For those of you who are paying attention, you will notice that we have removed the Player List from each page. We have recently upgraded some software and one of the bugs was the player list is no longer showing correctly. We are working on it and should have it resolved by tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.
UPDATED: The Player List is now back for those who are looking for it. 11/12/11
When we were approached by Galt High School to be involved in their 100 year celebration, we were excited. Galt is having a week long celebration starting with an alumni football game on Sunday night, September 25th at 7:00 PM. The gates open at 5:00 PM and Galt fans are encouraged to participate in tailgating.
The alumni of Galt High School will be taking on a various all-star group from the MotherLode League. Galt High School has been selling raffle tickets to a $500 cash award donated by Gridiron Alumni for the past 4 weeks. Along with the concessions donated to the school from Gridiron Alumni, Galt expects to make close to $6000 from the game.
In addition to the game, Gridiron Alumni will be holding a Pass, Punt, and Kick contest for boys and girls ages 6-15. Registration begins at 5:00 PM and the contest begins at 5:30 PM. The contest if free with paid admission to the game. So, help support your Galt High School Football program and enjoy a great game of football.
In the Silver state of Nevada, there isn’t much of a bigger rivalry than Douglas vs. Carson. Douglas and Carson High have been playing for almost 100 years, so I am told. That’s a lot of bad blood. Recently, Joey Crandall wrote a very nice article on Gridiron Alumni and putting together a rivalry game between alumni of Douglas and Carson. SEE ARTICLE HERE!
Well, it might have been a record how both teams had 35+ players in less than 5 days. The game will be played in the spring of 2012 and the Douglas Tigers will get home field advantage. Players have signed up from all over the nation to come back to this homecoming. Keep your eyes peeled for more details. Thanks again to Joey Crandall for going above and beyond the call of duty with his fantastic article.
On Saturday, many alumni football players from Lodi and Tokay High will be playing on the newly remodeled turf of the Grape Bowl in Lodi, CA. After a major renovation project, the City of Lodi truly has a crown jewel for football players. Much of the attraction of this year’s game has been the stadium itself. Even when we found out that the City of Lodi would charge the field cost PLUS $1 per admission, our players told us that it would be worth it. After much discussion, it was decided that it would be added to the ticket price.
The game starts at 8:15 PM because of the Lodi Jr. Flames on the field. The gates will open at 8:00 PM. HOWEVER, tickets will be sold at a ticket booth outside the stadium starting at 7 PM. Fans are encouraged to get their tickets early for a smooth and seamless transition into the stadium. Normal ticket prices are $8 for adults, $6 for students, and Kids 5 and under are free. Please add $1 for the City of Lodi to each ticket price (except, of course, the free tickets).
Fans will also be treated to a Pass, Punt, and Kick contest for boys and girls, ages 6-15 on the South Diamond Softball Complex just south of the stadium. The contest is free and registration begins at 5:30 pm and the contest begins at 6:00 PM.
Don’t miss out on what is sure to be a fantastic game.
A company is made and sometimes broken by the decisions they make. While some companies put on alumni football games with inferior used equipment and hand me down uniforms, we always try to use the safest equipment we can afford. This last year, we bough 100 new helmets. We also bought 100 used helmets from a dealer in San Antonio we were referred too.
The helmets were in good condition. I would’ve put my head in any of them. However, I recently sent in 67 helmets to be painted red and reconditioned. Imagine my dismay when I found out that 32 of used helmets had turned 10 years old 7 days ago. Under the new reconditioning guidelines, reconditioners are not able to re-certify a helmet that is 10 years old or older, regardless of it’s condition. So, I missed using the helmets by one week.
After careful consideration, I decided that even though we are not governed by high school standards, safety has to come first. Therefore, at much cost to us, we have eliminated all helmets that turned 10 years old last week. In addition, we bought some Schutt Air XP’s and Schutt DNA Pro + helmets this week. All of our helmets now either carry a 2011 certification sticker or are brand new this year. When I played alumni football for another company, the gear was shotty at best. Their lack of concern for player safety is one of the reasons that I started my own company. I pledged that my gear would always be good and player safety would come first.
Removing a grand total of 87 helmets from our inventory meant taking a big hit in the fiscal department, but I believe YOU ARE WORTH IT! I’m sure your friends and family would agree.
One of the things we pride ourselves in is having really top notch equipment. After all, you’re paying good money. You should get good equipment to go with it. When I played in my first alumni game, we actually all chipped in $45 and bought our own jerseys. The second year, we didn’t have enough money as a team and we took what they gave us. Well, let me tell you, those jerseys should have been in a museum. They had to be older than I was.
I hear someone out there saying “How old were they?” and I can’t help but sheepishly say that I didn’t know that the apostles had their own football team. While we can’t order every color combinations, we try hard to have what our customers need. This year, we noticed that if we were to get red and purple jerseys, they would really get some good use.
In addition to new jerseys, we have decided to take a portion of our black and white helmets, now totally 220 and have some of them reconditioned and repainted by SunValco in Tempe, AZ. Gary over there gave us a sweet price on them and we’re hoping to have them back for Lodi and Galt to wear them on 9/24 and 9/25 respectively.
This year alone, Red will be worn by Galt and Trinity. Purple will be worn by Tokay, Portola, and Oroville. As always, we order every number between 00 and 99, so nobody’s favorite number is left out.
We have just updated our current schedule. As time goes on, things change. We have conflicts with fields, players who can’t make the game if it’s on a certain date and even deer hunting season. Here is the updated version of our schedule. PLEASE NOTE: Game dates are due to change due to field availability. One field approval has been given, games will be bolded and Alumni Football Game Tickets made available.
DATE TEAMS
9/24 Lodi at Tokay
9/25 Amador at Galt
10/1/11 Hayfork at Trinity
10/9/11 Burney at Fall River
10/15/11 Quincy at Portola
10/22/11 Corning at Red Bluff
10/23/11 Shasta at Enterprise
10/29/11 Las Plumas at Oroville
11/6/11 West Valley/Anderson at Central Valley
In an effort to be the Best Alumni Football game, we have now added a Pass, Punt, and Kick contest for every game. This is a value added event that costs the contestants nothing and provides more entertainment value for those attending.
Contestants, aged 6-15, can participate in a Pass, Punt, and Kick contest just like the NFL does. The contest is open to Boys and Girls and is Free to all paid entrants. The top contestants in the field will be sent to a playoff contest at halftime of the alumni football game.
For more rules on the Pass, Punt, and Kick contest, go to the NFL’s website, NFLPPK.com.
A lot of people have been asking me when the games are going to be this year. I thought I would make it easy for everyone and list the games and dates. PLEASE NOTE: Game dates are due to change due to field availability. One field approval has been given, games will be bolded and Alumni Football Game Tickets made available.
DATE TEAMS
9/24 Lodi at Tokay
9/25 Amador at Galt
10/1/11 Bret Harte at Calaveras
10/8/11 Burney at Fall River
10/9/11 Hayfork at Trinity
10/15/11 Quincy at Portola
10/16/11 Las Plumas at Oroville
10/23/11 Shasta at Enterprise
11/6/11 West Valley/Anderson at Central Valley
As a young company, I am constantly trying to keep in touch with my purpose: Make every game special.
As my wife and I were eating dinner last night, we got into a conversation about helmets and jerseys in alumni football games. We currently have 215 helmets right now. They are about 50% black and 50% white. I have been kicking around the idea of reducing down the number of black helmets and white helmets and adding some different colored helmets.
For example, one of my first games of the Fall Season will be Galt vs. Amador. Since Galt is the home team, I have considered getting red helmets and red jerseys. I can’t do this for every game we play because the color combinations are endless. However, based on our upcoming games, I feel that I could really get some good use out of red helmets and red jerseys. Trinity High, Galt High, and Lodi High all wear red jerseys.
The question my wife asked me was this. “Did wearing the right color helmet and the right color jersey make your alumni game any more/less special?” I instantly said no. In fact, the first game we played in, we had our jerseys made and the company that provided our gear gave us white helmets when we always wear purple helmets. So, I’m trying to figure out if I really want to spend the extra money and get them done or not.
What say you?
