Red vs White Elementary Football Game

The Red Lake Elementary Football program wrapped up its season with the 3rd annual Red vs. White Game on Wednesday, Novemeber 2, 2011. The program began in September and had numbers as high as 25 at the beginning, and was open to boys in grades 4&5. Practice was held afterschool til 5p and we were blessed with some beautiful weather this Fall that allowed us to get lots of practice in. The team only had 2 returning players from last year, so it was everyones first experience with full contact football. In the middle of October it was opened up to some 3rd graders to make use of some of the smaller equipment that was not being used. The requirements of being in the program were to have no disciplinary incidents, and to remain current on all school and homework, we lost a few kids during the course of two months, but the amount of kids who met the requirements is something to be proud of.

The game was held at the Elementary school and the weather was good despite being in the 40's with a little wind. 17 kids took part in a 8 on 8 scrimmage amongst themselves. The Red team jumped out to an early lead on a 50 yard run by 3rd grader Leroy White and extra point to grab a 8-0 lead. The White team was able to answer back with a 2 yard TD run by West Mason, set up by a nice 35 yard interception return by William Omen, but were unable to score on the extra point. Halftime score 8-6 Red.

The White team got the ball to start the second half but had a costly turnover giving the ball back to the Red team. However, the White team answered with a fumble recovery and a nice drive before throwing an interception. With 2 minutes left, the Red team went for it on 4th & 2 at midfield and gained 6 yards. On the next set of downs they were again facing a 4th & 4 with 10 seconds left when Chase Cobenais hooked up with Evan Johnson for a 20 yard Touchdown pass to seal the victory! Final score 14-6 Red.

The Red team was made up of 5th graders; Chase Cobenais, Evan Johnson, Jalen Kelly and David Smith; 4th grader Dorian Prentice; 3rd graders Elijah Cloud, Devin Sumner, Elonzo Roybal and Leroy White.

The White team was made up of 5th graders Brennon Sayers, William Omen, Keon Dow and West Mason; 4th graders; Dallas Donnell and James Martin and 3rd graders; Ronald Day and Michael Jourdain, Jr.

The boys all had fun and all showed improvement throughout the season. The program was started 5 years ago as a flag football program with the long term goal of turning around the Varsity football program, by teaching them early and getting the excitement in them for the game of football. Several of the more successful football programs in the state all have "feeder programs" such as this. This is our 3rd year as a full contact program, and based on what I have seen, I can say that if the kids stick with it and continue to work hard at improving, the Warrior football program will be a powerhouse in the very near future.

Much thanks to the Red Lake School District for approving the program and purchasing some of the equipment, to USA Football for their grant program that awarded us $2,500 for equipment to get started, the New Beginnings program who had a grant for reducing obesity that allowed us to purchase some training equipment last year, and the Tribal Donations committee who purchased an additional 5 helmets for the program this year. Most importantly to the kids, who stayed after school and put in alot of work on exercises they did not like, in order to play the game of football.