FrogBoy's first season of high school football (a RL dynasty)

[FrogMan]

Seeing JiMGA's thread about Georgia HS football and Poli's thread about coaching youth football has made me want to share what we're getting ready to live as a family: our son's first season of high school football.

I'm saying "as a family" because not only do I support and follow closely what he's living, pretty much living through him a football career that I never had, but also my wife is turning into a football addict. Seriously, she was supportive of him through the last four years of youth football, but she's really turned it up a notch this time around. Heck, anytime a CFL game is on TV, you can bet she'll tune in for a few minutes, and now she's watching pre-season NFL football for the fun of it. And she's asking all kinds of questions trying to understand as much as she can in order to appreciate a bit more what's gonna happen this Fall when he takes the field.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. I just wanted to start this thread off. I'll be back with a bit of explanation as to how different our school system is in Quebec to what most of you guys know in the US, and what it means for our high school football. I'll also explore a bit of the rules differences between American and Canadian football (a rouge anyone? ) as they will use a sort of blend of both rules, with a predominance of Canadian football rules. Finally, I'll give a bit of back history about my son's football playing and we'll take it from there. They've been practicing for two weeks now and their first game of the season is set for September 13.

Hopefully I won't be talking to myself too much.

FM

[k0ruptr]

I'll be tuning in...

[FrogMan]

The school system in Quebec is a fair bit different than the US system. Kids aged 5 by September 30 enter kindergarten. It's the case of our youngest son this year.

After that, there's primary school from grade 1 to grade 6. Andrew, FrogBoy in this dynasty, graduated from grade 6 last June.

After that comes High School, or Secondary School as it's often called around here. It runs for five years, from Secondary 1 to Secondary 5. We don't really have any denomination for years like frenshmen, sophomores and so on. Andrew will start his Secondary 1, or first year of high school, next Monday at age 12. I'll be back in a few to expand on the levels of football we have in high school.

For sake of information, after High School comes a mandatory prep school type, called CEGEP. It's derived from Collège d'Enseignement Général Et Professionel, which loosely translates to College of General and Professional Education. At that point, kids are 17yo and can either take a 2 year preparation program to go to University, or a professional/technical 3 year program that would allow them to go straight to work. There's some football at that level too, with a good program in our area, but I won't expand on that, since we're a good five years away from him getting to that level.

After that comes College (or University) football. Laval University is the local college and my alma mater, and reigning Canadian National Champs. It's been said their level is maybe Level 2 of the NCAA. They have the highest crowds in the CIAU (Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, or the equivalent of the NCAA in Canada) averaging more than 15,000 fans per game, which for us is quite good. The emergence of that great program has been the catalyst to seeing so many new high school football programs in the area. From there being only 20 high school football teams (teams, not programs) in the area in 1996 when The Rouge et Or (literally translated, the "Red and Gold", the name of Laval's team), that number was more than doubled by 2001, up to 42 teams to finally peak at 96 teams in 2008. These 96 teams were split among 42 schools. Only 11 schools had a football program back in 1996...

Now back to high school football in Quebec. There are three categories of play, based on age, and to some extent weight: Benjamin, Cadet and Juvenile, from youngest to oldest.

Benjamin is for kids entering Secondary 1 or 2 (basically first and second year of high school). There's also a category called Benjamin-minor that is restricted to only players in Secondary 1. Andrew's school will be playing in the regular Benjamin category.

To the age restriction, a weight restriction is added. A player in his first year cannot weigh in at more than 160lbs. A player in his second year cannot weigh in at more than 120lbs. A player who's over the weight limit has to go play in the Cadet category. This lower weight limit for second year players means that players returning to play football in Secondary 2 and that play in Benjamin are all the smallest players. Other way to see this is that most linemen positions are filled by first year players. I don't know exactly how much Andrew weighs at the moment but he weighed at 130lbs at the start of Sumer and I remember him telling me he had lost 3 lbs with soccer and playign outside during the summer vacations. It wouldn't surprise me that he'd weigh in at 125lbs right now. This means he's below the weight limit for a first year player, but will probably only play one year in Benjamin.

As with many other sports leagues, the Benjamin teams are split in divisions that range from B and A for smaller programs, or programs that are just starting, to AA for better established programs. Andrew's team will be playing in Benjamin AA, the highest possible in the extended Quebec City area. It's a regional league with most teams within 45 minutes from one another at most, one other being maybe 1h15 away and one out of region team that's about 2h30-3h00 hours away.

To give some information as to what kind of football school he'll be attending, they will be fielding a team in Cadet BB (ranging from B-A-BB-AA) and Juvenile AAA (ranging from A-BB-AA-AAA). Reason why they kept their Cadet in BB might be because many of their Benjamins from last year are returning to Benjamin this year, added to the fact that they went 2-7 last year in Benjamin. Their Juvenile AAA team is moving up from AA this year and will be playing in the provincial league.

That's about it for the school system and the football levels.

Let me know if there's any question, or if you want to compare it with what you're used to see in the US in general or your area in particular. I just read BYU14's description of what they have in AZ and it did sound quite a bit different.

Next up will be some talk about specific rules and such, given that they'll be playing with some Canadian and some American football rules.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

I'll be tuning in...

welcome aboard, hope you'll enjoy the ride

FM

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, so Secondary 1 is roughly equivalent to the US 7th Grade.
That'd be the early/middle stages of the typical middle school so I've got some basis to compare from.

Benjamin = 7th & 8th graders. Here that would be either one team or in considerably larger schools you might split them into one per grade or ability. It could & probably does gets split differently in other states which may be more organized than the Middle School level is here in Georgia. It's really about on the club level here, only loosely organized with a lot of leeway with regard to scheduling & the like given to the schools. There's also no attempt made to divide them into classifications (unnecessary since there are no official championships), it's almost entirely geographical. Every team our MS program will play this year in their 8 game schedule is within 30 minutes or so and unlike the HS they will repeat a couple of opponents in a home-and-home regular season series.

What isn't allowed in Georgia (and as far as I know isn't allowed in many places) is for those students to play up regardless of weight or ability at the Junior Varsity/JV/B-Team level, which is what Cadet seems roughly equivalent to. Here, you've got 4 years of HS sports eligibility (grades 9 through 12) and that's it and since HS is usually defined as 9 through 12 that's what sets the bar for that Varsity level (which seems pretty clearly the equivalent of your Juvenile level)

The biggest difference is almost certainly the sheer number of teams. In Georgia, give or take, there'll be 300-320 varsity/juvenile teams playing this year, probably 200-250 JV/cadet teams, and I hestitate to even guess about MS/benjamin level teams, maybe something in the 400-450 range.

I base that on my nephew's county, where there's only one high school but they're fielding 2 middle school teams. For every one of those, you've got another county that's 1:1 but another that's a 3:1 ratio and still others that don't organize that age group at the school level but rather play in recreational or private leagues.

One comparison I'm curious about that I didn't pick up enough info to make is that what you described seemed to be for Quebec, what about the rest of the country? Here, every state has it's own unique way of classifying teams, even down to the existence & popularity of 8-on-8 football in a few states. How similar is Canadian football's organization to what you described from province to province?

[DaddyTorgo]

wait a second - you went to Université Laval ? So did almost every Canadian I work with. Hahahaha...small world.

[BYU 14]

This will be cool, I am very interested in the differences between US and Canada HS ball. I will be following!

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Okay, so Secondary 1 is roughly equivalent to the US 7th Grade.
That'd be the early/middle stages of the typical middle school so I've got some basis to compare from.

Benjamin = 7th & 8th graders. Here that would be either one team or in considerably larger schools you might split them into one per grade or ability. It could & probably does gets split differently in other states which may be more organized than the Middle School level is here in Georgia. It's really about on the club level here, only loosely organized with a lot of leeway with regard to scheduling & the like given to the schools. There's also no attempt made to divide them into classifications (unnecessary since there are no official championships), it's almost entirely geographical. Every team our MS program will play this year in their 8 game schedule is within 30 minutes or so and unlike the HS they will repeat a couple of opponents in a home-and-home regular season series.

thanks for the comparison re: age group and levels. Having never been through the American school system, I was never able to get a good grasp of what the equivalents were to what I grew up with.

Our Benjamin will be playing for a championship, with a playoff system.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

What isn't allowed in Georgia (and as far as I know isn't allowed in many places) is for those students to play up regardless of weight or ability at the Junior Varsity/JV/B-Team level, which is what Cadet seems roughly equivalent to. Here, you've got 4 years of HS sports eligibility (grades 9 through 12) and that's it and since HS is usually defined as 9 through 12 that's what sets the bar for that Varsity level (which seems pretty clearly the equivalent of your Juvenile level)

Interesting. The whole playing up thing is a provincial rule as far as I learned.

Are there any weight limits/restrictions in Georgia?

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The biggest difference is almost certainly the sheer number of teams. In Georgia, give or take, there'll be 300-320 varsity/juvenile teams playing this year, probably 200-250 JV/cadet teams, and I hestitate to even guess about MS/benjamin level teams, maybe something in the 400-450 range.

I base that on my nephew's county, where there's only one high school but they're fielding 2 middle school teams. For every one of those, you've got another county that's 1:1 but another that's a 3:1 ratio and still others that don't organize that age group at the school level but rather play in recreational or private leagues.

I knew the number of teams could never compare but these numbers are astounding. Always good to remember that Canada, Quebec in particular I'd guess, is a hockey nation. There are tons of hockey teams and leagues, but most are not school driven.

Football remains a fringe sport so to speak although it has picked up considerable interest as reported by the increase in the number of teams. One tidbit of information I forgot to mention earlier is that the football program at Andrew's school only started back in the Fall of 2002.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

One comparison I'm curious about that I didn't pick up enough info to make is that what you described seemed to be for Quebec, what about the rest of the country? Here, every state has it's own unique way of classifying teams, even down to the existence & popularity of 8-on-8 football in a few states. How similar is Canadian football's organization to what you described from province to province?

I doubt I'llbe able to help you there. Just did a bit of googling and came upon this website that tells me that most other provinces follow the American system. I'd assume that football might follow the same type of system too, but I wouldn't be able to tell you.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

wait a second - you went to Université Laval ? So did almost every Canadian I work with. Hahahaha...small world.

hehe, small world indeed. Were they all Quebecers or from elsewhere in Canada? I'd be pretty surprised if they were from elsewhere in Canada to be honest, as Laval is a French speaking university, in fact the oldest Non English University in North America.

FM

[Poli]

IN.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

This will be cool, I am very interested in the differences between US and Canada HS ball. I will be following!

Glad to have you on board as I just discovered your Freshmen dynasty. Please do realize there's no way I'll be able to even scratch your level of detail.

I really don't have your background as a coach, nor do I pretend to. I'm just a dad, really proud of his son, who's got about nobody to talk to at work who will understand a quarter of what he's talking about when he's talking football. Seriously, when I tell most people around here that Andrew practiced at center last week, all I get are mostly blanked stares which prompts me to explain that the center is the guy snapping the ball to the QB (which they do know about, thankfully)

I'll mostly be writing as a dad watching/living his son's high school football debut.

FM

[JonInMiddleGA]

Are there any weight limits/restrictions in Georgia?

Nope, at least not at the school organized level. That's something that you'll see with recreation department leagues or private leagues (it's mentioned frequently & in some detail in Poli's youth football threads as well as a few others) but once you get to high school the bigger the better. It's actually not all that uncommon to see the elite schools fielding lines that are similar or even occasionally larger than college football lines.

Once you hit HS age though, virtually everything of note lands under the auspices of either the Georgia High School Association (the main sanctioning body, all public & nearly half the private secondary schools are members) or the smaller Georgia Independent School Assocation (60 or so smaller private schools). There are a couple of other very small groups, an 8-man league that's got a handful of private school or home-schooled teams together as well as small Christian school league but between them I don't think they even have as many member teams as Quebec.

Really looking at it, I don't think the structure is all that different, it's just the terminology that makes it hard to decipher at first.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

hehe, small world indeed. Were they all Quebecers or from elsewhere in Canada? I'd be pretty surprised if they were from elsewhere in Canada to be honest, as Laval is a French speaking university, in fact the oldest Non English University in North America.

FM

is that so? i do believe they're all Quebecois by birth (or at least all those who went there are).

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Glad to have you on board as I just discovered your Freshmen dynasty. Please do realize there's no way I'll be able to even scratch your level of detail.

I really don't have your background as a coach, nor do I pretend to. I'm just a dad, really proud of his son, who's got about nobody to talk to at work who will understand a quarter of what he's talking about when he's talking football. Seriously, when I tell most people around here that Andrew practiced at center last week, all I get are mostly blanked stares which prompts me to explain that the center is the guy snapping the ball to the QB (which they do know about, thankfully)

I'll mostly be writing as a dad watching/living his son's high school football debut.

FM

hey that's cool - it'll be cool to have an outlet to share your pride and eventual frustration i'm sure.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Nope, at least not at the school organized level. That's something that you'll see with recreation department leagues or private leagues (it's mentioned frequently & in some detail in Poli's youth football threads as well as a few others) but once you get to high school the bigger the better. It's actually not all that uncommon to see the elite schools fielding lines that are similar or even occasionally larger than college football lines.

interesting. I never said anything since it wasn't of use for Andrew's Benjamin category, but there are no weight limits at higher levels, at least not in in teh division that his school's Cadets and Juveniles will play. There's certain weight limit for signle letter Cadet school (A & B) but since his school already plays in BB and might probably move up to AA by the time he's playing at that level, it will bever be applicable.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Once you hit HS age though, virtually everything of note lands under the auspices of either the Georgia High School Association (the main sanctioning body, all public & nearly half the private secondary schools are members) or the smaller Georgia Independent School Assocation (60 or so smaller private schools). There are a couple of other very small groups, an 8-man league that's got a handful of private school or home-schooled teams together as well as small Christian school league but between them I don't think they even have as many member teams as Quebec.

There's the same type of governing body around here, called the Association Régionale de Sport Étudiant, Québec-Chaudières Appalaches (ARSEQQCA or something like it). It's from their website that I got the weight limits.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Really looking at it, I don't think the structure is all that different, it's just the terminology that makes it hard to decipher at first.

I agree with that assessment. If anything, putting that thread together helped me demistify some of what I was reading about High School football in the US. You know, having watched a movie like Firday Night Lights, or reading the dynasty threads we have here (which I'm just starting to really enjoy, given how close to home they are hitting), I was always a bit confused as to how they were relating to what we have here in Quebec. Sometimes is simply in translating the terms, but sometimes it's also in putting stuff in relative terms one to the other. Thanks for the help you provided here.

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

is that so? i do believe they're all Quebecois by birth (or at least all those who went there are).

Well, yeah, UL is the biggest French university in North America and my guess would have been that yeah, they were all Québécois by birth, at the very least, and possibly French Canadian. Having been there for a while, all classes were given exclusively in French and we didn't see too many English speaking students back then. Anyway, that's pretty cool. I went to business school there, graduated in 1993.

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

hey that's cool - it'll be cool to have an outlet to share your pride and eventual frustration i'm sure.

Oh definitely the main reason behind me creating this dynasty. Seeing him so involved in the whole thing and so passionate about it is inspiring, and a great source of pride. But I'm sure there'll be many moments of frustrations too.

[Icy]

I'm in!

I'm surprised that we use almost the same terminology in Spain for categories in kids sports, Benjamin, Cadete and Juvenil. Probably comming from your French heritage.

The main difference is that sports and education are not tied at all in Spain. If you want to practice organized sports, you need to join a club/team in the appropriate category based on your age. Depending on the club level, you might need to tryout first.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Icy

The main difference is that sports and education are not tied at all in Spain. If you want to practice organized sports, you need to join a club/team in the appropriate category based on your age. Depending on the club level, you might need to tryout first.

That actually leads to another possible confusion that I actually worried about when I posted it up the thread.

I referred to some youth teams as being "about club level" but wasn't at all comfortable with whether that phrase means the same thing everywhere. What I had in mind was akin to how it's used at the college/university level, basically fairly loose organizational structure that is affiliated with the school in some way but not subject to the degree of restrictions of a much larger organization. Would also be called intramural sports, playing opponents from within a general geographic region as opposed to intermural sports where the competitors & opponents are all from the same campus.

Examples in the US in many places would be sports such as rugby and ice hockey (in the south and parts of the west), at the high school level it varies even more by state but some examples from Georgia would be rodeo and bowling (which are big deals in some other states I believe).

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Icy

I'm in!

I'm surprised that we use almost the same terminology in Spain for categories in kids sports, Benjamin, Cadete and Juvenil. Probably comming from your French heritage.

The main difference is that sports and education are not tied at all in Spain. If you want to practice organized sports, you need to join a club/team in the appropriate category based on your age. Depending on the club level, you might need to tryout first.

Welcome aboard!

Spanish and French are very close so it makes sense. Still interesting that in a case like this, it ends up being so close.

Football is pretty much the only sport in Quebec where it's more associated with school than club. Most of all other sports can be found in school sports, hockey being one example, but their main group of participants will be playing in club organized competitions. Take hockey, it's open to anyone on the club level, absolutely not associated to any school but more on a city by city (or group of cities) basis, but you have to tryout if you want to make the more competitive divisions.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Poli

IN.

had missed that before. Very glad to see you on board.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

That actually leads to another possible confusion that I actually worried about when I posted it up the thread.

I referred to some youth teams as being "about club level" but wasn't at all comfortable with whether that phrase means the same thing everywhere. What I had in mind was akin to how it's used at the college/university level, basically fairly loose organizational structure that is affiliated with the school in some way but not subject to the degree of restrictions of a much larger organization. Would also be called intramural sports, playing opponents from within a general geographic region as opposed to intermural sports where the competitors & opponents are all from the same campus.

Examples in the US in many places would be sports such as rugby and ice hockey (in the south and parts of the west), at the high school level it varies even more by state but some examples from Georgia would be rodeo and bowling (which are big deals in some other states I believe).

yeah, it's very similar to how it's done around here too.

FM

[FrogMan]

I had planned on talking about rules differences or what specifics I know about them next but I'll change the order a bit.

Since a new week is starting, and with it a practice today, and since I didn't to fall behind too much, I've decided to go ahead and introduce you to my son Andrew and do some retro-reporting of how his preseason has gone so far.

Andrew turned 12 last March and has been playing tackle football for four years. From what I've learned, the football program started at his high school in the Fall of 2002 with a team in Benjamin and Cadet, only to be followed the next Fall (2003) by a Juvenile team. They've had all three teams ever since. Back before 2004, they used to hold some sort of Summer camps, on Saturdays for grade 6 kids that were about to enter the high school and were interested in playing football. There are no civil football of that age in the area so for many of them, it was the first time they'd strapped some pads and and helmet to play football. In 2005, they started a Summer league that included kids grade 5 and 6 and in the Summer of 2006, that league got expanded to included a second division for kids grade 3 and 4 to play together.

Summer 2006 is when Andrew was to finish is grade 3. One day he came up from school with a sheet announcing the start of that league, he was all excited about it. For some backstory, I gotta say that back in 2001-2002, I had played contact football in a senior league. Andrew being Andrew and being like many other kids, he really, REALLY wanted to do like his dad and play football. It automatically made me proud, and somewhat nervous. I mean football is not badminton and while he was already taking karate classes, I didn't know how he'd cope with being hit, or hitting someone else.

Anyway, he fell in love with the sport immediately. The league were coached by kids from the Juvenile level or from the local CEGEP (Junior College type level) and I was seriously impressed with the how cool it was to see him have fun in a team sport. The game was adjusted to play 9 on 9 on an 80 yard long field by maybe 40 yards wide.

He's always been a strong kid and while not real tall or superfast, has always had strong balance and good legs. He seeked out to play on the defensive line cause, well, daddy was a defensive end. Season lasted from mid-May to end of June, or about the last 6 weeks of school. His team ended up winning the championship that year.

His second year in the grade 3-4 league, he played a tiny bit of O-line at times but sorta looked lost. He understood the concept of hunting the ball on defense but was not grasping the blocking after his first block had been made. Again had lots of fun and again won the championship, in overtime that time.

Then came his first season in the grade 5-6 league. We could already see some big size shifts there with kids getting ready to go play Benjamin in the Fall. Andrew started that season a bit slow but ended up playign both ways, O-Line/D-Line, by the time the last game came. By the end of that season, he was well known by many of the coaching staff, part for him showing some ability, which certainly made mommy and daddy quite proud, and part for him beind a well behaved, disciplined kid who listens when he's being taught somethign, which made mommye and daddy even prouder.

This last June, getting ready to posibly playing this Fall with the Benjamins, he played both ways on the line from the getgo. There were some games when he would only come out for one series, not that he was really whining about staying on the field, but the number of linemen on an 18 player team isn't always high and some kids were asking to stay out in order not to play line. Gotta say that these leagues were pretty recreational in their approach, although they were practicing twice a week and playing a game on every Saturday for 6 weeks. That last season of Summer football ended with him stealing a handoff and running it off for a TD. That's right, coming from the defensive end spot, he went in unblocked and stole the handoff between the opposing QB and RB and ran off with it for some 30 yards for a touchdown. I tell ya, I cried in the stands that day, and my wife pissed her pants off.

For the fun of it, I've included scans of his player card from the last four seasons. Pretty impressive to see how much he's grown in the last four years...

This Fall, the Benjamin team at his school will welcome the first group of players who'll have the chance to play through four Summer seasons of the Primary school league. They currently have 39 players on the team, compared to 25-27 players last year.

The Summer league's Championship Sunday was on June 28. They had set to practice without equipments once a week to put in the offensive and defensive playbooks, starting on Monday July 6. Andrew went to that practice but it turned out that linemen were not needed, since they were only running plays. He had some Summer camps and vacations for a few weeks anyway and was to miss the next few Mondays. When he went back on August 33rd, he was the only lineman there and he ended up helping out by filming plays. They told him he didn't have to come until the start of preseason camp.

Preseason practices started with two big days on August 18 and 20. On those days, we left Andrew at the practice field at 9 in the morning and picked him back up at 4 in the afternoon. He said they ran plays, pratice in units and took much need breaks here and there. I couldn't be there (work you know) and it was hard for me to imagine they'd practice for 7 hours in a day but Andrew's not the most talkative so I have to go with what he's giving me.

Andrew's the kind of kid that'S a bit introvert and he will sometimes wait for someone to ask him to do something instead of taking charge and taking a spot. I had told him going into the two days of practice that if he really wanted to play D-line, he had to make it known. He doesn't mind playing O-line, but has always said to us he liked playing D-Line more. I was pleased to hear at the end of the first day that he had gone to the line coaches and had specifically asked to play D-line. He said they'd put him on the right defensive end spot and that they played a 3-3 defense which kinda surprised me a bit. He practiced in that spot for the two big first days.

After those two days came a weekend retreat camp. On Friday August 21st after dinner, the whole team left for two days by bus to a camping ground about 90 minutes away from school. I'm sure it's nothing to many of you, but I'd never seen that, and Andrew had never experienced anything like that in his sports life before. He told us they practiced for 90 minutes on Saturday, that the practice was filmed and they met individually with their coaches in the evening that day. He was told that they were not sure if defensive end was the best place for him and that they would like to have him start practicing at right guard. He said he was a bti disappointed by the announce but it was okay, he still would have fun playing O-line. I could see in his eyes that he was really disappointed by it though, but he was putting up the strong front and soldiering on. He said they had another 90 minutes practice on Sunday before heading back home. Other times were filled with team fun like swimming in the lake at the ground and with two big campfires on Friday and Saturday nights. Overall, he looked like he enjoyed the weekend, despite the bit of negative news. He said he practiced at right guard on Sunday and it went okay. I told him to work hard and that if they ever put him back on the D-line, to work his butt off to show how effective he can be. Always learn something from a disappointment...

Back to their decision, looking at it with a cold head, I can see why they went the way they went. See, Andrew has a decent sense of what to do when playing defensive end but he isn't really super tall or super explosive or super fast. He's strong though, with a good balance and can hold his own against kids bigger than him. On the ride back home that Sunday, he told me they had given him something to work on that they had picked up on the films. They said he had a tendency to give up his pursuit once the play had seemingly gone the other way. I had told him to never give up, especially on running plays. You know, when daddy says it, it's not has impressive as when your coach says it. I'm not saying it was the main reason why they said they'd try him at right guard, but it might have contributed to it.

One other thing that might have had a little to do with it could be an apparent lack of aggressivenes due to a sprained pinky finger. The Wednesday before going to that weekend retreat, he played soccer and when goalkeeping, received a strong shot that he block with his right hand. At first I didn't know he was injured until I saw him from the bench (I was the coach of his team) and he was holding his right hand. First thing I thought was a broken wrist and my heart knotted. When I got to his goal running, I took off his keeper glove and his pinky finger was dislocated, crooked to the side. I pulled on it and put it back in place. He was able to move his finger, although with great pain. He put ice on it for a couple days but it was still swelled when he went to that camp. I taped two of his glove fingers together but he was still not able to be as feisty as he usually is. Again, it's not a major reason, but could have contributed...

Last week was their first week of regular practices. Practices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 6:30. This is how a regular week will go for them from now on, three practices a week, right after school. I get home at about 4:45 and have had many little things to take care around the house so I usually am only able to attend maybe 15 to 20 minutes at the end of practices.

Anyway, last week started with him back to defensive end on the Tuseday practice. For some unknown reason, when he got to practice and asked where he was playing, they told him to take a spot on the D-Line. Was fun to see his face when he told me that he put into practice what they told him and it paid off. He told me in vivid details about how on one play he kept his motor running once the QB had broken out of the pocket on the run and that when he tried to cut back in, Andrew found himself with a linebacker there to make the tackle for only a small gain.

Anyway, to see him happy to be back at defensive end made me happy, but also got me slightly worried. Worried that he'd be bumped around and they'd end up plugging him back into an O-line spot only a few practices before their first game and he'd end up looking like a fool. I told him about it and asked him if he understood when "looking like a fool" could mean. He said yeah, that he could lose playing time. I wasn't really pushing him, simply nudging him to assert himself, so that he learns to take his place, on the the team, and eventually in life. Wherever he'll end up playing, I'll be cheering him on. I simply want him to not let others push him aside.

My wife was the one who went to pick him up on Wednesday and how surprised she was to see her boy calling huddle, standing in the middle and then snapping the ball. I'll be damned, he was now playing center! Their current QB was in his class in 6th grade last year and in June, they had an activity day in which they ended up playing touch football all day, and all day long, he played center, snapping it shotgun. I remember Andrew telling us that the kid QB had told him he was better than their Summer league center (they were also on the same Summer league team). Apparently at the start of Wednesday's practice, they were looking for more guys to practice at center and Andrew's name came up. He told them sure he'd like to try, which in itself is pretty surprising to me. As I said, Andrew is a bit of an introvert and once he gets good at something, will have a hard time trying stuff outside of his comfort zone. For example, even though I told him he should try playing linebacker, simply for the fun of trying another position in the Summer league, he never even tried. To see him trying his hand at center was a step forward for him. He said they will rotating among three centers, with each of them snapping the ball for one full practice at a time. When not playing center, he seems set to keep on playing on the D-Line, rotating between end and tackle.

He played on the D-line in their last practice last Thursday. After that practice, they gave each kid a yellow silicone wristband (à la Livestrong) debossed with the team logo. The coach told them to wear it everyday at school and that evry player on any of the three levels of play would have one. Andrew was so proud to wear his band, I've never seen him like that. Football has this way of bringing pride out in a kid.

This was a crazy long post but it rounds up where we are now. Yesterday was his first day of school and tonight is practice night, the first practice of the week. Their first game will be on September 13, so in two full weeks of practice time. They told them last Thursday that there's a possibility that they might practice on Fridays for the two weeks before the first game, sort of in hope of really putting in the playbook which seems a bit intricate.

FM

[JonInMiddleGA]

Boy things really are different from one place to the next. 'Round these parts, most kids end up with a position somewhere around the time they get their "big boy underwear"

I keed, I keed.

Good stuff, keep it coming.

[FrogMan]

We're fielding quotations to get some landscaping done around the house so I wasn'T able to get to the field as early as I would have wanted and only saw maybe the last 15 minutes of it yesterday.

When we got there, Andrew was with a group of offensive linemen and he was at center. Most of the rest of the team were practicing their punt/punt coverage plays. From what I was told, he practiced at center for most of the practcie.

The most intersting tidbits happened off the field. First, they had some informal, unofficial weigh-in. Andrew is apparently the lightest of their linemen at 136.5 lbs. I thought he had lost weight from his early Summer 130 lbs weight. Guess he's still eating well. Him being the lightest has me concerned a bit, but I'll expand on that a bit later. In other weight news, there's a lineman who'll have to shed a pound or two to make the 160lb limit since he weighed in at 162lbs, but the most interesting story in my eye involved a scrawny second year linebacker. The kid's a Secondary 2 player who's back with the Benjamins this year and as a second year player, he has to weigh les than 120 lbs. The kid in question is quite tall, but seriously without much meat on his bones, if you know what I mean. I heard his mom talking to another mom about how he had to be careful. Without getting into specifics, I had to assume that he was either a couple pounds over 120 or very close to it. I saw the coach come and talk to the mom of the kid which led me to assume he was probably over the weight limit. Looking at the kid walking toward his mother, I had a hard time imagining how he could lose weight. He was maybe 5'7" or so and as I said, not really "meatty". Will be interesting to see how if he can make the weight.

From what I understood, there's only one official weigh-in and it should happen in the week before the first game of the season. Players can go over the weight limit during the season as far as I can tell.

Back to Andrew, I had a cool little chat with his O-line coach when waiting for him to change out of his pads. That's when I learned about him being the lightest of all linemen. He didn't say it in a warning kind of tone though, simply mentioned it when talking about how his line was coming. I asked him how Andrew was working, if he was doing okay. His answer was the kind of answer you always want to hear, that he was a good kid, hard working but especially a good student, eager to learn and correct mistakes. Seriously, the "almost to good to be true" kind of answer. While talking, I mentioned to him that Andrew really loved playing the game to which he replied that it showed. He said Andrew had a good sense of the game and seemed able to see where he went wrong, for example when he blocked the wrong guy or something like that. He added that if it was only up to him, he'd keep him on the O-line full time but Andrew really wants to play some D-line. I asked him if he knew where Andrew would play on the D-line when/if he'd play there and he mentioned nose or tackle which surprised me a bit. But then, just as he'd said that, the defensive coordinator happened to pass by and confirmed that Andrew would play in a 1 technique or 3 technique, basically shade in or shade out to one of the guards. Interesting, and even as the lightest of their linemen, I'm pretty confident that if taughtwell, he could learn to plug the gaps. As some news website will say, story developping...

As they wrapped up practice yesterday, I heard the offensive coordinator saying he needed some players to get to the field as soon as they could for today's practice (and I assume for the next few practices). Among them were all three centers. I heard Andrew asking a question whihc I assume was something along the lines of "but I only ge here at 4:20" because the OC replied "if you get here at 4:20, I want you taking snaps starting at 4:20". His classes ends at 4 and he has to walk a couple blocks to get to the practice field which is located at another pavilion. He told us on the way back home that he got the field that day at 4:20 and that there were maybe 8 or 9 other guys already there. He said he'd try to get there as soon as he could today and would be aware not to waste too much time in the locker room, or talking prior to the start of practice... Can't ask much more from the kid.

FM

[Icy]

Nice read so far.

I'm also surprised that with him being the lightest of all linemen, they are playing him as C and NT that are usually the biggest men.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Icy

Nice read so far.

I'm also surprised that with him being the lightest of all linemen, they are playing him as C and NT that are usually the biggest men.

Interesting observation, just because I've probably seen more undersized players on the line at those positions on their respective sides of the ball in HS than any other.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Icy

Nice read so far.

I'm also surprised that with him being the lightest of all linemen, they are playing him as C and NT that are usually the biggest men.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Interesting observation, just because I've probably seen more undersized players on the line at those positions on their respective sides of the ball in HS than any other.

Our Center this year is smallish as well. (converted FB actually) I like a shorter Kid with quick feet and some savvy. Teams like to blitz our A Gaps so I like a kid who can cut off the approriate gap and get under the pads of the Lineman/Linebacker.

For Nose Guard I lean short and squatty there as well, but will user smaller tough kids. The NG plays a 1 technique in our scheme so he only has 1 gap responsibility and quickness is desired over strength. If we played him head up on the Center or offset I would go with a big, strong kid who could stalemate the center and handle two gaps.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Interesting observation, just because I've probably seen more undersized players on the line at those positions on their respective sides of the ball in HS than any other.

Ah ok, didn't know, for me being the lighter linemen makes more sense on offense than on defense, specially if he plays NT that are usually the biggest guys meant to stop the run in the middle, but have on mind i can only watch the NFL here, never watched an HS football game ever, unless Friday Night Lights counts

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Icy

Nice read so far.

I'm also surprised that with him being the lightest of all linemen, they are playing him as C and NT that are usually the biggest men.

thanks, and I agree to some degree about the weight vs playing position, it surprised me too at first when I heard the 1-technique and 3-technique terms. I was loosely familiar with them but when it sorta sunk in I had to think twice about seeing him in the middle of the defensive line.

Then I thought about it more in the line of what Jon said and was unsure if weight was so important at that level. One thing I thought I'd mentioned but now realize I have not is something his O-line coach said about how stable he can be when he gets in his low stance. He said he felt he had good basics and despite being a bit lighter than some, was able to hold his ground better, and with better footwork. To some extent, this doesn't really surprise me. He's been doing karate for 7.5 years now, in fact got his black belt this past Saturday, and there's a stance we called horse stance, in which you pretty much stand with feet wide apart on both side of your body and you sink in low. It's a pretty strong stance and I'm sure his practicing of that stance over the years has given him good basics that are helpful in playing on the offensive line, or plugging gaps in the defensive line. Maybe they are seeing something I have not seen yet, by lack of attending practices. I really wish I could see more of his practices and it might happen at some point, like me getting there for 5:15 of 5:30, allowing me to see about an hour of practice, but it won't be tonight as we're meeting with yet another landscaping guy and it'll be very tight to simply make it before the end of practice.

Thinking about it furthermore, I'm not sure if the "big guy/strong dude" idea we have of a nose tackle is not biased by what we see in pro football, lending lots of validity to the point Jon brought in his post.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Our Center this year is smallish as well. (converted FB actually) I like a shorter Kid with quick feet and some savvy. Teams like to blitz our A Gaps so I like a kid who can cut off the approriate gap and get under the pads of the Lineman/Linebacker.

For Nose Guard I lean short and squatty there as well, but will user smaller tough kids. The NG plays a 1 technique in our scheme so he only has 1 gap responsibility and quickness is desired over strength. If we played him head up on the Center or offset I would go with a big, strong kid who could stalemate the center and handle two gaps.

Good points. I've not heard, or seen if they've been blitzing in practice so far but I'm sure it'll come during the course of the season. As I said, the comments from his O-line coach were that he was good at recognizing who he was assigned to block and it might be something they like in him.

FM

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Thinking about it furthermore, I'm not sure if the "big guy/strong dude" idea we have of a nose tackle is not biased by what we see in pro football, lending lots of validity to the point Jon brought in his post.

And then to be fair too, I was thinking of something fairly specific with regard to the defensive side of the ball.

While centers do tend to be the smallest of the OL as far as high school ball that I've watched goes, the D'Linemen I was picturing were really more NG's than NT's, using their quickness in five man fronts to shoot the gap & disrupt the backfield. A couple of teams I followed in particular had a good bit of success using guys between 190-195 that way and especially on third down.
As I sit here & think about it, I've probably seen a lot more 50's & 54's with NG's than 34's with actual NT's and may have fallen into the trap of mislabeling them at times.

[FrogMan]

Meeting with the landscaping guy took a lot less time than first expected so we were able to make it to practice about 45 minutes before the end. By "we" I mean my wife and I. She's really into this and while she couldn't care less about his soccer playing, she caannot get enough of Andrew's football.

He practiced at center the whole practice yesterday. He'd told us there were three of them rotating at center but apparently one was the regular center, but the other one only did one practice and has not taken a snap since. Odd, especially since his name was mentioned when their coach asked the centers and QB to be on the field as early as possible at the start of practice.

Anyway, I could see he would have wanted to play at least a little D-line yesterday, simply by his demeanor when I asked him if he'd been at center all practice. You know, a sigh and shrug of the shoulders. I told him to make the best of whatever playing/practicing time they're giving him.

Back to the practice time we saw, they ran a sort of no huddle/quick huddle offense. Snaps were all shotgun and most of his snaps were pretty much in the hand of the QB except a bad sequence of two or three snaps. You know when you get out of synch. Snapped one really low (like knee level), the next snap one hopped before getting to the QB and he got some heat from the OC and the third one he snapped the ball on the back of his thigh, causing a fumble. That sequence made me cringe as a dad. I was mumbling behind my breath, telling him to snap out of that funk, and he did. The rest of the snaps were good.

He usually blocked well although he let a couple through and was told to watch it by a coach. On a play, one of the guys that slipped through (a tackle or linebacker I think) was clear to the QB but the QB avoided him by sidestepping in the pocket, making the guy run past him. I liked that Andrew, despite having first been beat by his man, kept his eyes on him and blocked him when he ran back toward the QB. I thought that was a good hustle on his part, and good recognition that his work was not done because he'd been beat once.

In off the field news, we learned that there will be practices for the next two Fridays, leading into their first game on Sunday September 13. They told them to bring a dinner for after next Friday's practice because they will walk on down to their playing field to watch the home opener of the Juveniles with the Cadets. Andre will only be able to watch part of it since that night (Sept. 11) will be his first night of drumming class. He's quite the busy man, our little boy...

Yesterday was also team apparel try out day where they had the off field type of clothing available for kids to try. It's not mandatory, but Andrew, like many other kids I assume, is really big on showing his colors. We ended up ordering a tuque, a couple t-shirts, a polo shirt, a hooded sweatshirt and matching sweatpants and a pair of shorts. They're supposed to pick numbers tonight and we'll have them put on his pants. I asked him if he had a number in mind this morning and he immediately said 77, which has been his number for the last two Summer football seasons.

Their team name is "Les Corsaires", although I doubt the link to their site will be of much help to many of you, as it's all in French.

Their their team logo is attached below.

FM

[FrogMan]

Saw maybe the last 15 minutes of the end of their practice yesterday. Andrew was still playing center and from talking to one dad I know, he'd been there pretty much the whole practice. Saw maybe 20 shotgun snaps with one of them going to the QB's ankles but otherwise they were all reasonably well done.

When practice ended, Andrew told us he would be playing O-line all year finally. No shrug of the shoulders this time though, as if he was okay with it. I guess he was disappointed when they told him he'd play guard at the retreat camp, then had a bit of hope when they put him back on the D-line and he kept hanging to that hope. Having done three practices as center, maybe the position is growing on him and he's living with the coach's decision. Anyway, my positive comment to him was that maybe it would be better that way, would probably help him get better at one spot, perfect his techniques, instead of doing two things a bit half-way. He nodded.

Later on, when I asked him if his O-line coach was happy with his work, he said that yeah, he got praised and encouraged. I thought he looked lively in the middle and looking for a guy to block when nobody took him on.

Numbers, and jerseys, were given out. He'll wear number 55. He seemed cool with it.

Coaches decided against practicing today. There were only too many kids who couldn't make it, probably since they only confirmed it halfway through the week.

No practices until next Tuesday. First game is Sunday September 13 at 10am.

FM

[Young Drachma]

Cool dynasty. I'm following.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Cool dynasty. I'm following.

thanks, welcome aboard.

FM

[FrogMan]

They practiced yesterday but there's not much to report. Andrew practiced at center most of practice. I got there with maybe 30 minutes to go in practice and he stayed at center for all of scrimmage. He later told me that they are back to three known centers on the lineup but that he took most of the snaps. He said another guy snapped the ball when they ran drills for their ground game but that he was at center for all of their 12-on-12 scrimmage.

Yeah, 12-on-12 since that's how we play football in Canada.

I'll put together something about the differences in rules and plan on posting it at some point before they first game.

Back to practice, I saw his O-line coach do quite a bit of teaching and thought it was nice. He said his coach had good things to tell him although their offensive coordinator got on his case for a few low snaps. I did see some of those and they always make me cringe. "Practice makes perfect" is what I told him.

Their practices so far have all been on a small field behind their school. They will be practicing on their regulation size game field today. That's another difference in rule. Their regulation size field is based on Canadian rules, i.e. 110 x 65 yards with 20 yards deep end zones and goal posts on the goal line. That field is the home field of the local CEGEP (see earlier) football team and is where are three teams of his school will play their home games. It's a nice field, maybe 5-6 years old with good quality artifical turf and nice seating for a couple thousand people or maybe a bit more. You can see the field from up top in this Google Map.

Their current practice field is the same field they played their Summer League games on and can be found in this Google Map. It's 80 yards long by about 45 yards wide. They are practicing sideways on it, i.e. they've made marks to show the regulation 65 yards width and have about 45 yards of length to practice plays.

FM

[FrogMan]

Really not much to report today as they practiced at their gameday home field and were brought back and forth by bus, so I didn't get to see a minute of practice.

Andrew told me that he started at center and then they tried back one of the other centers and from then on, he went from guard to defensive tackle. He said he thought the OC liked the other guy's snaps more. I try not to get too down on it, but I have this nagging feeling he will end up being moved around. I know, I'm probably making a bigger deal than what it is but as a parent, you know how you want the best for your kid. I want him to have fun and not end up being more often on the sideline than on the field. Oh well. He told me he was okay about it, but I never know if the long face after practice is simply cause he's tired or bothered by something. Andrew's not the biggest of talkers...

It's still unclear if they will be practicing in pads or simply reviewing films and going over plays this Friday. Will have to enquire after tonight's practice.

FM

[FrogMan]

Was kinda confused when I got to practice yesterday. There was about 30 minutes left in it and they were scrimmaging 12-on-12. So far pretty regular stuff, right? Andrew was lined up at right defensive end, pretty regular, right? But on the other side of the line, the QB was under center, not in his usual shotgun position. At first I thought they had simply decided to put in some plays with the QB under center although I thought it was a bit weird to do so only three days prior to the first game of the season. Then it hit me when I heard a backup WR on the sidelines ask the offensive coordinator "and these are all their plays?", to which the OC replied "I don't know all their plays. These are plays I've seen them run in the past." They were practicing their D with the O acting as a scout team, mimicking the team they'll be playing this week.

About Andrew, as I said he was in the right DE spot on a three man line and was always cutting in, quite probably because it's what they were asking him to do. Had a nice tackle on a slow developing run where he slided from tackle to guard to the hole and came fac to face with the RB just as the RB hit the hole. Kept his ground and wrapped the tackle all good. Well done kiddo!

He later said he ran some plays at center at the start of practice, but without the D in front of him. Then he played a bit at one of the guard position to finally end the practice the RDE spot. Doesn't know where he'll play on Sunday and that's got me worried a bit. Simply hope he'll get enough playing time to have fun and feel like he contributed. Again, maybe I'm just worrying too much but I just want him to be able to show what he can do, cause I know he can do stuff and be helpful to the team.

They wrapped practice with a good speech from their coach about always going full speed from snap to whistle. He said they'd been looking at films of some practices and mentioned that some guys give up on plays a bit early. To get the mentality in, they finished with some stop and go running mixed with some pushups. A good 5-8 minutes of running had them all say "YES!" when the coach asked "WILL YOU RUN FROM SNAP TO WHISTLE ON SUNDAY?". Probably all cute to you all, but I thought it was funny, to see these 12-13 year olds getting drilled like that.

They'll be practicing tonight from 4:30 to 6:30 and will all get together at 8, with the Cadets, for the home opener of the Juvenile team, their first home game as a Juvenile AAA team, up from AA last year.

Mommy will take Andrew to his first drum lesson around 9 but I'll stay and watch the game and they'll get back around 10 to catch the end of it.

FM

[Senator]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Interesting observation, just because I've probably seen more undersized players on the line at those positions on their respective sides of the ball in HS than any other.

Reading along. Just FYI, my smallest lineman every year seems to be a center. I play my smartest kid there, who won't get rattled. Being the smallest rarely is an issue, because he is getting help with a double team block usually from either the left or right guard.

[Senator]

Also our 1 technique are on the smaller big kid side, because they bear crawl though the gaps and get in the knees of the big nasties.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Senator

Reading along. Just FYI, my smallest lineman every year seems to be a center. I play my smartest kid there, who won't get rattled. Being the smallest rarely is an issue, because he is getting help with a double team block usually from either the left or right guard.

Originally Posted by Senator

Also our 1 technique are on the smaller big kid side, because they bear crawl though the gaps and get in the knees of the big nasties.

thanks for reading, and for your very interesting comments. I'll post an update in a few minutes.

FM

[FrogMan]

Big day is tomorrow. Curfew/lights out time set by the coach to 9pm tonight.

They had a shorter practice yesterday, when I got there around 5:50, they were running special teams trick plays and Andrew was on the sideline with his O-line coach. He got in for one play then got out, I simply assumed he's not really part of the special teams. He said he took some snaps but mostly played defensive line and guard. He said Alex, the other center who had been snapping the ball all the way back to their Summer practice without equipment, is supposed to play center tomorrow. When I asked him if he knew for sure where he'd play, he kinda shrugged a "not really". I could only tell him to be ready for anything and give his best.

They wrapped practice at no later than 6:05.

Their offensive coordinator gave the offensive linemen and running backs a little homework to do and bring back for the game. Two simple pages consisting of all their possible lineups and blocking schemes. He said they could use their playbook and simply needed to trancsribe to those sheets what the corresponding blocking schemes were. I'm just guessing he wanted them to siply crack that playbook and force them to look at the plays and not simply rely on others on the line or in the huddle to tell them their assignment.

The team they play tomorrow is called Petit Séminaire de Québec and is a rather smallish private school but with a long history of good football teams. They didn't field a Benjamin team last year but had a Benjamin-minor team (no players from Secondary 2). That team finished 7th out of 7 teams, losing all six of their games. Looking at their registered players, they only show a lineup of 23 players to our 39. Four of their heaviest players are listed as OL-DL and three OL. Of those 7, Andrew would be the third heaviest, with a 140lbs and a 150lbs ahead of him. What is odd is that based on the birth months/year of their players, they only show 9 players that are in Secondary two out of their 23, so still plenty of first year players.

We didn't have a Benjamin-minor team last year but had one two years which is the last time I can find a game between the two schools. Corsaires ended up winning that one 36-24, their only win of that season however.

Next up I'll have something about rules, Canadian vs American and rules specific to their league.

FM

[FrogMan]

I'm now gonna try to put together something about rules they'll be using. Most of the stuff you probably already know (or can find online) since it's Canadian vs American football and lots of it comes from this wikipedia page:
Comparison of Canadian and American football - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I could let your go read it but I'll try to bring the most important points here. I'll put in blue the one specifically relating to their league and/or the Benjamin level of football.

Field size:
As said before, their home field is a regulation Canadian Football field that is 65 yards wide by 110 yards long. Minimum size for a Benjamin field is 50 yards by 90 yards alhtough I'm pretty sure all team in Benjamin AA will play on regulation size fields.

The distance between the hasmarks in Canadian football is also quite wider than in the American football, or at least what it is in the NFL.

Players on the field:
Again, as said before, they will play with the Canadian rule of 12-on-12. Both games have the same number of players required at the line of scrimmage, so the twelfth player in the Canadian game plays a backfield position.

there is no tight end in most formations in Canadian football. The typical offensive arrangement in Canadian football is for there to be two slotbacks instead of the American tight end, while on the defensive end of the ball, two defensive halfbacks and one safety are employed instead of two safeties.

I'll add some lineup rules specific to Benjamins below.

Number of downs:
Everybody knows that you only have three downs to advance 10 yards in Canadian Football, well it'll stay at four downs for Benjamin, and all high school football too.

Scrimmage:
In Canadian football, the distance between the line of scrimmage and the defensive team is a full yard. Because of this one-yard distance, teams will tend to gamble on third and one in teh CFL. If a team has possession within one yard of either goal line, the line of scrimmage is moved to the one-yard line.

There was this interesting comment on the wikipedia page: "While large, immobile offensive line players who cannot be penetrated by the defence are valued in American football, the extra distance from the defensive team means Canadian football finds value in more nimble athletes."

Interestingly enough, there is no yard between the two lines in Cadet and Juvenile, only in Benjamin

Motion at the snap:
In Canadian football, all offensive backfield players, except the quarterback, may be in motion at the snap – players in motion may move in any direction as long as they are behind the line of scrimmage at the snap. In addition, the two players on the ends of the line of scrimmage (generally wide receivers) may also be in motion along the line. If you've seen some CFL highlights, you know how much movement is sometimes happening behind the line of scrimmage. Andrew's team also has movements from the backs and slotbacks on almost every play.

Fair catches and punt returns:
There is no fair catch rule in Canadian football: instead no player from the kicking team except the kicker or any player who was behind him when he kicked the ball may approach within five yards of the ball until it has been touched by an opponent. If they do, a "no yards" penalty is called against the kicking team. This also mean that there could be a sort of "onside punt" where an offensive backfield player could go around the punter and try to challenge to field the punt, stealing it from the defense.

In other words, on any kick, the kicker and any member of the kicker's team behind the kicker at the time of the kick may recover and advance the ball. On a kickoff, since every member of the kicking team must be behind the ball when it is kicked, this effectively makes all twelve players "onside" and eligible to recover the kick, once it has gone ten yards downfield. On a punt or missed field goal, usually only the kicker is onside, as no one is behind the kicker. All of the players offside at the time of the kick may neither touch the ball nor be within five yards of the member of the receiving team who fields the kick; violation of this rule is a penalty for no yards. The penalty for no yards is more severe if the kick is in flight than if it has been grounded.

Time rules:
Timing rules change drastically after the N-minute (where N=2 in the NFL and N=3 in Canadian Football, including Canadian high school) warning in both leagues. In American football, the clock continues to run after any tackle in bounds, but stops after an incomplete pass, or a tackle out of bounds (in the NFL, the clock stops on out of bounds plays inside five minutes remaining in the half). If the clock stops, it is restarted at the snap of the ball. In Canadian football, the clock stops after every play, but the starting time differs depending on the result of the previous play: after a tackle in bounds, the clock restarts when the referee whistles the ball in; after an incomplete pass or a tackle out of bounds, the clock restarts when the ball is snapped.

In American football, a period generally ends when time expires (though any play which is in progress when the clock reaches 0:00 is allowed to finish); in Canadian football, the period must end with a final play. Consequently, a play is often started in Canadian football with no time (0:00) showing on the game clock.

Speaking of timer and clock, I have volunteered to be in charge of the game clock for the Benjamin's three home games. The visiting team can, but are not required to, have somebody in the booth with me. The team needed volunteers for a few little tasks and I figured I'll be at every game anyway. I'd rather be up there taking care of the clock, than cooking hot dogs at the cnack bar.

Time of play will be four quarters of 12 minutes each. Quarters 1 & 3 cannot last more than 35 minutes in continuous time while quarters 2 & 4 cannot last more than 35 minutes before the three minute warning, meaning that if that 35 minutes mark is reached, the clock will be brought to 3 minutes and the last 3 mintues will be played according to rules.

Field goals, singles, and touchbacks:
In general, in Canadian football any kick that goes into the end zone is a live ball, except for a successful field goal or if the goalposts are hit while the ball is in flight. If the player receiving the kick fails to return it out of the end zone, or (except on a kickoff) if the ball was kicked through the end zone, then the kicking team scores a single point (rouge), and the returning team scrimmages from its 35-yard line or, if the rouge is scored as a result of a missed field goal attempt, the receiving team may choose the last point of scrimmage. If a kickoff goes through the end zone without a player touching it or a kicked ball in flight hits a post without scoring a field goal, there is no score, and the receiving team scrimmages from its 25. If the kick is returned out of the end zone, the receiving team next scrimmages from the place that was reached (or if they reach the opponents' goal line, they score a touchdown); in the amateur levels of the game, they are given the ball at their 20-yard line if the kick was not returned that far.

That one is a rule I kinda feel is rewarding you for failing. I mean, you miss a field goal but if you kicked it far enough, you'll get a point.

Following a successful field goal, in Canadian rules, the team scored upon has the option of receiving a kickoff, kicking off from its 35-yard line, or scrimmaging at its own 35-yard line.

Points after touchdown
Now what, a PAT is a PAT, right? It sure is, but the position of the ball is. From the 2-yard-line in American professional football (3-yard-line in amateur), the ball will be at the 5-yard-line in Canadian football. You gotta remember though that the Canadian kicker is actually closer to the goalposts, which are on the goal line in Canada and on the end line in the United States.

In Benjamin, a kicked PAT is worth two points while a passed/rushed PAT is only worth one point, no doubt to encourage the use of kicking early on in the kids' high school career.

Hope you at least learned one new rule or two and that I didn't bore you to death. I did actually learn a few myself, or at least clarified them since I was unsure of their application.

Here are some rules that are specific to the Benjamin league...

Specific lineup limitations for Benjamin
DEFENSE
1) A maximum of 7 players can be in the defensive box which is comprised of defensive linemen and linebackers. Accepted alignments are: 43-34-52-25-61-16-70

2) The presence of a safety is mandatory and he must line up at least 10 yards from the line of scrimmage.

3) Maximum defensive pressure with 7 players. Pressure must come from players in the defensive box. No defensive pressure to come from defensive backs or the safety.

4) If an offense uses a tight end, the opposing defense can include an extra (8th) player in the defensive box. This extra player cannot be the safety. If a second TE is used, the defense can put in a 9th player in the defensive box which also cannot be the safety.

5) On a fourth down, there are no limitations on the number of players in the defensive box. There's also no limitation on the number of players putting pressure.

6) When the line of scrimmage is at less than 10 yards from the defense's goal line, the safety can lineup on the goal line.

OFFENSE
1) No more than two running backs can be in the backfield at the same time.

2) This limit on the number of running backs stands also on fourth downs.

3) No limits on the number of motions from wider receivers and running backs, according to what is allowed in Canadian football.



FM

[FrogMan]

oh, and in other news, we went to the Juvenile home opener last night. Was a bummer cause they lost it 28-23. They were only losing it 7-0 at the half and would have had the chance to score early on but they got denied a fourth and one on the opposing team's 12 yard line or the like. Seems like it they struggled after that.

They lost one of their running back from late in the first quarter until right after the half. Kid is our QB's brother and suffered a broken bone in his foot this Summer. Was afraid it was something to his foot again. Was glad to see him back in the game later on although he didn't seem as aggressive as he was early in the game...

FM

[FrogMan]

not sure anyone would feel the need to check, but if you want to see team lineups, you can go to this website.

It's all in French, so I'll try to guide you. Once there, click on the "Athlètes" tab, then on the "Sélection" dropdown menu right under the three tabs, then go right to "Par regroupement..." which gives you many school boards. Andrew's team is under "Navigateurs-Sec." and his school name is "Champagnat/G.Couture".

The team they'll play tomorrow falls under "A.S.I.P." and is called "Petit Séminaire de Québec"

I just went back cause I was curious to see if PSQ had added new players, or more information on their players, since it was not all there when I checked earlier in the week. They added weights for some OL that didn't have their weights earlier on. From heaviest to lightest, their OL weights (and size) are the following:
5'2", 150
5'6", 125
5', 125
5'4", 119
5'5", 113
5'2", 110
5'4", 106
5'4", 103

considerably lighter than what Andrew's team is presenting, but they do have a running back who's listed at 5'5", 140lbs.

Can't wait for tomorrow, can you tell?

FM

[FrogMan]

Big, big day today.

Meetup time was set to 7:45 for a kickoff time of 10am. They were taking both team and individual pictures and that's the reason for the early arrival. I think two hours prior to game time will be the norm from now on though.

I dropped Andrew off and since our home field is about 10-15 minutes from home anyway, I went o McDonalds to get some breakfast and a coffee. Got back a bit later and helped other parents set the snack bar tent. Honestly, for a Benjamin level game, they had a nice the whole thing going with chocolate bars, sodas, gatorades, juice, coffee, and even hot dogs on the grill.

PSQ arrived at about 8:45 in a yellow school bus, all geared up and ready to warm up. They didn't even go to the locker room, even though we had one available to them. As they were walking to their bench on the side, what I had seen on paper yesterday kinda got confirmed to me. They were a lot less in numbers than our team, and looked smaller.

Our team came out of the locker room about 45 minutes prior to kickoff and did their warmup routine that includes positional drills and such. They went back to the locker room with about 15 minutes left before the game and came back for kickoff.

As I said, I had timekeeping duties for that home game and that kind of blurred my recollection of the game. Lots of fun doing it though

The game, oh the game! Great win, 44-0!!! From what I could tell, the kids executed well, with a good playcalling that blended a nice mix of passing and rushing plays, maybe a bit more passing than rushing which is surprising in a way for kids that age. QB ran a couple TDs and had a couple passing TDs in the win. The punter/kicker will probably turn out to be a great asset for the team. He's a kid with whom Andrew has already played soccer, and he's got a good leg. As I said in the rules section, kicked PATs are worth 2 points while rusing/passing PATs are worth only 1 point. We went with kicks all game long and he only missed one, IIRC.

Their D had a very good game with the shutout and all but the other team's offense was definitely weaker than ours. Still, the kids were on the ball, swarming and putting pressure.

Andrew looked so frigging proud when he ran out on the field in his glorious blue jersey. He flashed me a smile that was worth a million dollars. He played all game on the D-line, as DT in their 43, then moving to DE when they switched to a 33. He was in there for all defensive drives except the last one of the game and overall, I thought he had an okay game. Not outstanding, nor outplayed. He looked a bit slow on the snap and I told him to keep his head on the ball in order to be able to launch as soon as the ball is snapped. He said he was doing that, but he definitely looked like he was looking at his opposing o-line and waited for him to make a move before he made his. Then, I thought he was not applying as much pressure as I've seen him do in the past. And it's not really because the guy in front of him was much bigger than him. Not sure how to say this, but he looked like he gave a good push, then sorta stopped and waited, even if only briefly, to see if the QB had passed the ball or if the runner was coming his way, even sometimes taking a step back instead of going forward. Finally, I felt like he took on his o-line every time without trying to shed the block in any way, as if he'd forgotten how to do a swim or a rip move. Maybe all the time he's passed on the O-line has somehow mixed his instincts.

I didn't really knock him down on any of these points, simply reminded him of things to work on. Don't get me wrong, he had a good game overall. Best of all, he looked extremely happy, and had fun. Heck, he got to play D-line!

FM

[FrogMan]

Here are the scores for this first week of activity in the Benjamin AA division:

No.	Date		time	Visitor			Home	Place
913	Sam	12-Sep-09	13:00	ODYSSÉE-LAF-DR(SL)	0	42	ANC.-LORETTE
912	Sam	12-Sep-09	10:00	BENOIT-VACHON	7	26	CLÉ-DU-BOISÉ	Stade ESLE
914	Dim	13-Sep-09	10:00	P.SÉM.QUÉBEC	0	44	CHAMP.-G.COUTURE	Stade Cégep LL

And here are the standings after one week of activity:

pos	Tteams	GP	W	T	L	FP	PF	PA	PTS
1	CHAMP.-G.COUTURE	1	1	0	0	1	44	0	3
2	ANC.-LORETTE	1	1	0	0	1	42	0	3
3	CLÉ-DU-BOISÉ	1	1	0	0	1	26	7	3
4	BENOIT-VACHON	1	0	0	1	1	7	26	1
5	ODYSSÉE-LAF-DR(SL)	1	0	0	1	1	0	42	1
6	P.SÉM.QUÉBEC	1	0	0	1	1	0	44	1
7	N.D.TRINITÉ	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

FP stands for "Fairplay Point", a point your team is given unless something really usportmanlike happens.

To be quite honest, this being my son's first year in high school football, I don't know much about the other schools, like who's a powerhouse or who are doormats. Before the game, I was pretty sure we could handle PSQ, maybe not to the extent of what we did, although confidence went up as we watched them warm up before the game. I expected Anc.-Lorette to be able to beat Odyssée easily. Odyssée is the only team we were able to beat in 7 games last season, with them ending the season winless.

For a bit more background here are the standings as they stood after the 2008 season:

pos	Teams	GP	W	T	L	FP	PF	PA	PTS
1	ACAD.ST-LOUIS	7	7	0	0	7	232	22	21
2	N.D.TRINITÉ	7	6	0	1	7	230	116	19
3	BENOIT-VACHON	7	4	0	3	7	113	82	15
4	CLÉ-DU-BOISÉ	7	4	0	3	7	157	134	15
5	ANC.-LORETTE	7	3	0	4	7	158	178	13
6	S.ST-FRANÇOIS	7	3	0	4	7	128	152	13
7	CHAMP.-G.COUTURE	7	1	0	6	7	104	236	9
8	ODYSSÉE-LAF-DR(SL)	7	0	0	7	7	44	246	7

While they can't explain everything, I thought they'd at least give some insight into what to expect a little. Acad. St-Louis and S.St-François have pulled out of the Benjamin AA division, opting to only field a Benjamin-minor team instead. It's sort of a shame cause Académie St-Louis has the reputation of being a powerhouse of football in the area and it would have been kinda nice to see if we would have been able to hang in there against them.

We will be playing Odyssée-Laf-Dr next saturday on the road and after seeing Ancienne-Lorette beat them with such a high score, it'll be interesting to see if we can match them. Even more interesting with the fact that Ancienne-Lorette will be visiting us the following week, after playing Petit Séminaire de Québec this weekend, a game which I can only assume they will win by a high score. A meeting of two unbeaten teams is quite possible there...

As for Clé-du-Boisé, Benoît-Vachon, and Notre Dame Trinité, I honestly still don't have a clue where they'll end up or how the Corsaires will match up with them. Might have a better idea after a couple weeks. This weekend might give us a better idea of how they match up with one another as Notre Dame Trinité will play host to Clé-du-Boisé. Benoît-Vachon have a bye this week.

FM

[Senator]

44-0 is a pretty solid start. Congrats. You may have a pretty good team!

[JonInMiddleGA]

One down, presumably six to go.

[FrogMan]

It's always a little joy for me to simply go and pick him up after practice. Again got to watch maybe 30 minutes of scrimmage yesterday. Andrew was back to playing center and I went WTF? Played all game on the D-line on Sunday and he's back at center??? First thoughts on his play were that his snaps looked tighter, remember that they're snapping the ball exclusively from shotgun. He did snap a couple to the QB's ankles very late in practice but I assumed they were more out of being tired and such, since it was really close to the end of the two hour practice. The first several snaps were straight at chest level of the QB and looked to be coming with some speed, i.e. not too wobbly, which is good.

He told me after practice that the starting center injured his leg, he was unclear if it was ankle or knee, so it was why he was playing center during scrimmage. When asked if he'd been at center all practice long, he said the other guy started at center when they were in unit but he did all of scrimmage. I asked him where he was in said unit section, he simply said with the O-line. When asked if he'd taken some reps as a guard he told me he was looking on from the sideline. I almost got worked up there. I mean, why would you just stand on the sideline when working with your unit? He then explained that they were putting in a new blocking scheme called CHAIR where the center was the one who pulled and trapped. Ahhh, I then asked him which side he was gonna trap to and he answered matter of factly "to the right, see the R at the end. If the center was asked to pull to the left, the scheme would be CHILL". I couldn't help but be somewhat impressed by his understanding of it.

I asked him if he'd had fun and he nodded enthusiastically. It's important to me that he's having fun. Sure, it's a lot of work, it's three evening a week, but there needs to be fun involved in there. He's too youn at 12 to have to be forced to play a sport. He then went on to say that he got complimented by their D-line coach on his play at center. Said the coach told him he was a good center, he particularly liked his stance and his work after the snap. Andrew also told me his O-line taught him of a better way to grip the ball to snap him, which might be the reason for the tighter snaps.

Finally, injuries might be starting to show up a bit. Besides the center who was limping a bit, a guard had a severe limp while getting off the field. She (yeah, the guard in question is a 149lbs girl ) apparently hurt her leg during scrimmage and while Andrew was unclear as to what part of the leg she injured, he said she went down hard and was in obvious pain when it happened. Given those two injuries, early guess would have him play O-line this weekend...

Sadly, I won't be picking him up tonight as I will start giving karate classes on Wednesdays again, starting tonight. Will have to question on how it went when I get back hom.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Senator

44-0 is a pretty solid start. Congrats. You may have a pretty good team!

Thanks. Yeah, I think they could do well on the season. There were a couple of kids from the Cadet team in the booth on Sunday and all they kept saying was how much better this team is compared to how they were only a couple seasons ago.

FM