Sports
HdG Rec Sends Four to State Tournament
Ten years after Parks and Rec football returned to Havre de Grace, the local program has sent four teams to the state tournament.
The Havre de Grace recreation football program will be alive and kicking in the Maryland Youth Football state championship tournament this weekend.
Four Havre de Grace teams earned invitations to the tournament, and each of them will begin play on Saturday with games in Harford County.
The 6-8 team meets Bowie in a quarterfinal game at Tucker Field in Bel Air at 12:30 p.m. Also at Tucker Field, the 8-10 Warriors are scheduled to meet Poolesville (Montgomery County) in another quarterfinal at 2 p.m.
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The 10-12 Havre de Grace team also goes at Tucker Field Saturday for a quarterfinal match-up. They play the Columbia Ravens at 5:15 p.m. But the 9-11 squad is the only Havre de Grace group that doesn't play there.
Those Warriors are set to play St. Peter's (Olney) at Bel Air High School on Saturday at 3:30 p.m in a quarterfinal.They'll come into the game with a 12-1 record.
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Brian Eberhardt is the coach of that team and runs the league. He said getting four teams in the state playoffs is something that makes everyone feel good.
"We're very excited," he said. "We think that it's the result of the years that we've put into fostering this program—and now we're seeing the benefits of it."
Eberhardt is one of the people who's seen the growth more than anyone since he's helped Havre de Grace football rebuild itself.
Havre de Grace didn't have a recreation football program for a 15-year period from 1985-2000. But Eberhardt worked with Bob Cameron, Dwayne Coakley and Jim Reynolds to re-start the Havre de Grace program in 2000.
That first year saw Havre de Grace with a program that had three teams and about 60 players. Ten years later, the Warriors have pretty much tripled in size. They fielded nine teams this season with about 190 players.
Eberhardt said the reason for re-starting the program was simple.
"We wanted our kids to have a place to play," he said.
They'll hope to keep playing in the state tournament as it goes on next weekend.
The finals are scheduled for two weeks from now.
