By Michael Prochaska
Staff Writer
 
Morgan County will not participate in a tri-county football league for boys ages 11 and 12, said  Interim Recreation Director Lance Alexander.
In an e-mail to the Morgan County Citizen, Alexander said he had talked to Morgan County High School Head Football Coach Bill Malone and decided the timing wasn’t right. As of Monday, July 30, 13 kids had signed up.
“If we proceeded on and numbers fell off we felt that would not be positive for the remaining kids in the program that were traveling to Oconee and Barrow Counties,” Alexander said, adding that the decision was also based on other tryouts that were held around the same time.
The possibility of teaming up with other counties is not a “dead issue,” Alexander said. “We intend to offer it again in the spring to insure enough time to have things in place by July 15, 2013.”
The Morgan County Recreation Department was not made aware of the opportunity for a tri-county league until June 1 of this year.
Alexander said that the local football program for boys of the same age group has about 35 kids and are having evaluations Saturday.
“We are committing to a ‘One Morgan’ frame of mind,” he said. “We want all of our kids on the recreation level to learn the sport and have fun and grow into the next level of play if they so choose.”
In addition to football, soccer signups are going on now until Aug. 13 with evaluations on Aug. 14.

Printed in the August 9, 2012