The last official gathering of the 2020 Union City Middle School football team had nothing to do with a pigskin.
Instead, first-year head coach Cole Clanton and his assistants took more than 20 seventh and eighth graders from his squad that recently completed a stellar 5-1 season on a camping excursion on his family’s farm in Shawtown.
The lessons learned and experiences gained were just as important as the many that football itself teaches Clanton insisted.
“Several of our guys had never been to the country and camped outdoors,” the coach said. “We often talk about the life lessons of football and family, and I thought this was just an extension of that.
“I talked a lot about my dad (Joe) during the season and how important he was to me as a role model and someone who set a good example. The fact that he was there and the kids could see me interact with him and for them to also have a chance a chance to interact with another adult outside of football or school was really important, I believe.”
The group set up several tents, built fires, grilled hot dogs and Smores, cooked chili and enjoyed other foods that they either brought or was left over from a recently-held season-ending banquet.
Some of the team members were introduced to horses for the first time and the group also hiked in the woods after dark and were transported via tractor-pulled trailer to different part of the farm.
Clanton said he intends to do something similar at the end of each season, subjecting his student-athletes who are at a critical age to “something positive outside.”
“I hope this can become a part of the memory process that they have after leaving our program. I want them to have some of these skills to be able to take their own sons and daughters on outings like this and know how to do things that end up being priceless to kids in the growing-up process.”
