Community football entering fifth year
Kamloops Community Football’s (KCF) board of directors would love the growing trend to continue.
“Our first year, we had three teams with more than 70 kids,” said Leesa Warner, a secretary and registrar with KCF.
“Last year, five teams and 142 families registered.”
KCF started in 2008 under the Kamloops Broncos Junior Football Club umbrella.
“Dave Arthurs joined [the Broncos’ board] and basically started [KCF] with Stefen Reid and Brad Yamaoka,” Warner said.
Minor football in Kamloops was going strong until the late 1980s.
By the time the 1990s arrived, it had disappeared completely.
Reid, a Grey Cup champion with the Montreal Alouettes in 2002, is a Kamloops minor-football product.
“When I was playing in the CFL, at one time there were six guys that were playing in the CFL that were from Kamloops,” Reid said.
“All six of us grew up playing football in Kamloops in the years of minor football.”
KCF is now its own entity and is run by a board of directors, of which Arthurs is the president.
Registration for the 2012 season will be held on May 5 and May 6 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tournament Capital Centre.
The KCF welcomes players between the ages of eight and 15.
For the children ages eight to 13, the cost to play is $240. The price for 14- and 15-year-olds is $275.
The season runs from early August to the second week in November.
If a team makes the playoffs, its season is extended into the first week of December.
The eight- and nine-year-old age group practises twice a week and plays on Sunday.
All other age groups practise three times a week and play on Sunday.
Practices are held on either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and usually run from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Every team in KCF plays under the Broncos’ name, unless there are enough players for two teams in one age group, in which case the second team is called the Wildcats.
“Our ultimate goal is to have kids play for five years before they hit high school,” Warner said.
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