Now that Michigan City's 2010 summer fest and 4th of July festivities are just about behind us can only mean one thing: FOOTBALL SEASON IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER. The first official day of practice is just a few weeks away on August 1st.

In 2010 I plan following both the Jr. Pee Wee & Pee Wee teams and will try to do my best in keeping up with everything that will be transpiring during the season.

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some more video highlights involving members of our nationally #3 ranked Pop Warner Super Bowl Semi-Finalist/National Sportsmanship Award winning Jr. Pee Wee Squad doing what they do best: SCORING TOUCHDOWNS and preventing their opponents from doing so.

Check it out:

Aryuan Cain-Veasey 32 touchdowns (27 RUSHING, 3 RECEIVING, 1 PASSING, 1 INTERCEPTION RETURN):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YehY5PEJMc

Markice Hurt, Jr. 27 touchdowns (24 RUSHING, 2 RECEIVING, 1 INTERCEPTION RETURN):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqXpD6nft1w

Noah Jones III 14 touchdowns (13 RUSHING, 1 KICK-OFF RETURN):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEtCDcMU66g

Team Defensive highlights and big hits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1sSbwMu0O8

Excellent! Keep us posted on the seasons progress!

I pulled this down off one of the Pop Warner cheerleader mom's Facebook page:

MC POP WARNER ALL YEAR CHEER TEAMS ARE HAVING A CARWASH THIS SATURDAY AT HIRSCH FORD FROM 10-2 TO FUND RAISE FOR (much needed new uniforms)!!!!!! PLEASE COME OUT AND SUPPORT THESE GIRLS WHO WORK SO HARD!!!!! TICKETS ARE ONLY $5.00!!!!!!

Reposting to my own fb page. Thanks for passing it along!

Aryuan, Markice & Noah 30 touchdown mix remastered:

http://nationalunderclassmen.ning.com/vide...source=activity

First day of practice is Monday at 5 PM. My goodness, I can't believe the older one is starting his fifth (and most likely final) season of his illustrious Michigan City Pop Warner football career, time sure does fly by when your having fun.

I was told that they'll l start out with a non-padded 4 team combine, then at the end of the week the boys will be issued their gear we will have the rosters. In years past they've practiced five days a week, two hours a day up until Labor Day, then after Labor Day they've practiced 3 days a week. Last season they played all the way through the first week of December.

Don't forget sponsorship opportunities for the Bowl-A-Thon coming up on August 14th!

We're starting our 2nd season of Tiny Mites (where it all begins). I'm not sure who's more excited...my son (a player) or my husband (a coach)!

I have a special announcement to make.

Here's the deal:

I've been contacted by an executive from the advertising firm of Saatchi & Saatchi, we've kind of been going back and fourth via a couple e-mails since last and this morning she contacted me by telephone. They are interested in using the video footage we made for a Pee Wee football campaign they are working on for the Toyota Sienna Mini-Van.

Basically they're asking me to sign a release to use the footage and send them a DVD copy of everything. There wouldn't be any residuals involved (that was the first thing I inquired about and if there was I'd give it to the program) but I figured it might means possible national exposure for Michigan City I'll follow through and try to help with what they need.

I'll keep everybody posted if anything else transpires.

Michigan City Pop Warner will be having two schrimage games VS. the Division I Harvey (IL) Colts at Elston Middle School's Gill Field on Sunday, August 22, 2010.

The Jr. Pee Wee teams take the gridiron at 10 AM followed by the Pee Wee teams at noon.

Here's your chance to see two of the top youth football programs in the nation as they prepare for their respective 2010 campaigns.

This should be an exciting premiere of what's to come! The Jr. Pee Wee's have assembled an extremely knowledgable coaching staff and they brought together an excellent mix of 10 and 11 year olds.

Welcome to the board Sean!!

Welcome in! I look forward to hearing a lot about the program from everyone!

Both programs swapped shutouts in their respective scrimmages this past Sunday:

Jr. Pee Wees

Michigan City 24
Harvey Colts 0

Pee Wees

Harvey Colts 33
Michigan City 0
(Halftime Slaughter)

Regular season starts this weekend

Here's who's playing Sunday at Elston's Gill Field

• Portage Jr. Pee Wee Red VS. Michigan City Jr Pee Wee 1 @ 10:00 AM
• Portage Jr. Pee Wee White VS. Michigan City Jr. Pee Wee 2 @ 11:30 AM
• Portage Pee Wee VS. Michigan City Pee Wee @ 1:00 PM
• Portage Jr. Midget VS. Michigan City Jr. Midget @ 2:30 PM

I have heard from a couple of MC Pop Warner Board Members that the Portage Junior Midgets have forfeited Sunday's game due to not having the required number of players. (16)

Sunday's Results

City's youth squads were 2 out of 3 against their opponents from Portage on Sunday

Michigan City Jr. Pee Wee 1-- 24
Portage Jr. Pee Wee Red -- 14

Portage Jr. Pee Wee White -- 25
Michigan City Pee Wee 2 -- 6

Michigan City Pee Wee-- 40
Portage Pee Wee -- 14

Junior Midget teams did not play, Portage did not have enough players.

There are a few member of the Pee Wee team that have never been defeated on Michigan City turf since their rookie season in 2006 when they were just 8 years old, that's five seasons running as of now. I've witnessed just about every one of them.

Here's the schedule for Sunday at Elston:

• TRITOWN TM 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY TM 2 9:00 AM
• HOBART JMM 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JMM 1 10:00 AM
• MICHIANA MM 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY MM 1 11:30 AM
• GARY JPW 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JRPW 1 1:00 PM
• DUNELAND JRPW 2 @ MICHIGAN CITY JRPW 2 2:30 PM
• MICHIANA PW 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY PW 1 4:00 PM

The score for MC JPW1 vs Portage JPW Red was 24-14; Unfortunately they scored twice in the last 4 minutes. A majority of the boys play both sides of the ball.

Can't wait till they get up to the high school and dominate. Oops! We have said that about quite a few Pop Warner teams only to see them struggle at that level too.

I think the lack of coaching talent at the High School level is the reason for the lack of success.

Buzea didn't qualify as a "talented" coach?? The reality is Pop Warner doesn't translate well to "big boy" football. Give that Pop Warner coach another stick he needs to draw up a play in the dirt again.

The high school team's coaching staff needs to borrow that stick.

All Michigan City teams were victorious in Sunday's games at Elston with the exception of the Jr. Pee Wee 2 squad. They played Chesterton to a 12-12 tie.

I have to admit, all of the teams look great this year. From the youngest kids all the way up, they're a tough group. Can't wait until next weekend!

I had a great time volunteering on the chain gang for the JR. PEE WEE 2 game, I thought I did a good job, the Chesterton coach only yelled at me once for flipping the down box the wrong way. I didn't care, he's not the man who signs my paycheck.

Here's this Sunday's home schedule @ Elston:

PORTAGE TM 2 @ MICHIGAN CITY TM 1 9:00 AM
LAPORTE TM 3 @ MICHIGAN CITY TM 2 10:00 AM
VALPARAISO JMM 4 @ MICHIGAN CITY JMM 1 11:00 AM
LAPORTE JMM 3 @ MICHIGAN CITY JMM 2 12:30 PM
DUNELAND JRPW 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JRPW 1 2:00 PM
TRITOWN JR MID 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JR MID 1 3:30 PM

City's Pee Wee team also travels to Schererville to play Tri-Town @ 3 PM. What to do, What to do, What to do, I think I'll save the gas and right stay here in good 'ol Michigan City.

fyI....The schedule is wrong for the MC JRPW1, they play Merrillville this coming Sunday. They play Duneland the following Sunday in week 4;

I guess the webmaster at HLA didn't get the memo.

You will see that I am right, later in the week.

Here is a link to the News Dispatch about an arrest that took place last weekend at Gill Field. I think the comment section is getting a little out of hand.

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2010/0...94538817218.txt

Another great day for Michigan City's Pop Warner teams at Gill Field, especially for the Hurt brothers, Marquan and Markice, Jr.. Marquan scored all five touchdowns in the Junior Mitey Mites I 30-6 win over Valpo 4 while older brother Markice, Jr. reached paydirt four times in the Junior Pee Wee 1 37-0 rout against Merrillville. Michigan City's Pee Wee 1 squad lost a squeaker 14-12 to the Tri-Town Raiders over in Schererville, IN this afternoon.

There will be no home games at Gill Field for the next two weekends as all Michigan City Pop Warner teams will be on the road. The boys will return back to home action on the weekend of October 2 & 3rd.

If you want to know a secret, I would be willing to bet that about half of those comments came from the same person on there. Unlike here, they don't force people to register and track their IP addresses. When you see people posting stuff here, you know it is one person, and one voice.

I've created a Michigan City Wolves page for Toyota's "Tiny Football League" promotion.

http://www.toyota.com/tfl/story?team_id=7934&

Please stop by and vote or leave a comment or even add a photo or a video highlight from previous seasons (no musical soundtracks or Toyota will take it down due to copyright infringement liability.)

They are awarding prizes in the form of merchandise cards, one $10,000 and 8 $5,000.

Winners will be determinded by:

1. Team’s approach to Teamwork 25%
2. Team’s display of Determination 25%
3. Team’s ability to demonstrate Constant Improvement 25%
4. Team’s approach to Overcoming Adversity 25%

Over on the CBTL facebook page. I've posted some never before seen video footage from a documentary that is in the works entitled: "Win or Go Home: 2009 Michigan City Jr. Pee Wee Football".

The documentary is going to include over 2 hours of footage from the pre-season scrimmage with the Harvey Colts and regular season and playoff game including highlights of the Wolves victory at the national quarterfinals last December down in Florida.

Here's some highlight footage of Michigan City's victory in the Pop Warner Super Bowl quarterfinals last December: (worst PA announcer ever)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxn1FJPDgGQ

As usual, it was another stellar day across the board for each and every one of Michigan City's Pop Warner football teams in Valparaiso. I took some sensational video of our nationally recognized Jr. Midget Cheerleading squad. They're just simply an amazing, athletic and talented group of young women.

Going to be a huge day this Tuesday:

1. The league is holding it's all inclusive four round blind tournament draw (yeah, Pop Warner does it that way too ).

Here's the four teams from Michigan City that qualify:

Division II:

• Jr. Pee Wee I
• Pee Wee
• Jr. Midget

Division III:

• Jr. Pee Wee II

2. This is the big news, there's going to be a history making announcement made at the school board meeting that Ames Field will be the site for the entire Northern Indiana and Mid-America Pop Warner football tournament series for both Division II & Division III.

Michigan City, Indiana (not Michigan) landed the whole enchillada:

• League Preliminary round
• League Quarterfinals
• League Semi-Finals
• League Championship
• Indiana State Championship
• Mid America Sub-regional
• Mid America Championship

That means beginning in less than four weeks from now for seven consecutive weekends hoards of families from all around Northwest Indiana and the entire Midwest will be converging on and spending their disposable income in Michigan City, dining in our restaurants, staying in our hotels and shopping in our stores and best of all NO TRAVEL EXPENSES FOR OUR FAMILIES!!! (unless we have to make another trip to Disney)

This information was a secret but someone let it out. I just hope the JRPW1 team doesn't let their heads swell too big in the next few weeks. Better to lose a game know than in the playoffs.

No travel expenses would be great being all the issues that came up last year with $$$ not being accounted for!!!!!!!!

This wasn't secret suprise to me. They were taking at the Sub-Regional in Indianapolis last year that Michigan City had knocked it so far out of the park that it was going to be a no-brainer.

No need to lose any, were going to be at home from now until Florida.

Major playoff previews scheduled the next two weekends at Gill Field:

Saturday 10-2:

MERRILLVILLE TM 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY TM 1 1:00 PM
MERRILLVILLE JMM 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JMM 1 2:00 PM
MERRILLVILLE JMM 2 @ MICHIGAN CITY JMM 2 3:30 PM

Sunday 10-3 (Lowell's coming):

VALPARAISO MM 3 @ MICHIGAN CITY MM 1 9:00 AM
SOUTHLAKE JRPW 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JRPW 1 10:30 AM
SOUTHLAKE JRPW 3 @ MICHIGAN CITY JRPW 2 12:00 PM
SOUTHLAKE PW 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY PW 1 1:30 PM
SOUTHLAKE JR MID 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JR MID 1 3:00 PM

Any official word on the playoffs being held here?

It was announced at the school board meeting on Tuesday.

The JRPW1 Playoff Schedule will start out like this:

10/17: Mishawaka JRPW1

10/24: Lowell JRPW1 (providing they win)

10/31: Probably Duneland JRPW1 or Gary

11/7: The NIPWLS Championship probably against Portage.

I have no clue about any unaccounted for $$$.

Here's the things I do know for a fact:

• I know for a fact that each boys family was required to sell one book of port-a-pit chicken tickets for each player they and on a team to cover travel, hotel and meals for the final three rounds.
  
• I know for a fact that some of the families has more than one kid playing football and therefore, had to sell more than one book of port-a-pit chicken tickets.
  
• I know for a fact one of the grandma's (who is very well known on the local BINGO circuit) has a set of grandsons and a pair of great-nephews on the team that made it all the way to Florida. She took all of their books of port-a-pit chicken tickets to her place of work and to her BINGO nights at the Michigan City Moose and the Elks (we all know how big time BINGO is in Michigan City, we all also know that when there is a need for something such as this that members of clubs and organizations such the Moose and Elks are the ones that always step up). She sold old every one of their books plus another book for another one of the boy's dad. In fact, her younger grandson didn't even make the Florida trip, he had to stay here and go to school because he broke his right big toe in practice after their first game of the year and was out for the rest of the entire season.
  
• I know for a fact other families also pitched in and sold multiple books of port-a-pit chicken tickets to cover other families obligation.
  
• I know for a fact four families (luggage, football gear included) packed into a single Ford Econoline rental van and drove to and from Orlando because one of their fathers has a severe case of John Madden syndrome (deathly afriad of flying on an airplane), not naming any names but he drives a garbage truck.
  
• I know for a fact that there was no way on earth I was getting into that van.
  
• I know for a fact that I'm really stoked to have this in Michigan City in 2010.
  
• I know for a fact that I made road to trips to and from Chesterton, Schererville (twice), Lowell, Merrillville, South Bend, Indianapolis and Detroit. Cost me personally $600.00 in fuel cost alone, after that me going to Florida was out.
  
• I know for a fact that I don't have to get up at and leave the house at 4 am and drive to Indy and Motown to make an 8am kick-off.
  
• I know for a fact that I'll never forget that day I went to Indy for the rest of my life. Attended the Carmel-Merrillville 5A semi-state game that Friday night. Left Michigan City at 4am the next morning, took in all three Michigan City Pop Warner games in Indianapolis, then stopped off that evening at the inferno in Lowell on my way back from Indy to watch the Fort Wayne Dwenger Saints - Lowell Red Devils 4A semi-state game, I did 5 football games in 24 hours.

Get a roster.

I don't know much about what you just stated so I can't comment. I also don't know too much about many of the kids on the JRPW Blue team but I know a few of their Coaches. I think it's too early to start looking at H.S. expectations from these kids especially at 10 and 11 years old. I think it's great to have the playoffs in M.C. and it will be a good economic boost for the city.

Final Week of the Regular season at Gill Field:

Saturday:

SOUTHLAKE TM 2 @ MICHIGAN CITY TM 1 1:00 PM
SOUTHLAKE TM 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY TM 2 2:00 PM
SOUTHLAKE JMM 2 @ MICHIGAN CITY JMM 1 3:00 PM
SOUTHLAKE JMM 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JMM 2 4:30 PM

Sunday:

SOUTHLAKE MM2 @ MICHIGAN CITY MM 1 10:00 AM
TRITOWN JRPW 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JRPW 1 11:30 AM
DUNELAND PW 2 @ MICHIGAN CITY PW 1 1:00 PM
VALPARAISO JR MID 1 @ MICHIGAN CITY JR MID 1 2:30 PM

Play-off brackets are out:

Division II

Jr. Pee Wee:
http://nipwls.com/pdfs/D2playoffJRPW.pdf

Pee Wee:
http://nipwls.com/pdfs/D2playoffPW.pdf

Jr. Midget:
http://nipwls.com/pdfs/D2playoffJM.pdf

Division III
Jr. Pee Wee:
http://nipwls.com/pdfs/D3playoffJRPW.pdf

Despite having to play in the first three rounds the Michigan City Division II Jr. Pee Wee squad has great odds of playing for and winning the league title on November 7, Right now the only team that can beat them are themselves, their coaching staff will have a challenge to fight overconfidence and will need to keep their core team members injury free. Beyond the league title game it's almost impossible to predict. I thought it was a real hoot that the two Valpo D-2 JPW teams drew each other in the preliminaries

Tough draw for the Michigan City Jr. Midget team unless they pull off an upset. They took a 40-8 home loss against Tri-Town a couple weeks ago.

The Pee Wees have the week off in the preliminary round, they will face another stiff challenge in the league semi-final round when they travel to Schererville to most likely square off with Duneland (Chesterton) in the semi-final round, if they get by Duneland, they'll have another challenge to beat likely opponent Southlake (Lowell) in the title game at Ames.

You won't see Michigan City's Div. III Jr. Pee Wee team at Ames until the State championship round. They're a tough and gritty group of youngsters no doubt, but having to get through four rounds is qoing to be quite a daunting task.

I made a full feature movie.

Win or Go Home: 2009 Michigan City Jr. Pee Wee Football

2 1/2 hours of game highlights, inspirational coach talk and championship victory celebration:

CLICK HERE

Michigan City Pop Warner closed the gate on another fine regular season this weekend at Gill Field.

Best of luck to all of City's lower tiered teams as they travel to their respective Bowl games this weekend.

Michigan City's Division II Jr. Pee Wee team will play Sunday at 1pm at Portage High School in their preliminary round match-up with their opponent from Michiana followed by Michigan City's Division III Jr. Pee Wee teams taking on Portage 2 at 3pm.

The Wolves Pee Wee and Jr. Midget squads will enjoy a bye week.

Pop Warner Update:

Another great weekend for Michigan City:

Congratulations to Michigan City Jr. Mitey Mite 1 in the 20-6 win in their bowl game against Gary at Boone Grove on Saturday to finish their season at a perfect 8-0.

Congratulations to Michigan City Mitey Mites 1 in their bowl game rout victory over Valpo at VHS on Saturday to finish their season at a perfect 8-0.

Congratulations to Michigan City Jr. Pee Wee 1 in their 38-0 romp over Michiana in their Division II preliminary round tounament game at Portage High School on Sunday to advance into the quarterfinals next Saturday.

Congratulations to Michigan City Jr. Pee Wee 2 in their 20-2 win over Portage in their Division III 1st round preliminary round game at Portage High School on Sunday to advance into the 2nd preliminary round next Saturday.

Also, there will be no Divison II state championship round games at Ames Field due no opponent available from central Indiana (I was told there was some discrepency in their financial ledgers). Northern Indiana Division II League Champions will have a bye that week and automatically qualify for sub-regional. Division III state championship games at Ames Field will still take place.

Let me add two more bits of great MC Pop Warner news:
Both Tiny Mite teams played very well this year! Although there is no score kept at this level, I can tell you that these kids are definitely following in the footsteps of the older players.

Tiny Mites Blue (where my son played & my husband coached), they would have only had one loss for the entire season (to Merrillville).

Not certain on the Tiny Mites Grey "record", but I do know that they really came together and played fantastically.

Great job, all!!

Here's Saturday's schedule: 10-23-10

Division II

Jr. Pee Wee: Southlake VS. Michigan City @ Tri-Town 8:30am-
Pee Wee: Gary VS. Michigan City @ Portage 8:30am-
Jr. Midget: Tri-Town VS. Michigan City @ Tri-Town 6:30pm

Division III

Jr. Pee Wee: Valpo 4 VS. Michigan City @ Portage 2:30pm

- For scheduling the boys games at the exact same time in two different locations