MIAMI GARDENS – The Miami Dolphins Junior Dolphins program announced its impact on youth football engaging with more than 15,000 high school football student athletes throughout South Florida over the last five years.
In an effort to transform lives and grow participation of boys and girls football teams, the Dolphins have supported all 142 varsity high school football programs in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County schools through team visits, equipment donations, character building or game day experiences.
“We love the game of football and are committed to our mission to teaching, learning and playing our sport in a fun and safe environment,” Miami Dolphins Senior Vice President of Communications and Community Affairs Jason Jenkins said. “Our Vice Chairman and CEO Tom Garfinkel set the vision to have an intentional impact to impact coaches, players and trainers in South Florida and we are proud to have positively engaged every school in the tri-county area.”
In celebration, the Junior Dolphins program invited athletic directors from Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County schools along with the Miami Norland Senior High School football team to attend a Miami Dolphins training camp practice at the Baptist Health Training Complex on Saturday, August 7. Miami Dolphins representatives presented the athletic directors of each county with a jersey to commemorate the initiative.
Miami Dolphins Junior Dolphins 5-Year Total Impact:
- The Junior Dolphins program hosted 65 high school football team visits to Dolphins training camp practices.
- The Junior Dolphins program hosted game day experiences for 20 high school football teams.
- The Junior Dolphins program donated more than $500K in athletic equipment to high school football teams.
- The Junior Dolphins program through the support of Baptist Health provided $260K towards equipment, health and wellness clinics.
- The Junior Dolphins program supported more than 30 girls flag football programs in South Florida.
The Junior Dolphins program encourages youth players and coaches to teach, learn and play football in a fun and safe environment. As stewards of the game, Junior Dolphins strive to grow participation in the game, impact the football community and build the next generation of Dolphins fans. Through strong community partnership and strategic resource distribution, all aspects of the Junior Dolphins program work to emphasize character building to increase the overall experience in youth football.
As we continue to find out every year, special teams certainly dictate the outcome of games – at every level.
Kicker, punter or long snapper, football has evolved into games being dictated by a snap, field goal, extra point of kickoff – or a punt that pins the opposing team back in their territory.
Was the off-season too long?
For the first time in recent memory, high school coaches throughout the state of Florida had hinted that this off-season may have been a bit too lengthy, especially if you were on the losing end of the transfers. But before we go off and get crazy about student/athletes going from school to school, understand that it’s nothing new. Nothing new at all.
Having been around high school football fields for over a half century – and watch these prospects LIVE – you tend to see things that many who watch film never get to view.
Part of the recruiting process is to be able to tell college coaches all about athletes – and while so many watch film and listen to others who have opinions, there is simply nothing like seeing athletes firsthand – and that is what has long separated us from anyone else who does it.
As we have been going over every position in every class in south Florida, seeing the next generation of impressive football talent is always exciting.
Getting ready for the 2021 season by updating all the positions and players in the data base continues to help the hundreds of college coaches who follow the teams in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, and by having the correct information, it really helps in the entire recruiting process.