Texas or bust for the Rams

Posted in: Yorkshire Rams    By Mike Cluskey Jun 2, 2008 - 7:23:59 AM

An amazing coup for the Yorkshire Rams organisation has come in the shape of an invitation to their Youth Team to go to Texas and participate in preseason training with the winningest 3A/2A High School Programme in Texas football history.

 

Celina's star running back Troy McCartney.

Rams CEO Mike Cluskey and Celina High School Coaches William "Dusty" Hutson and Butch Ford have been working hard behind the scenes for three years to forge links between the Rams Youth Programme and the Celina Bobcats. As a consequence, the first tentative steps towards a twinning programme will take place this August when a group of Rams Coaches and players will spend a week at Celina with the record breaking team that won four state championships in a row between 1998-2001 and are the reigning 3A state champions after defeating China Spring at the world famous Texas Stadium. In fact the Bobcats are 5 and 0 in Championship games played at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.

In another chapter to the story, after lengthy consultation with Brychan Jones the Partnership Development Manager of the Leeds South Partnership, It is also hoped that the twinning exercise will begin to pave the way for South Leeds' seven High Schools to twin with other schools in the Lone Star State and help advance the educational and sporting links that will be made during the trip.

Rams CEO Mike Cluskey is massively optimistic about the event's potential for increasing the profile of American football in Leeds as well as putting the city on the map over in Texas he commented, "American football is such a wonderful sport for bringing together disparate groups of individuals to work for a common cause, what better way to help the youth of Leeds than to implement that ethic into their regular sporting calendar", he went on to say " All the faculty and pupils at Celina are buzzing about this opportunity, I am too as I can see the potential for advancing the knowledge and work rate of our young students in the city as well as forging real and lasting bonds with students in the USA"

State Champions for the eighth time.

Celina is perhaps best known for being the school football programme that featured in the critically acclaimed film Power, Passion Glory - The real story of Texas football madness, The other major film about Texas High School Football was the film adaptation of the powerful H.G. Bissinger book "Friday Night Lights" that starred Billy Bob Thornton.

The Rams are now looking for sponsors, big or small, to help cover the cost of flights to the USA for the coaches and players, anyone interested in helping out with this worthwhile programme can contact the club at ceo@yorkshirerams.com

 

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