\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSome of the nation\u2019s top seventh-grade football players took the field Wednesday night at Paradise Coast Sports Complex, competing in the Football University 7th Grade Under Armour All-American Bowl.Back in June, hundreds of youth football players competed at the same Naples venue during Football University\u2019s Top Gun showcase, all vying for a chance to qualify for the All-American Bowl. Six months later, 60 of those seventh-grade athletes returned, representing communities from across the country with a national championship on the line.For many players, the event marks their first experience in a national championship setting, complete with a full week of practices, coaching and organized competition.\u201cI\u2019m grateful for everything everybody gave me,\u201d said Xzavier Jean, one of the participating athletes from Naples. \u201cAnd it\u2019s just good to be in this environment with good kids, the best seventh-graders.\u201dThe game is the first of its kind at the seventh-grade level in Naples for Football University, which has hosted All-American events for older age groups for more than a decade.\u201cIt\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve done a seventh-grade Under Armour All-American game,\u201d said FBU organizer Steve Quinn. \u201cSo about 3,000 people have invaded Naples, Florida, for this game! And their parents, so about 8000 in total, going to be a great weekend.”Throughout the week, players trained under the guidance of experienced coaches, including several from Southwest Florida.\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun,\u201d said Barron Collier head football coach Brannon Tidwell, one of the coaches involved. \u201cThe kids are fantastic and they\u2019re really good football players.\u201dTidwell said the experience offers young athletes a chance to continue developing outside of their regular seasons.\u201cAll these kids here have goals to go all in and play at the next level,\u201d Tidwell said. \u201cSo they\u2019re getting really good coaching by everybody here.\u201dFor players like Jean, just being selected to participate is an accomplishment on its own.\u201cThat feels good. That feels nice,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m welcome to be here.\u201dThe seventh-grade championship is part of Football University\u2019s All-American week in Naples. The showcase continues with the Freshman All-American Bowl on Sunday, which will feature 60 of the nation\u2019s top freshman players. Past FBU All-American alumni include Trevor Lawrence, Christian McCaffrey, Bryce Young and Sony Michel.DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tNAPLES, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Some of the nation\u2019s top seventh-grade football players took the field Wednesday night at Paradise Coast Sports Complex, competing in the Football University 7th Grade Under Armour All-American Bowl.<\/p>\n
Back in June, hundreds of youth football players competed at the same Naples venue during Football University\u2019s Top Gun showcase, all vying for a chance to qualify for the All-American Bowl. Six months later, 60 of those seventh-grade athletes returned, representing communities from across the country with a national championship on the line.<\/p>\n
For many players, the event marks their first experience in a national championship setting, complete with a full week of practices, coaching and organized competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful for everything everybody gave me,\u201d said Xzavier Jean, one of the participating athletes from Naples. \u201cAnd it\u2019s just good to be in this environment with good kids, the best seventh-graders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The game is the first of its kind at the seventh-grade level in Naples for Football University, which has hosted All-American events for older age groups for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve done a seventh-grade Under Armour All-American game,\u201d said FBU organizer Steve Quinn. \u201cSo about 3,000 people have invaded Naples, Florida, for this game! And their parents, so about 8000 in total, going to be a great weekend.”<\/p>\n
Throughout the week, players trained under the guidance of experienced coaches, including several from Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of fun,\u201d said Barron Collier head football coach Brannon Tidwell, one of the coaches involved. \u201cThe kids are fantastic and they\u2019re really good football players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tidwell said the experience offers young athletes a chance to continue developing outside of their regular seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these kids here have goals to go all in and play at the next level,\u201d Tidwell said. \u201cSo they\u2019re getting really good coaching by everybody here.\u201d<\/p>\n
For players like Jean, just being selected to participate is an accomplishment on its own.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat feels good. That feels nice,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m welcome to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The seventh-grade championship is part of Football University\u2019s All-American week in Naples. The showcase continues with the Freshman All-American Bowl on Sunday, which will feature 60 of the nation\u2019s top freshman players. <\/p>\n
Past FBU All-American alumni include Trevor Lawrence, Christian McCaffrey, Bryce Young and Sony Michel.<\/p>\n
DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of the nation\u2019s top seventh-grade football players took the field Wednesday night at Paradise Coast Sports Complex,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[195648,64,63,134,5946,195654,195650,596,195646,195649,195653,85903,195647,99076,3190,195652,85,14850,195651],"class_list":["post-357635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-armour-all-american-bowl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-event","tag-experienced-coach","tag-first-experience","tag-football","tag-football-university","tag-good-kid","tag-gulf-coast-news-app","tag-late-news","tag-many-player","tag-naples","tag-national-championship","tag-seventh-grade","tag-sports","tag-week","tag-youth-football-player"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}