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Youth football creates bonds

Phil Sandoval
Post Independent Photo / Kelley Cox Travis Alderson of the New Castle Jackals tackles Cole Adams of Glenwood in Sunday's Division I championship game at Glenwood Springs High School's Stubler Memorial Field.
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Football is more than X’s and O’s. It also unifies families.

But the celebrations after both Three Rivers Youth Football championship games Sunday were somewhat muted as players and supporters alike dashed for the nearest heat source once the scoreboard clock hit zero.That’s where Dave Alderson was envious of his son Travis when the Division I championship game concluded.Dave, the coach of the newly crowned Division I champ New Castle Jackals, couldn’t go home yet. He still had duties to perform as one of the directors of the Three Rivers Youth Football League.

Travis, who quarterbacked the Jackals to a 26-6 win over the Glenwood Demons, was already in his mom’s car with the heater going full blast, en route to the Alderson’s hot tub.”I think Travis is sitting in 104 degree water and warming up right now,” Dave said during halftime of the Division II game between fifth- and sixth-grade Demons and Aspen.The elder Alderson wasn’t around to help Glenwood’s Division II Demons celebrate their 18-0 win over Aspen. By then he was probably sitting alongside his son in the hot tub.



But there was plenty of warmth to share among the four youth football teams, their parents and supporters who shivered through ice-cold rain and snow flurries at Glenwood Springs High School’s Stubler Memorial Field.Along with crowning two new champion teams, the Three Rivers Football League, which will begin its 10th year of operation in 2005, has helped resuscitate high school football valleywide.”What’s gratifying from a director’s standpoint about Three Rivers Football is seeing that former league players on high school football teams from Aspen through Parachute are coming on strong,” Dave Alderson said.

“A few years ago Aspen, Basalt and Glenwood Springs high schools didn’t have varsity football programs. We’re pleased that we’ve been helpful as a feeder program to bring them into the high school level and to get them excited about football.”For parents, the league gives them an opportunity to bond with their children.”We have had a great following from the beginning when we started nine years ago,” Dave Alderson explained. “I think the parents get more involved than they do at the high school level. They seem to be a little more boisterous at this age group and want to give them a good start.””We have had a great following from the beginning when we started nine years ago,” Dave Alderson explained. “I think the parents get more involved than they do at the high school level. They seem to be a little more boisterous at this age group and want to give them a good start.”


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