UPPER LAKE — Some things you just take for granted when it comes to sports, in this case the sport of football. Things such as how to put on equipment.
For the first-year Northshore Youth Club Junior Cougars program, Lake County’s newest Pop Warner football team, many of the players have never donned football gear before. After a week of conditioning, the Junior Cougars tried on their gear for the first time Monday and many began their education in how to put on that gear correctly and safely.
Coaches for all three of the Junior Cougars squads — Pee Wee, junior varsity and varsity — spent extra time early during the practice properly fitting their players and showing them the dos and don’ts. Some of the dos meant making sure all their players had chins straps — a few showed up without them — and how to buckle them up in a safe manner. Properly adjusting shoulder pads and making sure they fit snugly was another must.
As some of the players drilled with helmets on for the first time in their lives, Pee Wee head coach Frank Gudmundson, the former head coach of the ULHS varsity Cougars, couldn’t help but observe, “They look like little bobbleheads running down the field.”
The Junior Cougars are the newest addition to the Mendo-Lake Empire Junior Football League and they’ll compete in the North division against Fort Bragg, Westshore (Lakeport) and Willits. The four South teams are Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown and St. Helena. The Junior Cougars play each South team twice (home-and-away series) and face each of the four North teams once.
The season opens Aug. 17 when the Junior Cougars visit Fort Bragg. Other openers have Westshore at Willits, Kelseyville at St. Helena, and Lower Lake at Middletown. The Junior Cougars remain on the road Aug. 24 against Westshore before playing their home opener Sept. 7 against Willits.
The regular season runs through the end of October before the playoffs open Nov. 2.
The Junior Cougars’ goal was to field at least 15 players on each of its three teams in its inaugural season and they are close to those numbers as of Monday’s practice. They should pick up a few more players in the coming days after the Northshore’s other Pop Warner team, the Northshore Warriors, folded its program on Monday, according to Gudmundson.
New players are still welcome. Practices run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. all week at the Upper Lake High School football field.
