Posted on December 4, 2012
With the financial backing of their community, 21 boys ages 15 and under recently packed their bags and headed to Florida to bask in a national spotlight that may have seemed inconceivable to them just a year or two ago.
Wardogs Unlimited of the North Eastern Suburban Athletic Conference, based in Philadelphia, earned their way to the United Youth Football League National Championships in Tampa by recently beating the Moss Eagles from the Wissinoming section of Philadelphia in a lopsided 19-0 victory.
The conference consists of eight teams — three in Northeast Philadelphia and four in Delaware; the Wardogs are the only suburban Philadelphia team.
The success of the Wardogs is an outgrowth of the Bristol Township School District’s 2011 decision to drop ninth-grade football to save tax dollars. That’s when the Wardogs organization stepped in by opening up new opportunities for the public school players.
“Taxpayers don’t need the extra burden of paying for football in middle school,” said Bill Smith, vice president of the Bristol Wardogs. “Rec programs need to step in and help, like us.”
Smith said one of the league’s goals is to strengthen high school football programs by molding excellent football players at the middle school level. The coaches work together to keep the kids on the field and off the streets and out of trouble, Smith added.
The program is self-funded and needed donations for the boys’ Dec. 1 trip to Florida. The cost was about $12,500.
The organization has held coin toss events at Eagles games and lined up corporate sponsors whose banners will be displayed during the trip. When they return, the banners will go up at the Wardogs home field at the Bristol Township Municipal Complex on Bath Road.
To read more go to:http://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/bensalem/wardogs-rule/article_c6a6d5e6-f09d-5473-ac11-34e91fa709f2.html
