Susquehanna County will field three different youth football teams this year from two different leagues.
Blue Ridge is a part of the Northern Area Junior Football League, while Montrose and Susquehanna will field teams in the Southern Tier Youth Football league out of New York.
Blue Ridge president Joe Collins and company started practices on July 26, and have about 60 players involved.
The teams are the “C” team, which is 6-10 year-olds; the “B” team, which is 10-12 year-olds; and the “A” team, which is 12-14 year-olds.
Also, the league features cheerleading squads for young girls.
Collins said that so far the squads are focusing on conditioning an learning some of the plays that will be used throughout the season.
The A team is coached by Chuck Morris, the B team is coached by Sam Folk and the C team is coached by Don Hillard.
Collins said that his overall goal for the teams is to be able to go out and compete with the bigger schools.
“We’re just trying to go out there and compete,” Collins said. “Team in our league have bigger numbers, and we just want to compete while letting the kids have fun at the same time.”
Susquehanna president Brett Spoor’s Sabers also began practice last week with some conditioning work.
Burdick said that there are about 45 players signed up between the teams.
This year there will be no “A” team because of numbers, while the “B” team will be coached by Bill Perry and assisted by Brian Delaney and Fred Rowe, and the “C” team will be coached by Jack Beamer and assisted by Spoor, Jeremy Wayman, Ivan Baker and Dennis Gow.
Right now the Sabers are focused on mainly exercise and getting the kids used to the two hour practices, with hopes of moving into drills, position work, catching and throwing soon.
This is Spoor’s first year as league president and second year in coaching, and said that his goal is to get more kids involved, and help raise funds for the organization.
“We want to teach kids the enjoyment and safety of football,” Spoor said. “Pushing winning isn’t our main goal.”
He said that the program is also there to help out the varsity program by getting kids involved in the sport at an early age.
The Montrose junior Meteors are led by first-year president Jeff Fair who has been helping them prep for a new season for the past week.
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