By Katrina Grant
Like most other sports, football, is a team sport. The fundamentals of the game as far as running, catching and throwing most likely won’t work well together if the team does not have a good sense of comradery.
“That is what we expect and look for in a player,” Bill Fisher, Seneca’s head football coach said. “We expect them to be responsible, hard working and a good team player.”
Fisher thinks that the time the football players spend at Seneca Youth Football tremendously benefits them when they get to high school. At Seneca Youth Football boys can begin to play football at age five and play all the way up until they are 14.
“It’s called a seeder program for a reason,” Fisher said. “It helps prepare kids for high school football. They might not come in and be a seasoned football player, but they are so much easier to coach.”
About three-fourths of the boys that play football at Seneca, have come up playing Seneca Youth Football. Many of the boys have played together for years and formed a strong bond together that helps the team win games.
“You don’t win games because you have a Division I player,” Fisher said. “We’ve gone against teams that have Division I players and won. A lot of these kids started out when they were five and six years old. They have built a bond like family and they believe in their team mates.”
The Seneca High School football team does have players that have not come up through Seneca Youth Football. Fisher says despite not coming through the ranks with the other players he still expects the same qualities as far as being a good team member from the players.
“They still play, it is our job as coaches to train them,” Fisher said. “They are a little bit behind, they up against a little more and it makes our job a little harder, but we still work with them.”
Just like many other sports, Seneca Youth Football has seen a slight decline in registration attributed to the economy, but Fisher believes that when the economy picks back up, so will the registrations.
“I think it’s just the economy,” Fisher said. “All sports are down, our area has grown a little smaller and it’s just a tough time to register kids for sports. A lot of factors go into it.”
To contact the Seneca Youth Football organization please visit: www.senecaeagles.com
