Youth Football Underway
Good morning, Broncos Country,
Our apologies to the reader who questioned whether or not we ever post anything new on our community page. We do.
Summer has been all about our youth football commitment. Thus far, we have had NFL Junior Player Development programs in Aurora (kudos to Billy Richardson who coordinated our effort at Hinkley High School) and in Denver (thanks to Jeff McDonald of Denver PAL who coordinated our 2 sites in Denver at East and Lincoln High School respectively). Next week, John Ayers will run our JPD site in Broomfield.
JPD is our joint program with the NFL geared toward teaching the fundamentals of football to the junior high school age group. It has been extremely well received, especially in light of the fact that fewer and fewer school districts are offering junior high school football.
Wayne Voorhees has been tremendous in running our JPD feeder system: High School Player Development. Wayne has run our HSPD camps for several years and now selects 12 kids from the camp each year to represent the Broncos at the NFL 7-on-7 High School tournament, which is held in New Orleans this year at the end of the week. Our own Ring of Fame member Billy Thompson has been working with this year’s team as well and will accomany Wayne and the guys down to New Orleans as an honorary coach.
I want to take a moment and reflect back on our JPD camp in Aurora mentioned earlier in the blog. Out of that camp came an unbelievable story of courage and perseverance. I had the privilege to meet a young man, Greg, who competed hard throughout the week and aspires to be a middle linebacker for the AYL league this fall. Greg is a determined and special young man and I am awed by the fact that Greg is doing all of this with just one arm after losing one in a tragic accident 2 years ago involving a pit bull. Greg, under the guidance of JPD coordinator Billy Richardson and his wonderful mother Renee, visited our group at Dove Valley last week and met with our equipment ace, Chris Valenti. Chris graciously agreed to trouble shoot with Greg what adjustments could be made to his uniform to achieve his dreams of competing this fall at middle linebacker and it looks very promising. I want to thank Chris for this very special showing of humanitarianism–we need more Chris’s in the world. I also want to tell Greg that all of us in Broncos country will be rooting him on at middle linebacker this fall . . . . . . . . . .
Before signing off, I want to make mention of our upcoming Annual Broncos Bowl on Saturday, August 9th–our summer’s culmination to a tremendous youth football journey. We are excited to have youth teams competing this year from across the state.
Until next time, have a great month in Broncos Country.