As the High School Playoff season begins, Troy will also be hosting it’s 9th Annual Fricker’s Trojan Horse Youth Football Tournament the weekend of November 13th thru 15th, 2015. This event not only provides the young athletes of Troy Junior Football, Inc. (TJF) an opportunity to play teams from all over the region, but also is the league’s biggest fund raiser of the year. This year’s Tournament will host thirty-three games within a double elimination format. It will include twenty teams traveling from Michigan, Indiana and all over Ohio playing games on five fields over the course of the weekend (Duke Park, Ferguson Field, Troy Christian High School and Miami East High School). The teams will be broken down into two brackets; one consisting of 12u players and the other 10u players.
The Trojan Horse actually began in 2007 with only eight teams as an opportunity for 6th graders to see some different teams before moving on to Junior High. Since then the Tournament has grown by leaps and bounds and now includes Fricker’s as the Signature Sponsor, two age groups and has featured as many teams as thirty just last year. Each year the event brings in several thousand visitors to Troy, Ohio selling out all of the local hotels and keeping all the local restaurants busy all weekend long.
Tournament Director, Bill Smith, says “We are just so pleased to offer this opportunity to our future Trojans, as well as hosting some of the best talent in this region. The Tournament has actually been around long enough now that several of the past participants are now playing college football.” He went on to say, “all of this would not be possible with out the ongoing support from our Signature Sponsor Fricker’s, our amazing TJF Board and Volunteers, Troy Football Boosters and cooperation from the City of Troy, Troy City Schools, Troy Christian Schools and Miami East for the use of their fields.”
Some of the local programs that will be returning to the Trojan Horse this year include: Centerville, Kettering, Piqua and of course Troy. “It is always exciting for these kids to play some teams they will see again for years to come at the higher levels, but also to compete against teams they may never see again from other areas of Ohio and out of state”, Smith went on to say, “ and when you hear compliments from from larger programs like Hilliard, Dublin and Center Grove (Greenwood, IN); it is a real testimony to not only the tournament, but also the entire City of Troy playing host that weekend.”
A list of match-ups and game times (as well as Tournament information) can be found via www.TroyTrojanHorse.com. All the games are open to the public and admission is only $3 per game or $6 for the entire weekend (kids under 12 are FREE). Any/all proceeds go directly to Troy Junior Football, Inc. (a 501c3 non-profit youth organization).
