Chattahoochee Jr Cougars Spring Into.....Football???

Spring in the Atlanta area generally means blooming flowers, dogwood trees and magnolias.  For the young men of the Chattahoochee Jr. Cougar Football Program, it also means the sweat and hard work of spring football.  The program is up and rolling this year! We’re now in week three of spring practice for our 6th through 8th grade teams and the boys cannot WAIT to get out there and celebrate the spring season at the annual Pope Jamboree!  Our program has experienced an amazing surge of players this year and we expect to have well over 200 players before we really hit our stride in the fall season. 

Our Board of Directors has been thrilled with the outpouring of support and interest from the community and we’re committed to the success of every player in our program.  We’re excited to have football players of all ages and between our 4th through 8th grade tackle teams and our inaugural 7/8 year old flag football team, we’ll give everyone a shot to wear their blue and gold in the coveted Arena this year!

In addition to our wonderful young men in the program, we’ve also stacked the deck against our competition with the high quality of coaches we have this year.  We might be biased, but we believe they are the best that youth football has to offer!

Our 8th grade team is in the last year of youth football before they head to the big game at the high school level.  It is critical that our program provides the exact balance of leadership and training to ensure their success at that next level.  Coach Chivas Jones will help us get everything our program needs.  He is a recent graduate of Georgia State University and brings a wealth of knowledge as a player (both in high school and at the collegiate level) and a coach (as a returning coach from last season).  Keeping the Cougar family alive is Assistant Coach, Jake Marvine, who has played and coached in the Jr. Cougar Football Program previously.  Many of you are probably familiar with the Marvine name, as Jake’s father, Ed Marvine, was a pivotal coach in the program for many years.

7th grade will get a crash course in fundamentals this year from Head Coach Jonathan Massey.  Coach Massey comes back to us after coaching our 7th grade team last year and fortunately, the dual threat of Coaches Massey and Mark Goodman will not be disrupted in 2012…  Hopefully, this year’s 7th grade team will not fall prey to the infamous “On Two” Drill that these two are known for in the program!  Both of these men run a disciplined, fair program that looks to strengthen their players not just as athletes, but as great young men.  Neither of these coaches have players in the program currently…  They come out to each practice and game simply out of love for football and the young men they coach.  These boys will have a tremendous year under their leadership and be more than ready for their 8th grade year.

The Jr. Cougar 6th grade team is led by one of our returning coaches from our 5th grade team last year, Jeff Stephen.  Our 5th grade teams last year had a phenomenal season (under Coaches Stephen and Joe Massaroni)…  So much so that we have record numbers for 6th grade in 2012 – nearly 60 players on this one team alone!  We will look at those athletes and form two competitive teams for 6th grade this year and we’re thrilled Coach Stephen has agreed to lead the charge!  The 6th grade year is always the toughest adjustment, with players getting their first taste of what football can REALLY be like.  There is no guaranteed playing time and each player must earn his spot each and every week.  Coach Stephen and his staff of assistants will certainly have their hands full in juggling each player’s needs, but they are more than ready for the excitement and challenges ahead!

Even though they don’t start in spring, we’re all set with our younger coaching staffs for our tackle program, as well.  Coach Michael Dowling will return from our Championship 4th grade team last year to lead our 5th grade team in 2012.  He has coached in the Alpharetta/Johns Creek area for more than 8 years now.  Coach Dowling has two boys that play in our program (at the 5th and 8th grade levels) and we know he’ll lead this 5th grade team through a tremendous 2012 season!  Our 4th grade numbers are another group that has grown significantly!  We’ll have two 4th grade teams this year for the first time in over three years!  Our two 4th grade coaches are Manuel Rogers, for Cougar Gold and Winston Tamisin for Cougar Blue.  Coach Rogers will bring a high level of discipline to his team, as a recent retiree of the U.S. Marine Corps.  He has had two boys participate in the Cougar program over the last five years (his younger son will be playing on the 4th grade team this year) and has been a head coach and official in other programs across the country.  Coach Tamisin will bring a high level of enthusiasm to his boys.  Coach Tamisin will also have two boys in the program this year (one at the 4th grade and one at the 8th grade level) and to say that his excitement is contagious is an understatement!  These two Coaches will work together to strengthen not only their individual teams, but the 4th grade group as one unit and team!

Know that youth football is alive and well in the Chattahoochee Jr. Cougar Football Program!  We have our upcoming skills camp with our Varsity Program (led by none other than State & Region Championship Coach, Terry Crowder) the week of June 4th through June 8th.  This is a GREAT opportunity for our boys to get excited about the upcoming fall season!  Fall will kick off in late July and will be for all grades – 7/8 year old flag football and 4th through 8th grade tackle.

If you have a young man that is looking for a sport to offer him the rewards of hard work, the value of team and the kind of friendships that last a lifetime…  Come out and look no further than Jr. Cougar Football!  Registration is still wide open for all grade levels and more information can be found at our website at www.jr-cougars.org.  We promise you – you won’t regret it! 

We’ll see you out on the field!

Ashley Townsend-Rogers

President, Jr. Cougar Football