Patriots Alumni: Putting the ‘fun’ in football fundamentals, with a focus on safety

Monday, May 1, 2017 Carol Robidoux Featured News, Nashua 0

There are still 22 more free clinics coming up, including at least 2 in NH.

Monday, May 1, 2017 Carol Robidoux Featured News, Nashua 0

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Former Patriots center Peter Brock, President of Patriots Alumni Foundation, gives the kids the rundown. PHOTO/Carol Robidoux

MANCHESTER, NH – Brodie Crawford led the way as his mom did her best to keep up while toting Brodie’s little sister on her hip. He zoomed past the front gate at Gill Stadium and hung a right at the Patriots Alumni trailer, making a beeline to the registration table on the football field. This 9-year-old came to play.

“He did the clinic last year and was super excited to come back. He actually left a birthday party early to be here,” said his mom, Kristin Crawford-Rehm. “A party at Cowabunga’s!”

And that’s saying something about the power of a free skills clinic, open to any kid looking to up their game.

For the third year, Patriots Alumni Foundation has brought their no-contact football clinic to Manchester. The three-hour session included fundamentals, footwork, and food – and a chance for some top-shelf mentoring from six former Patriots – Max Lane, Steve Nelson, Patrick Pass, Harold Shaw, Vernon Crawford and Rick Buffington.

Actually, seven, if you count former Patriots center Peter Brock, who serves as President of the Patriots Alumni Foundation, and served as head coach for the event. He kicked things off with an inspirational sideline pep-talk with the kids – encouraging them to work hard, listen up, and try to take away just one new skill. He also gave them marching orders – no squirting anyone with the water tanks, or you’ll get the boot from the clinic.

When a boy in the back tested Brock’s street cred by asking what position he’d played for the Patriots, Brock told him, “the most important position, center – manned by only superior athletes.”

His humor may have gone over their heads, but at that moment, he had their full attention, and respect.

“Our mission is to make sure kids always have the opportunity to learn leadership, teamwork and achievement through hard work, and of course we use football as that platform, to get that message out,” says Brock, who played for the Pats from 1976 to 1988. He said the foundation started when a group of former players, about 120 of them all still living within driving distance of Gillette Stadium, considered the impact they could have if they applied their experience and skill set to encouraging the next generation of athletes.

“One of our own, Garin Veris, was working in Mayor Menino’s office in the Parks and Rec department, and he came to an alumni meeting and said there’s a big disconnect with kids playing sports in inner-city Boston. We decided we needed to create a program that we could take to all kids in urban areas, kids who are underserved when it comes to access to programs,” says Brock. It’s a disconnect that stems primarily from economic and cultural disadvantages – kids or parents who haven’t been exposed to football.

Ten years later, Brock says the program is hitting its mark.

“You can look in a kid’s eyes and see appreciation that someone’s just paying attention,” he says.

They now bring the Patriots Alumni Foundation “Football For You” program to cities and towns across New England says Brock –  from Bangor, Maine, and New Bedford, Mass., to Burlington, VT, all the way down to Clinton, CT, “and all points in between,” he adds.

The Manchester session, held April 30, was the first of 23 clinics scheduled for 2017.

“The one thing we do with this camp is it’s set up so that kids who’ve never played the sport can learn something from it, and kids who have played youth football are probably playing a primary position, get to experience the drills and skills related to every position in football, so even the big kids get to be quarterback for a day,” Brock says.

[Story continues after slide show]

Photos by Carol Robidoux

Luis Martinez tossed a football to his son, Luis Martinez III, during pre-clinic warm-ups.

“He loves football, and he loves the Patriots, but he’s never played before. He’s here to try it out,” says Martinez, who spent the next three hours shadowing his 10-year-old son as he moved through various skill stations, taking photographs and relishing the opportunity for his son to learn more about the game from the pros.

In addition to the Patriots alumni, there were several assistant coaches present from the Manchester Bears football organization, and high school mentors and coaches from Central High School.

Among them, Darnerius Watson, 37, who came to Manchester in 2004 with a two-year plan to play for the now-defunct Manchester Wolves arena football team. But when the team folded, Watson opted to stick around, and became a coach for Central High School’s JV and Varsity football teams.

He says community football clinics may provide the door to recreational football that is hard to find in some inner-city neighborhoods.

“I’ve actually been noticing that more incoming freshmen at Central seem to be coming in with a lack experience in football,” Watson says.

Although the majority of participants were boys between the ages of 9-14, there was a strong showing among girls. Carolyn Kemp, 9, of Bedford was doing drills with Saido Abdi, 9, of Manchester. Both girls said they play other sports, including soccer and basketball, but were having fun learning more about football.

Ditto that, says Lily Grondin, 9, a student at McDonough Elementary in Manchester.

“I do a lot of sports – cheerleading, snowboarding, dance karate. But I love this,” she says. “I’ve thought about playing football, but I have too much fun cheerleading to give it up for football.”

Moms Andrea Canny and Theresa Courchesne, both of Manchester, were there to check out tackle football. Both mothers say their sons have played flag football, but they are concerned about the potential for injury with contact football. Canny says she’s already decided to let her son Domenick, 9, try football this year. Courchesne is still on the fence.

“It’s definitely a safety thing. We just watched that movie yesterday, “Concussion,” with Will Smith. I mean, if my son wants to try it, I guess he can try it. We’ve looked into it already. The Bears play five nights a week, and that on top of everything else he has going on will be a lot. He likes every sport, and he’s played flag football, but he really wants to try this.”

She said she and her husband looked at helmets at Indian Head Athletics, and they appear to be built for safety and well-made, with plenty of shock absorbers. But they are also pricey – one they looked at was $350.

For parents, the cost of equipping kids who grow like weeds, coupled with safety risk factors, is a big consideration.

But getting kids involved in sports is also about commitment. It’s an important part of growing up, especially if a kid is going to have a shot at learning basic life lessons that go hand-in-hand with team sports,  says Johnny Doria. He was there to watch his son, Gio, on the field, along with TJ DiGiantommaso, whose son Anthonys, 9, also plays on the Southwest Sabres with Gio. Ralph Alicia, who was there with his grandson Daniel, 10, coaches flag football at NH SportsPlex in Bedford. All three men say they have experience with various sports programs around the city, and were impressed with Sunday’s free football clinic.

“If you Google-search football clinics, there are so many out there – I had Anthony in probably a half-a-dozen clinics last year, and he developed his skills because of that,” says DiGiantommaso. “At this age, you’re not teaching them how to hit; you’re teaching them more of the skills that they need. You need the kids to learn how to move without the ball, how to do drills, how to be more efficient with the drills they’re doing, footwork, hand-eye-foot coordination.”

The problem is, many clinics and programs out there require a good chunk of change to participate, says DiGiantommaso.

“USA Football runs a program – I looked it up for Anthony – it’s $765 for one week, Monday through Friday. That’s why something like this is awesome for the kids,” he says.

And also, it’s awesome for the community, he adds.

“What do we have, 100 kids here today? Being introduced to a dying sport because of soccer taking over, and it’s a non-contact clinic, so parents are more inclined to bring their kids here. They’re teaching them the three-point stance, or why not to lean forward – because if you do you’re going to hit with your head first. It’s about safety, about how to keep their balance on their body, which reduces the amount of concussions in the sport, DiGiantommaso says. “That’s why we’re here, so the kids can learn how to play safely.”

Doria said there was another lesson he wanted his son to learn on the field.

“I told him to pay attention to what these guys are doing. You always want to be there for other people in life, and that’s what these guys are doing. They’re giving back, and they don’t have to be here, so you need to learn just from that. If you learn that one thing, you’ve already learned a valuable lesson today: Take care of people and God will take care of you,” Doria said.

The remaining 22 Football For You clinics are all free and open to the public, regardless of where you live. There are two more scheduled in New Hampshire, with a third pending in Portsmouth. Check the schedule and see if some of the dates correspond with your vacation schedule.

About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!

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