Date: Fri 11-Aug-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Pop-Warner-1995

Full Text:

Pop Warner Program On The Rise

With its cheerleading program defunct and its oldest team on the verge of

forfeiture, both because of a lack of numbers, the Newtown Pop Warner football

program found itself about to hit the panic button in 1994.

But thanks to an active public relations effort by several concerned

volunteers and league officials, happy days appear to be here again for the

youth organization.

Competing for participants with a plentiful fall soccer program in town, the

Newtown Soccer Club, Newtown Pop Warner has had difficulty over the years

fielding enough players to be competitive with the area towns. This problem

may now be a thing of the past.

Already, in only the early stages of this 1995 season, the town's Pop Warner

program has seen 40 young girls revitalize the cheerleading program and a

record-high 35 boys come out for the Hurricane's team in the youngest age

division. " It's really great, " said Lions assistant coach John Pantan. " In

three or four years those kids are going to progress up through the system and

it's been a long time since we've had a team of that size. "

With practice having officially begun on Tuesday, August 1, the Bears, Cubs,

and Lions teams also have rosters as big as they've had in years, although

those three teams are still hoping to get a few more signups.

" Kids can still sign up, " Pantan said. " We'd ideally like to have four or

five more players on each team. "

The efforts to repopulate the program began at the end of last year with

Newtown Pop Warner president Steve Gleason and other members of the board.

" We've really done a good job publicizing the program this year, " Gleason

said. " We ran ads in the paper and put flyers in every fourth, fifth, sixth,

and seventh grade class in Newtown. We also ran an article in the middle

school newsletter and got ten new people on that alone. I got a call just

today asking if it was too late to sign up. `Nope,' I told them. `come on

down.' "

Gleason insists that new players may sign up right up until the beginning of

the season, which is slated for September 3, following the Jamboree on August

27. The league would also like to see more girls in the ten-to-twelve age

group come out for cheer leading.

" I've been told that a lot of the older kids get interested and sign up

around the time that school starts, " Gleason said. " We would like to have

more kids in the upper three divisions. It would be nice to have an offensive

team and a defensive team where kids don't have to play both ways. The coaches

we have are good enough to ease in the new kids, so joining late isn't a

problem. "

Gleason, who played soccer in Newtown himself, and coached his own children as

they played soccer in their younger years, believes that parents have

misconceptions about the saftey of football and tend to steer their children

more towards playing soccer. This, he feels, hurts the enrollment in the

football program.

" Soccer in this town is very well organized and parental involvement is much

much easier, " he explains. " We used to think that football was too dangerous

but according to doctors I've talked to, at this age playing football is

actually safer than playing soccer. We had to be convinced of that, but we

changed over and are very happy that we did. We aren't looking to compete with

soccer, but it's nice for the kids to have an alternative. "

The recent success of Newtown High School's football program and the

involvement of NHS head coach Bob Zito and his staff, as well as his former

players, has also aided the Pop Warner cause.

Former NHS standout Jim Dudeck, in fact, is one of the assistant coaches this

season with the Newtown Lions.

Zito himself recently put on a clinic for Candlewood Valley coaches and

players where he expressed how important it was for him to get experienced

players entering into high school as freshmen.

" It's really true that success breeds success, " Gleason said. " The younger

kids see the high school players doing well and want to emulate that. It

really gives them somebody to look up to and something to shoot for

themselves. "

Added John Pantan, " some of these kids are too young to be worrying about

what they're going to be doing when they get to high school, but there are

only 15 players on a high school soccer team. The football team carries around

40. In years past Newtown Pop Warner players have been allowed down near the

playing field during Newtown High School home games in hopes to better

associate them with the sport.

" Things really seem to be on the up and up for us here, " Gleason concluded.

" We have a great group of coaches, the parents are all very supportive, and

the excitement around here seems to be as high as ever. Hopefully things will

continue to improve. Football is such a wonderful sport for kids to become

involved with. "

The Newtown Pop Warner practices weeknights at Taylor Field (behind the Hawley

School). Games begin in September and are played on Saturday mornings, for the

Hurricanes and Bears, and on Sunday mornings for the Cubs and Lions.

Anyone still interested in registering a player, a cheerleader, or

volunteering time in any capacity, may call league president, Steve Gleason,

at 426-9002.

Lions, Gary Werbeck, John Pantan, Jim Dudek

Cubs, Gary Saunders, Todd Kyle

Bears, Jack Shpunt, Dave Smith

Hurricanes, Paul Ivey and Bob Glander, John Cascone.