Perry football coach Matt Hardy knows about the importance of youth football and in particular, the ability to generate interest in a sport that can be difficult to play at a younger age. Hardy recently opened the Perry football camp up for youth in grades four through eight with the intention of showing them how fun football can be.
“Our sole focus was to show the kids how football can be a lot of fun, especially flag football at the younger ages of kids that we saw show up. We focused on mainly offensive plays and schemes that they can run at the flag football level or even padded middle school level. We didn’t too much with line play because most kids aren’t too interested in that part of the game. We had them run around lot throwing and catching and having fun with those aspects of football. The kids had a really good time.”
Hardy plans on reaching out to the community in the next couple of weeks to find out what direction Perry youth football should steer in the coming years. The sport has changed at the lower levels through the years with a move away from padded leagues to more soft helmets and flag football opportunities.