Fowlerville youth football was in doubt, but community support changed that
FOWLERVILLE — For Fowlerville sixth grader Dakota Davison, receiving an email Wednesday saying that his tackle football season was canceled was devastating.
It was especially hard, his mom, Morgan Davison, said because Dakota had already lost one season of playing football in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It really is such an important part of our town culture here; everybody loves football," she said.
There are about 250 kids who will play football through the Fowlerville program this year, Davison added.
The Fowlerville Recreation Department, operated through the school system, initially announced it had to switch this year's first- to eighth-grade program to a flag football season because helmets for players were not recertified and couldn't be used. After community members and parents expressed their concern, another company stepped up and the decision was reversed.
In an email, Cheryl Dixon, the Fowlerville recreation director, said the youth football season had to be switched because of the helmets.
"When I look at the alternative, which is another season going by without any football, my heart breaks," she wrote in the email Wednesday that was provided to the Livingston Daily.
In the email, Dixon said the team's football helmets had been sent to Integrity Sports Services in Ohio to be reconditioned and certified as safe for the students to wear during the football season.
Instead, she received the helmets back at the end of July without any reconditioning, and later received a message that the company would not be fulfilling its end of the contract.
Morgan Davison said people in the community went into problem-solving mode after getting the first email.
The next day, an outpouring of community support resulted in the season being restored after Capital Varsity Sports in Ohio accepted the team's helmets for recertification, and the Kensington Valley Youth Football Conference said it would provide helmets for the teams to borrow while that takes place.
Capital Varsity Sports plans to recondition the helmets and send them back in phases, with the seventh and eighth grade teams getting theirs first.
Practices were set to start on Aug. 15, but because of the issues with the helmets, Davison said, it might be delayed a week or two later.
Teams usually play six or seven games per season, and the games start in early September.
Sophia Lada is a reporter for the Livingston Daily. Contact her at slada@gannett.com or 517.377.1065. Follow her on Twitter @sophia_lada.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Fowlerville football will happen this season as normal
