BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Registration begins next month for Clarkston Chiefs, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Dave Larkin served as treasurer for 15 years and was one of the originators, helping the program get started.
“It’s very rewarding,” he said about seeing the program grow to what it is today with nearly 200 athletes, parents and volunteers. “I haven’t been involved much in the past 10-15 years, but I try to talk to the players. It’s nice to see how the program has developed.”
Larkin explained there was no youth football in Clarkston at the time and a group of eight started it.
“What happened was there was a team from Pontiac that moved to Waterford,” he said. “They had orange and black uniforms and were the Pontiac Chiefs. We got their uniforms and that’s how we got the Chiefs name. Since then, colors have gone to blue and gold but still have the Chiefs.”
He added there was a lot of response from parents when it started for the football teams and cheerleading teams.
“We only had so many uniforms so we had to cut it off at one point,” Larkin said. “We had freshman, JV and varsity and we had to cut it off at 44 players for each team because that’s all the uniforms we had. We had more people who wanted to play, but we didn’t have enough equipment.”
As the program and the interest grew, so did the league, not only with teams in the Northern Youth Football League but the addition of Super Bowl and Mega Cheer competitions.
Larkin added what has helped with the success of the Chiefs is the organization, the competition and the community.
“It’s helped the high school football program develop the younger kids,” he continued. “We have had very good cooperation from the coaches from the high school over the years. They have been very helpful. Anything we wanted, they tried to help us. We also use their facilities.”
Athletes going into football are ages 8-9 years old for the freshman level and 10-12 years old for the junior varsity level with three teams on each level – Blue, Gold and White. The cheer program also has two levels with 7-9 year olds in the freshman teams and 10-12 year olds in the JV teams.
The Clarkston Chief Youth Football and Cheerleading has a Parent Information Night onThursday, March 19, at the Clarkston Junior High School LGI Room, 7 p.m.
New player registrations is April 21 in the CJH cafeteria at 6 p.m. Registration packets are available on www.clarkstonchiefs.org.

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