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SIZING UP — Renegade coach Steve Martin, left, sizes up a player for equipment at last Saturday’s minicamp.
From all indications, the County Renegades football team should be able to hold their own in their inaugural season in the Greater New England Youth Football League (GNYFL). Twenty-nine players showed up at the Airport Field last Saturday, including six walk-ups, and Head Coach Steve Martin couldn’t have been more thrilled.
“My jaw just kept dropping as more guys we didn’t know had an interest kept just popping out of the woodwork,” said Martin. “I had to go home afterwards and order more gear.”
The Renegades will play a seven-week schedule this fall in the GNYFL, beginning in early September and culminating with the state championship in early November at Husson College in Bangor. Other entrants in the 11-man tackle league across the state are two-time defending league champion Madawaska, Caribou, Milo, Kenduskeag, Medomak Valley and Central Maine (China).
“We are going to be big and physical,” Martin added. “What we may lack in blazing speed we are going to hopefully make up for with size, strength, and straight-ahead downhill power.”
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DRILL — The County Renegades held another minicamp last Saturday at the Airport Field in Houlton. The players went through a number of drills and exercises for pre-conditioning.
The Renegades welcomed Special Teams Coach Chris Bond into the fold as well, and congratulated Strength & Conditioning Coach Josh Holcombe and wife Sara on the birth of their first child. The team will meet again for minicamp No. 3 on June 18 at noon at The Airport Field. Check out the team on Facebook by searching “County Renegades Football.”
For more information, contact Coach Martin at 532-3635 or by email: mepatriot@juno.com.
“We still have about $2,500 to go to have all the gear and finances we need for referees [and other game essentials] and we are a 501c.3, so please do consider supporting us,” Martin said. “This is about helping to create the type of young men our areas need, even more than about the game itself.”
