Follow RodFrisco.com on Facebook and Twitter. Click the icons on the lower right side of the page. Want to find information on a specific sport? Use the tabs at the top of the page or click on the category to the right.
—
Mike Robinson has asked the question himself: When should young football players “pad up” and start playing real, hitting football?
“I’m not sure I know the answer to that,” said Robinson, the former head football coach at Cedar Crest High School. “I know I didn’t pad up until junior high. But when I was coaching at Cedar Crest, I was amazed how many kids came to us at 12 years old with multiple concussions.”
“Concussion” is now the dirtiest word in football, from the NFL to colleges to high school. The onslaught of concussions threatens to change the game, in large part because so many parents won’t let their kids go near such a dangerous sport.
“Football needs to have that positive, year-round influence,” Robinson said. And he feels he has the answer: Flag football.
That might not seem like a revelation, but consider this: So much of organized youth football is full-pad contact in community programs. Where, then, are the flag football leagues?
Answer: In church.
Robinson has teamed with Upward Sports Ministry, a Christian youth ministry program that believes that sports is a vital part of youth culture that lead to all of the benefits available to those who choose to participate.
So Upward has launched several church-based sports programs, including flag football. This week, Robinson is conducting an Upward Flag Football Camp at Mount Calvary Church in Elizabethtown. The expected draw: More than 250 kids. The camp is open to children from kindergarten through 8th grade. This week’s camp is being conducted nightly from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Mount Calvary.
“We started with 90 kids two years ago and doubled the following year,” Robinson said. “We expect to have 250 kids for football alone this year.”
So, what occurs at a flag football camp? Count off by two and go out and play on fields defined by orange cones?
No, it’s much more than that. The players who signed up for this camp (cost: $25) go through evaluations that include running and agility drills as well as specfic football skills like catching on the run, throwing on a line and throwing the ball through an inner tube. Once players are evauluated by the camp coordinator via a computer program, they are grouped by skill to compete on as much of a level playing field as possible.
“No one knows the outcome of the evaluations except the camp coordinator and the computer,” Robinson said. “And all of the kids are evaluated as individuals. We don’t allow teams to come in and stay together.”
That reduces polarization and encourages fellowship, said Robinson, who acknowledges that camps, being church-based, are every bit as much about ministry as they are about athletics.
“We have a week of devotions,” Robinson said. “We bring in local high school coaches to talk about not just sports, but the importance of their spiritual development. Upward promotes the growth of kids and family. We deliver a high level of growth with a low level of criticism.”
The camp is the first step toward playing in a fall flag football league. Mount Calvary will host a league that begins play on Sept. 11 and run through Nov. 1.
“The whole program comes in a box,” Robinson said. “It is designed to provide all of our players with an opportunity to participate and to crowd. No one is left out.”
For more information on the Upward Sports Ministry programs at Mount Calvary, please contact Richard Vaughn at 717-286-7717 or visit the Upward Sports Ministry website at www.upward.org.
