UNITY – The Unity Minor Football team has wrapped up their short season, making a comeback from last year.
The team of 26 youth was one of the largest teams over the years Daikota Tanner has been coaching.
“We have a very competitive team this year, finishing first in the league,” says Tanner.
This year the league dropped down to four teams, including Kerrobert, Plenty and Macklin. The season finished with a close game between Unity and Kerrobert, where the Junior Rebels took the lead and won 34-32.
Tanner said the players were one of the most dynamic groups he’s worked with so far.
“Every kid playing this year wanted to be there and gave their all in both games and practice. This made coaching them easy as they were eager to learn new positions and plays.”
Tanner could not do this all on his own. He was joined by Joey Carriere and Graeme Gieni and are hopeful that the program can keep growing.
“Flag and tackle football at the minor level gives these kids a head start into high school football. As coaches, we take pride in making sure the players understand the fundamentals of the game as well as being team players.”
Tanner has seen the growth in the football programs within the community. He says he feels the flag and junior tackle programs will help the players as they continue playing into high school.
The Junior Warriors team will see six players age out of the program and if they decide to continue playing with the Senior Warriors, the team will gain high-quality players.
The UMF program does not have any fundraisers planned for this year yet there are talks of a spring camp and possibly some fundraisers to help increase the supply of gear.
“We ran out of equipment this year. The program has never had that problem in the past,” Tanner adds.
