Football, with a Frisbee twist

When the final school bell rings and students are dismissed for the summer, parents are already devising ways to keep their children active.

And no, video games don’t count as an activity.

Typically, a popular sport amongst boys is our national pastime: baseball. It is without question the sport of summer.

But, the baseball season only lasts so long. Most leagues have already begun to wind down, or are already finished for the year.

With the first day of school still a couple of months away, what’s a kid to do?

The Mountain Area Midget Football Association might have the answer.

The league, which is for boys in 2nd through 8th grade, has created a fun game called Bucket Ball, which combines some of the skills of football with the free-roaming aspect of Ultimate Frisbee.

The best part? The games are free and open to any kids in the mountain community.

“The kids have a lot of fun,” said MAMFA board member, David Leek. “It gets the younger kids used to holding a football and passing and catching it. For the older kids, it gets them running and builds their legs up for the fall season.”

Leek said the games, which run Tuesdays and Thursdays at Evergreen High School, are typically broken down into age groups. Kids up to 4th grade play in one game, then 5th and 6th graders play in a game and finally, the 7th and 8th graders have their own game.

“We had 50-to-60 kids (June 19),” said Leek, who also coaches the 8th grade and 2nd grade teams during the fall.

Bucket Ball not only helps keep kids active, but helps stir up interest in MAMFA’s main season, which begins August 11.

Leek said that the league, which has a total of 14 teams, has already registered more kids this year than in 2007.

“We’re at 250 (kids) right now,” Leek said. “We’re trying to get to the 300 kid mark, and that would be the biggest we’ve ever been.”

MAMFA is an all-inclusive league. If you show up to practice, you play in the games. Most of the players in the 40-year-old league come from Evergreen, but Leek said that they do pull in kids from Conifer, Blackhawk, Bailey, Pine, Idaho Springs and Morrison.

Leek said a pre-season camp will be held July 29 through August 1 from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at Evergreen High School.

For more information on MAMFA, visit www.mamfa.org, or call Leek at 303-250-0829 or Lori Reed at 303-880-4970.