By Todd Lewis
The Ponoka Area Minor Football Association has had an eventful summer.
Not only did Ponoka kids train weekly throughout the summer at the program’s dryland practices, the program also created a brand new peewee-level team.
The Peewee Broncs will allow kids in Grades 6/7 to compete in their very own games, playing against kids their own age and size.
This is a huge opportunity for players to develop and gain experience before they are old enough to play for the Bantam Broncs (Grade 8/9) and Senior Broncs (Grade 10/11/12).
On Aug. 21, PAMFA started its Fall Camp.
Players attended a number of practices and events in order to prepare for the upcoming fall season. Fall camp concludes after Labour Day weekend (which is the start of the regular season for both the Peewee and Bantam Broncs).
Both teams are still looking for more recruits: it’s free for kids to try a couple of practices and all equipment is provided by PAMFA.
For those interested in trying Broncs football, they can email todd.lewis@wolfcreek.ab.ca for more details. It’s never too late to give football a shot!
On Aug. 26, the program carried out its first annual Broncs Bottle & Food Drive.
Broncs went door-to-door around Ponoka, asking for bottles and food donations. Bottle donations will help cover some of the program’s expenses and the food donations help stock the shelves in the Ponoka Food Bank.
The day was a huge success — players hauled in numerous truckloads of bottles and a few hundred pounds of food for our community.
“It’s crazy how many bottles we’ve collected,” said one player. “People in this town are generous.”
For those who would still like to donate bottles, they can drop them at the Ponoka Bottle Depot until the end of the week (tell them it’s for Ponoka Broncs Football).
On Aug. 22nd, the Broncs held their annual football clinic at the Ponoka Youth Centre. It was the eighth year the team organized the clinic.
Broncs ran drills and games in order to share their passion for football with younger Ponoka kids. Not only did the football clinic give Broncs an opportunity to develop leadership and coaching skills, it also gave them a chance to give back to the community.
Members from the Youth Centre said that they had a handful of kids sign up for that day just because of the Broncs’ football clinic.
