Al Cooper and Howard  Parkinson, Co-Founders of Midget Football League

Q: Just tell me how did you do it? (start the Midget League)

A: We had both driven to Raymond Alberta to watch St Francis play in 2001-2002 and in both those years, Francis had been hammered in the score. Because St. Francis are restricted to a six or seven game season with no pre-season warmup, no camps, we felt we needed to get these kids some extra playing time.  In turn, they were getting twice as much playing time in Pee Wee and Bantam as they were in High School.  We found a window of opportunity by looking at the bylaws and we were able to get this season in and finished before the next season started for high school football. So, legally we met with all the regulations and then  we met with the school board and made applications and met with all the club teams in the city and started with six teams at the start of the year. Now we're up  to 11 this year.

What we did in order to make it a success as far as integrity went, was school, you draw from the schools the same way you draw from Pee Wee and Bantam. You can’t have a head coach from a high school and be a head coach of Midget. You can’t have more than 60 percent of your players from any one school. We don’t start until after six  o’clock at night for practices so kids can still do their rugby and other sports. We really limit the number of Saturdays that kids are active so they can participate in other community sports as well as working. The other thing we do is we have a strict suspension rule  that if you are expelled from school for any length of time, then the board recognizes that and the teams will suspend that player for the same time they are out of school or more. So, if they sit out a week from school they sit out a week from football.

Q: Tell me about your background in the sport?

A: My background goes back to 1972-73 at the University of Manitoba, then when I realized you had to attend classes ….. Loud guffaws of Laughter

I started coaching in 1977 at Viscount Bennett High School through Peter Kennellan. I then went to coach Bantam football with the Cowboys in 1984, so this is my 27th year of Bantam.

Q: When you look back at the league, what is it like to reflect on what you have accomplished?

A: I think about what we have accomplished, and I challenge anyone to find a better board of directors for any sport in Canada. We still have nearly 90 percent of the same board members that originally started. If you have more than eighty percent of the same board members, then obviously, we are all here for the right reasons. The league is growing and we have our headaches the more competitive it gets. Some people will stretch the rules to the wall, but integrity is a big part as shown this week by getting the support of the Calgary High School Football when they suggested to Edmonton that they look at the rules and regulations that we have in place here. They like the sixty percent rule and the no two way ballplayers here, except on the line which is one of the things that people do push.

The level of play here, if you go back and watch high school football, and you talk to guys like ( U. of C. coach)  Blake Nill and Keith Kendall, aren’t apprehensive to put kids in to start CIAU Football and Junior Football two years out of high school, where it used to be three years and a half. 

If you look at Blake’s UC Dino team last  year for the Vanier Cup, there were twenty three kids with Midget experience.  Basically it has doubled the amount of playing time for kids since 2003. (Quoted by Howard)

Q: Do you ever see it going to lower grade levels?

A: (Al Cooper) You mean for Spring League? No, I think that is too much exposure. I think for a kid in grade nine when he is starting to make decisions in life as to what he wants to  take high school what he wants to do for sports, we’re not encouraging him to quit. There are many guys playing Rugby that played Cowboys football that are having a great time and they might change their mind and come and play Midget, or they might do no midget but they will still excel at the University of Calgary. There is nothing that says you have to play football every year. We are giving that opportunity to the kids who want to do it.

Q: Where do you want to take it, expand it?

A: We live at a comfort level where we are easy to manage, and we don’t’ even want to explore provincial or anything else. I think we have got such a good product right now, its like  home brew.  (Howard answers): We’re a development league and we aren’t trying to take on the world. We’re just here to develop kids.

Al: What we’d like to see in this league, is the kids grow in this league and then stay home and play football in Alberta. Maybe play Dinosaur football, or worst case scenario is go off and play U. of A, but stay in the province so we can still monitor them.

You know, I’d say there’s more kids staying in Calgary now playing football, since this league started because they are being id’ed here and they are being monitored here and encouraged to keep their marks up. We have the scholarships here too, (Howard answers): Well, we know that they are being watched here….

Al:  We have a coach from the Dinos and the head coach from the Colts walking around watching the games and then going across the street to watch other games.

Al: You also have the defensive coordinator for the Colts coaching in this league, and sometimes you have the other CIAU coaches. They are in tough demand now, out recruiting. The other thing this allows, is the spring league. Unless the Dinos or the Colts have a bye, they don’t have a chance to see live High School football. This is the time of the year they come down if they can to watch the teams on Saturday and then they run back to their practice or game. They only see the kids for a few minutes each year. If they can’ id a grade nine kid in Midget, they can make some mental notes, like Blake Nill.  He is just a walking computer. Then they go back and watch that kid in Grade Ten, Grade Eleven, but they can’t tamper with them. However they will certainly find out how his marks are and encourage him to keep his grades up. And it’s not just Calgary. You’ve got Airdrie and Cochrane and you had Okotoks until they folded.

Q: What has been the best part of it so far, if you could look back and say this has been the best?

Al: I’m being selfish, but another reason why I came up with this idea and started this was because I just had a dream team of kids in 2000 and 2001 Bantam, who were kids that you just didn’t want to let go. This allowed us to keep them for three more seasons. They exceeded in provincials, and now one of them playing in St. Louis. I didn’t want to give up any of these kids. We thought there was a need.  This wasn’t happening in Alberta anywhere.

Q: Did you ever think that it would be this big?

A: Never, not when we sat around and did that committee at St Francis High School. ( he answers a phone call)

(Howard answers): I think that having the strength of the clubs supporting it after the structure was all there made it successful.  I think that just had to be the emphasis, as Al said, the board of directors comes from different walks. We’re not all coaches and some of us don’t even come to the games. We’re just running it. We have financial management in place. I was always nervous, there’s that five year rule, where you can’t keep something running more than five years, but here we are.