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Tyler Roberts and Nathan Froggatt approached the Montreal Alouettes with a slight trepidation, but you couldn’t blame them. It’s not every day you get invited into the huddle of your favourite football team.
It didn’t matter that the guys in the huddle are from football hotbeds like Ohio, Louisiana or Florida and that the Roberts and Froggatt are from Newfoundland, which is still finding its way with the game. Thanks to passionate volunteers and great kids, football is beginning to take root there, but it’s a slow build.
Froggatt, 12, from Hant’s Harbour, and Roberts, 13, from St. John’s, have had their share of success in the game over the last year but approaching a full team of professional players is a different beast altogether.
Coach Khari Jones invited them into the huddle at the conclusion of their Saturday walkthrough in Moncton, N.B. Both boys are winners in the 2019 Atlantic Schooners Punt Pass Kick Competition. They competed in the tournament finale on Sunday morning, before the Touchdown Atlantic Game.
Welcomed into the huddle, they posed for pictures with the players, then Jones had them lead the team cheer to close out the practice. The boys’ parents hovered on the outside of the huddle, snapping pictures and taking video from their phones.
The lesson that the coach, a football lifer, was trying to impart to the boys was a simple one: It doesn’t matter where you’re from, if you get paid to play or if like Roberts and Froggatt, you play on a field that’s hampered by a hydro pole and lopsided end zones. Football is football and if you’re playing the game, you’re speaking the same language.
The moment was an unexpected bonus for the boys, who traveled almost 24 hours by car and ferry to get to Moncton. They were hoping to meet a player or two while they hung out at the stadium.
“I’ve never seen a football game before,” Froggatt said. “I think it’ll be a good experience. (Meeting the players) is amazing. I didn’t think I’d get to meet them.”
Participants in the competition are allowed one punt, pass and kick, with scoring based on distance and accuracy. There were seven competitions held throughout the four Atlantic provinces this summer, bringing hundreds of kids in age groups between seven and 14 together. For many of them, it was an introduction to the game.
“Out of all of the Punt Pass Kick competitions we held, Newfoundland had our biggest turnout,” said Darin Burns, a former Hamilton Tiger-Cat who lives in Moncton. He worked with the CFL, the Atlantic Schooners and the CFL Alumni Association with the event.
“It was great to see all of their faces light up while they competed.”
The game of football is growing in Newfoundland, a province that has long been underrepresented in terms of participation. The province got its first football field last September in St. John’s and while it’s been a big help in growing the game, Burns said that the field could itself could use improvement. The end zones aren’t deep enough, he said, with one of them having a hydro pole stationed nearby and the other too close to a slope. It’s something he’d like to see addressed in the future.
He’s planning to put together a football clinic with some more CFL alumni on the May long weekend in 2020. With some help from the CFL and perhaps the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (a sponsor of Sunday’s Touchdown Atlantic game) he’s hoping the camp could spark some further development to the field to get it up to a proper regulation size.
“It’s not truly a Canadian sport without all of the provinces involved.”
Darin Burns
The field is something that could benefit young players like Roberts and Froggatt. In just their first year of football, both have fallen for the game. They play anywhere from six-on-six to nine-on-nine football.
“At first it was hard, you had to keep up with (the other players),” said Roberts, an offensive lineman. “After a while it got easier.”
Froggatt — who is six-foot-two and 245 pounds already — has played running back and defensive line. Burns sees a ton of potential in him. He’s going to billet him in Moncton this fall for the duration of the football season to get him playing at a higher level.
Burns is a huge advocate of the game and the power it can have to shape a kid’s life. He’s living proof of that and was thrilled to see his son, Taylor, commit to Tennessee Tech in Dec. 2018. He became the first New Brunswick-born player to go to a Div I NCAA football program.
Froggatt’s size had the event organizers initially thinking he’d participate in the 13-14 year-old’s group. It’s an assumption a lot of people are making at this point, but it bodes well for his football future.
If the game can continue to grow, there will be opportunities for many more kids in Newfoundland.
“It’s not truly a Canadian sport without all of the provinces involved,” Burns said, pointing out Newfoundland’s recent participation in inter-provincial competition.
“There are good things coming.”
