackle football in the area for younger kids,” says Frame. “I have a son in Grade 4 and he went to some of the sessions in Bridgetown and enjoyed it, so if you get kids in Grades 2, 3, 4 or 5 involved, then maybe they’re more apt to get involved in the middle school program. And now that flag football is going to be an Olympic sport (in 2028 in Los Angeles), maybe that adds to the appeal.”
