Archive: Sports

There's nothing small fry about Schoellkopf Field, or at least not most of the time.  But two Sunday morning games pitted Lansing's Small Fry football teams against the South Senaca Falcons.  With Luke Kutler announcing and Tom Policay working the clock, families cheering from the stands on both sides, the young players were especially excited.  "They're playing on turf," says Steve Lehr, one of the senior team coaches.  "So there's a professional level of excitement.  You look around here and you've got 20,000-worth of stadium seating and you know your family is up there cheering you on.  It gives the kids a real sense of pride that makes it worthwhile."

 And while winning is a goal, the coaches say that love of football and good sportsmanship are equally important.  "We are playing to win," Lehr says.  "But it's a fine line between just winning and teaching football and good sportsmanship.  Let's face it, all these kids know the score and want to try to win.  But we try to promote an attitude of excitement and confidence.  If you're going to play with an attitude of hustle and to do you your best, good results will follow."

"Our team does not have a lot of size so we encourage our players to utilize their strengths of speed and intelligence to overwhelm the opponent," junior team coach Jim Strait says.  "Unlike most teams that have one player that scores all of the points, we have a multitude of lethal weapons to choose from.  Our linemen have been able to create holes that our back field zips through.  When the opponents think they can stop our running game we put the ball into the air and score.  Our defense has not allowed our opponents to score any points and have typically pushed them back from the line of scrimmage.  In general our Junior team is working together as a solid unit.  We have no individuals on our team."

The games were made possible by Cornell football coach Jim Knowles, who has been supportive of youth football throughout the area.  Knowles sent tickets to the September 15 Cornell - Bucknell game to all the area youth teams to encourage them to be excited about football.  It was an exciting game as Cornell beat Bucknell 38-14, making up for a 20 - 5 loss at Bucknell last year.  All the Small Fry coaches said they were grateful for the support he has shown them, and expressed thanks for being able to play on Schoellkopf Field.

The coaches are a close group, and they make a point of creating 'football families,' who not only support their own kids, but are there to cheer on Lansing players at all levels, including the modified and varsity teams.  A tailgating party was planned for after the game, and the coaches seemed almost as excited about that as about the game itself.  "We're big tailgaters," says Junior Team head coach Mike Davis.  "We've got a really tight family between us and the senior teams.  We try to stick together.  We hope someday we can come watch these guys be in the state finals.  That's our goal."

"We're trying to promote a family atmosphere here," Lehr adds.  "In the junior and senior teams all the coaches know each other very well.  We practice simultaneously to try to make it easier for families who have kids on each team.  We promote Lansing football families, so we promote getting out there to promote the Varsity and the modified kids, and to generate excitement.  We try to draw new kids with football cams during the winter and summer, and it's paying dividends now."

Coaches also say that the Small Fry program is only the first part of a total Lansing football experience, and that the cohesion between the Recreation Department and Lansing School programs makes a big difference in kids experience and performance.  "All of us know that if you look at any successful high school varsity program -- swimming, baseball, soccer, basketball -- 99% of the time they're going to have a successful rec league or youth program," Lehr says.  "So we're trying to keep that going in the football flow of things."

  

2007 Lansing Small Fry Junior Team		2007 Lansing Small Fry Senior Team
Name	#	Name	#
Lee, Greg, Jr.	1	Todd, Josh	8
Davis, Brandon	5	Poitras, Guy	10
Davis, Owen	7	Smith, Zachary	11
Lange, Jacob	13	Winslow, Tyler	12
Mikula, Ryan	15	Rourke, Ben	16
Edwards, Austin	17	Osterman, Troy	22
Osterman, Logan	18	Clute, David	23
Strait, Jared	21	Carrican, Mason	28
Drake, Sam	24	Lehr, Greg	31
Lapar, Brad	25	Hopkins, Ellington	32
Arrison, Kyle	27	Maul, Andrew	33
Myles, Damien	29	Houghtaling, Logan	35
Ward, Alex	30	Gavitt, Brandon	36
Gustafson, Ruben	34	Barden, Owen	38
Little, Codey	46	Pinney, Zach	40
Newman, A.J.	47	Weeks, Zairien	41
Overton, Jonathan	50	Lion, William	42
Judd, Patrick	51	Uhrovcik, Tucker	43
Knowles, Luke	53	Candea, Austin	45
Barden, Alec	81	Rosetti, Mario	54
Paige, Tony	82	Towner, Thomas	70
		Presthus, Anders	80
Coaches		Smith, Cody	83
Mike Davis	HC	Walrad, Sebastian	88
Nate Snyder	AC
Jim Strait	AC	Coaches
Eric Gustafson	AC	Lehr, Steve	HC
		Winslow, John	AC
		Lee, Greg	AC
		Weeks, Ron	AC
		Pinney, Rick	AC

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