Football teams get ready for new season
By Amy Hitt
On August 4 at 7 a.m., 17 Varsity players in ninth to 12th grade suited up for the first three hour morning practice for this year’s football season at Rappahannock County High School. There were nine players that were missing from the team meeting on Friday, due to vacations and other prior commitments. Also, several players cannot get rides to the early morning practices.
At 11 a.m., players showed up for the Junior High team practice. This team will consist of players from the 7th, 8th and 9th grades. There were nine players in attendance for the first practice (7th and 8th graders), far short of the 32 students from the rising 6th and 7th grade that attended a meeting the day before school let out in June.
Again, this low attendance could have been due to vacations and prior commitments to 4-H camp and other camps. Also, with the late decision by the administration, to allow 7th graders to participate in the football program this year, several students had already made commitments to play in the Recreation Leagues in Fauquier, Culpeper and Warren Counties.
When asked if players could do both, Coach Czekaj stated, “We will not tell any player that they cannot do both, but as a parent, I would not want my child to do both. It would be very difficult for students to participate in both programs. Missing practices 2 or 3 days out of the week with either team would not be beneficial to the player or the teams. It would be hard on their bodies as well.”
In speaking with a sports trainer at Gold’s Gym in Warrenton, this reporter was told that children should participate in only one sport per season. It would be detrimental to the child’s over all physical health to participate in more than one physical sport, let alone two football teams.
Football is the most physically demanding sport that there is; children need to learn to play football from a young age. There are specific training methods and tools that should be used, to ensure that the player does not incur a serious physical injury.
Serious football players, or any athlete for that matter, should be working out and exercising all summer not just when the pre-season begins. Not being physically prepared makes a player prone to injury.
Hopefully, with the installation of the lights at Panther Stadium, more interest for the current football season with increase when school starts. And next year, with the knowledge ahead of time, that students can start playing in the 7th grade, there will be a larger number of participants for the Junior High team. Many students in the lower grades at RCES are playing football now in anticipation of being able to play for the Middle and High School teams in the future.
The teams’ whole schedules can be seen at www.highschoolsports.net or by visiting the schools’ website and clicking on the Panther Head.
-- Admin
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