The Badgers Football Association is welcoming everyone to football

The Strathmore Community Football Association (SCFA) Badgers football team has started up for the season last Monday at 6:00 P.M. on the field behind Crowther Memorial Junior High School (CMJHS). 

The Badgers will be taking in new recruits until the second week of September and they accept both girls and boys that want to play from the ages of 10 or older and grade 9 or less.

As a huge football fan, President of the Badgers Football Association Doug Thiessen says that he is a bit biased to the sport and thinks everyone should sign up and give it a go. Beyond loving the sport, he says the main reason parents should sign their kids up is because there is a position for every body type. 

"I can take the big geared kid who's maybe not quite as fast, and he's key to being alignment and critical to being successful, and I can take a small kid who's really quick and moving to the outside of the receiver, so there's a place for everybody to play for all body types, for all skills. It is the ultimate team sport." 

Thiessen says that he usually starts with the 10-year-olds by learning the system, this gets them up to speed about what football is all about before they hit the field to get some real in-game experience.

"I do try to play everybody every game to some degree, the 10-year-olds come on, then when they get to 11, they're starting to help out. By the time they're 12 and then their last year is a pee wee, they're kind of leading more. They're captains. They're the guys helping with the training, showing people how to do stuff." 

Being a part of the Badgers football association is a way for kids to achieve their goals and sets them up for when they decide to play with the Strathmore High School team the Spartans.

"We are not a part of that association but we work closely with their coaching too, to try to keep everything a little bit consistent within our community of football."

Thiessen says that in the 13 years that he has been coaching, it is always amazing to see how the players learn and grow throughout the seasons. 

"Just a lot of the stuff they learn that has nothing to do with the sport itself, that whole idea of working within a team, of learning to work with different people, of understanding that everybody's critical, all those things are super important."

For parents that are hesitating a little bit at putting their kid into a contact sport like football, Thiessen says that serious injuries are few and far between, at least in his 13 years of experience.

"We do have proper training for concussion protocols and we trained what they call safe contact to keep heads out of tackles, make sure that we limit the opportunity to reduce the chance of injury as much as we can." 

Thiessen would like to have as many kids as he can come out and play the sport and if they get enough kids out then they can operate two teams.

"If I have more than 28 kids, what I usually do is run what we call a red team and a blue team based on the practice jersey's that they wear. They will play offence half of the game and then they will switch with the other team and place defense so that they can play both sides."

Registration for the fall season is $325 and for the fall and spring season is $375 which as Thiessen says is one good deal for a full season of football.

"We provide all of the equipment but football cleats, and we do have used cleats that they can go through and see if they can find a pair that will fit. We also bus them to all of their away games as well so that parents don't have to worry about being there super early before the game." 

The best way to sign up is by going to the Badgers website at https://scfabadgers.ca/.

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