By Sheldon Spackman

Playing In Cohorts

Red Deer Minor Football to kick-off modified season

Aug 31, 2020 | 2:44 PM

Red Deer Minor Football (RDMF) is set to tackle a modified season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting this week, a cohort group of players aged 8-10 (Atom) and another aged 11& 12 (Pee Wee), will begin practicing at Setter’s Place two to three times per week.

Greg Thompson, President of Red Deer Minor Football, says the two 50-person cohort groups will be made up of 44 players and six coaches each – a number mandated by its governing body Football Alberta, in conjunction with Alberta Health Services (AHS).

“Everything changes so quick and so fast that you kind of plan for one thing and then all of a sudden two days later, you get some new information and it puts you in a completely different direction,” says Thompson.

For the first couple of weeks at least, Thompson says skills and drills will be the focus for players.

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“No equipment for the first couple practices, and then we will slowly kind of integrate the helmets and shoulder pads in,” he explains. “Once they get going, I’m hoping the kids don’t really notice too much of a change, other than what they see on the outside layers.”

In terms of game play, Thompson says the cohorts will split into two and simply play themselves this year. All scrimmages will be held on a Friday night or Saturday morning at Setter’s Place.

“Then we’re going to look at potentially, possibly playing another community near the end of our season,” adds Thompson. “That all depends on if Alberta Health Services relaxes some of their guidelines or Football Alberta relaxes some of their guidelines. But for now, we’re just going to stay inter-community.”

Thompson says the 50-member cohorts mean registration numbers are much lower this year.

“We’re easily half of what we would normally take at this time of year in a normal football season. It’s quite a big reduction in registration numbers.”

Thompson notes, however, it’s better than having no season at all.

“If we didn’t do anything, I think our sustainability would be even less,” suggests Thompson. “So by doing something, I think we still stay at the forefront. I think we should be alright in our sustainability going forward, but that also depends on how the rest of the province all rolls and everything else.”

Despite the pandemic circumstances, Thompson anticipates the kids that are involved will have a positive experience.

“With the style that we’re going to, you’re going to see the kids and the skill development increase immensely,” he exclaims. “We’re eliminating some of the overages I guess on the player-to-coaches ratio. So with six coaches and 44 athletes, we should really be able to hone-in and make sure the kids are doing everything correctly and they get the best out of the skill development and then translate that into a game setting when we get to playing games.”

The bottom line for Thompson is that everything is done according to current health protocols.

“We’re going to follow all of our guidelines, right from Alberta Health Services, through Football Alberta and create a little bit of our own with some City of Red Deer mixture in there as well,” he explains. “Everything will be done in a safe and timely manner and we will deal with outcomes as they come. We hope that nothing ever comes of it, but you never know.”