Former Calgary Stampeder Keon Raymond is working to bring the focus back to the skill development of football and making it accessible to all players.

Raymond, the organizer and director of the 7 on 7 summer football program, has brought a different format of the game to players in Calgary and surrounding areas to help them develop. He hopes to connect players together from around Alberta.

Raymond brought the Battle of the Beach to Chestermere on July 21 with a great turnout. Getting out to smaller communities is one of the goals of this program to connect the kids together and to expose the game and skill development to more players.

"It was great yesterday, the sun was nice and the breeze was great and boys and girls had a blast. Stampeders players Bo Levi Mitchell and Kamar Jorden came out to watch," Raymond said.

The purpose of the 7 on 7 summer program is to provide a place for players to hone their skills in a safe environment. Big time elite player camps focus on teaching the fundamentals of the game of football.

Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., Raymond began playing football at the age of five.

"It's your first love and you wanna hang around it and I think football is probably the best team sport in regards to learning life lessons and just being together,"he said.

Hard work and commitment are core values in this program. Raymond works with the players to ensure they understand the importance of that.

"For young kids to understand the discipline of how to work together, and some of these kids in our program want to go and play in college and they have to understand the discipline and hard work it takes to not only be good on the football field but in the classroom as well," said Raymond.



At the moment there is no league in Canada, currently, Raymond is working with a friend and former CFL player Geroy Simon who has a team in Vancouver to grow this league in Canada.

Teams can travel to the United States to compete as they want to, and on May 11th of this year was the first time that two teams had played a 7 on 7 game in Canada. With a team from Prince George coming to Calgary to take on Raymond's team.

The focus of the 7 on 7 league is to have players who are looking to practice their skills and maximize their time on the field.

They will have 10 players per team who will play in 20-minute games and will play multiple games at the tournaments they hold in different communities. Raymond enjoys giving the kids the chance to play on both offense and defense in this league.

After seeing his own son and other kids struggle with some skills , Raymond saw a need to bring something to help the kids get the most out of the game that he holds in such high regard.

"Our number one priority right now is safety for the kids, but the next one is skill development, and you see the joy of them being able to play football. It's competitive and super fun and that's why we have more kids coming out to play in our tournaments in these smaller communities.

Being able to give the kids the chance to come out and throw the ball, catch the ball and just run and have fun is what keeps Raymond dedicated to helping the players see their full potential.

For players and families that want to get involved with the program all information can be found on www.k25sports.com.