HomeNews NCAA Football's Youth Initiative Announces Grant Winners
NCAA Football's Youth Initiative Announces Grant Winners
October 09, 2008
LEXINGTON, Ky. - September 4, 2008 - NCAA Football, in
association with Russell Athletic, Wilson Sporting Goods and Pop Warner,
recently awarded each of more than 40 youth football leagues and teams with
$3,000 in credits for new uniforms, equipment and more.This inaugural grant program was created to
allow the leagues to receive NCAA Football replica jerseys and pants through
Russell Athletic, footballs from Wilson, or provide registration fee waivers
for financially disadvantaged families.
"Our current game uniforms are about five years
old," said grant recipient Bobbie Thiessen - vice president of operations,
Eagle Youth Sports, Inc., of Winter Park, Fla."These new uniforms will help us achieve our goal of making the
youth football experience affordable and increase community awareness of our
league."
To obtain the grants, leagues and teams filled out
applications through Pop Warner citing financial need and how the grant would
be used.Some grant winners chose to
award participation scholarships to low-income youth, while others chose to
outfit young players in jerseys just like those worn by their favorite NCAA
Football team.
"NCAA Football is thrilled to be able to assist youth
football leagues nationwide welcome new participants and motivate those
participants to pursue a college education," said Bob Vecchione - chair of
the Youth Initiatives Committee."We're excited to see what these teams will accomplish with their
grants, and we're looking forward to receiving even more applications for next
year's program."
In addition to the grant program, NCAA Football's Youth
Initiative includes Youth Day clinics that were held in three cities in July
and several events surrounding the BCS National Championship game in January
2009.The Youth Initiative strives to
attract more youth participants to the game, provide them with additional
motivation to pursue higher education opportunities, help them develop the
necessary skills to be successful on and off the field, and help to establish a
new base of lifelong NCAA Football fans.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - September 4, 2008 - NCAA Football, in
association with Russell Athletic, Wilson Sporting Goods and Pop Warner,
recently awarded each of more than 40 youth football leagues and teams with
$3,000 in credits for new uniforms, equipment and more.
