Cloverdale minor football is having a great year.
Three of its contact football teams are undefeated and over the last three weeks the entire club (flag and contact teams) have gone undefeated.
“Our Atom Lions, Peewee Bobcats, and our Junior Bantam Cougars are undefeated with an 8-0 records heading into the ninth week of regular season,” said Yeera Sami, president of the Cloverdale Community Football Association. “All three of them could go undefeated into the playoffs in a couple weeks.”
Sami said their in-house flag program has done very well too with its four teams. He said enrollment levels were a “nice surprise” this year after COVID shut down last season.
“Parents want us to extend the season, as they are enjoying the program so much,” he said. “It’s all about fun.”
Sami attributes the club’s success to Cloverdale and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
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“We have had such an incredible response from the community,” he noted. “This year, we had an increase in enrollment and it has helped all levels of the club. The response was so great, we even had waiting lists.”
Sami said the club has a great program, great coaches, and everything’s offered at a great price.
“It’s very affordable for families,” said Sami. “The parents have given us good feedback over the years and we try to incorporate parental advice, needs, and requests.”
Sami said with the playoffs on the horizon for all teams, each one has a shot at winning some hardware.
“Depending on the scheduling, we may have two weekends in a row of home playoff games.”
Sami noted there has been a shortage of referees this year. Some home games have had to be moved to other fields so referees were available.
“There may not be enough referees for all teams to play at home,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”
As for Cloverdale’s Atom flag team, the Tigers, Sami said they are new this year. He said Atom flag was introduced about six years ago in the VMFL, but added Cloverdale hasn’t had the enrollment to field a team.
“This year we finally had enough interest to put a team together. All the coaches were new to football too and they are doing an awesome job.”
Sami said Noah Yoo is one of the kids who has excelled this year in Atom flag.
“Noah was born to play football,” explained Sami. “His athletic ability is something else. He’s fast. He knows how to run with the ball. He’s intelligent. He has football smarts that extend well beyond his age.”
editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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