EDMONTON

The Edmonton Eskimos are starting them young.

In an effort to increase the profile of football in the city, the CFL club has join forces with the sports provincial governing body at the grassroots level.

On Thursday, Football Alberta announced a partnership with the Eskimos, forming a novice touch-football league that will introduce the game to players as young as six years of age.

“This is a way to basically redevelop the way amateur football is offered at the beginning levels,” said Tim Enger, Football Alberta’s technical director.

“Currently right now, you can get your kid involved at age nine and they can play tackle football — which is wonderful — but we’re taking a shot at going at some lower levels.

“What we’re offering next year is flag football for six-, seven- and eight-year-olds. It’s following the concept of long-term athlete development, the Canadian sports for life that is the growing concern in amateur football and amateur sports in general.”

The goal of the program is to start teaching the basic skills of the game, which Enger says has been a difficult aspect of kids trying to get involved with football.

The 16-team, 160-player league will consist of a one-hour touch football game a week, starting in September at the Commonwealth Stadium field house. The six-, seven- and eight-year-old players will receive instruction from Eskimos players.

“We’re going to get our players involved as much as we can with this and also get other football groups in the city involved.” said Eskimos community and amateur football manager, Brad Morgan. “We want to get them in at an early age to enjoy the sport.”

In recent years, there has been a concern with a declining number of kids playing football.

This program gives Football Alberta an opportunity to introduce the game at a similar age group to other sports being offered in and around the city.

“You have to go back to 1993 to find the last time that a U of A Golden Bear quarterback was from the Edmonton area for the entire season,” Enger said. “So we want to get these kids throwing the ball, we want to get them catching the ball in a non-contact environment.”

The program also helps the Eskimos begin to develop a young fan base, who perhaps one day could suit up for the local team.

“At the end of the day, 16, 17, 18 years from now, it would be really cool if a kid drafted by the Eskimos and plays in the CFL started his path in this particular thing,” Enger said.

“We’ve very excited about the prospect. We noticed some trends in the past few years.

“We have Corbin Sharun and Gord Hinse proudly representing the Edmonton area as local-grown players for the Eskimos.

“But if you go back to the glory days of the Eskimos back in the ’70s and ’80s where you had as many as six starters from the Edmonton area.”

One concern for parents about football at a young age is exposing their kids to contact so early. The novice program takes contact out of the equation, focusing on the passing and catching aspects of the game.

“I think there is that concern with contact football at an early age,” said Morgan.

“This gets them involved at an early age and helps them appreciate the sport and learn the fundamentals before they get involved in the contact.”

derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca

Twitter@Sundvandiest