Football isn’t just one of the most popular sports in the nation. It’s also one of the most expensive.

From pads to uniforms to safety-laden helmets, the sport isn’t cheap — and the cost often falls outside of what a high school program can afford, even with pay-to-play funds coming in.

That’s one of the reasons Sequim High football is hosting its first 7-on-7 Community Football Tournament, slated for June 8 at the SHS stadium.

The tourney is built to connect current players — the Wolves will likely field a couple of teams — with former SHS players and any others who want to field a team.

In the process, says Craig Frick, a substitute teacher, junior varsity coach and former Sequim High player, they hope to raise funds to pay for things like helmet safety checks, new uniforms and dollars for youths to travel to offseason camps.

“We’re trying to do a lot for these kids on (their) slim budget,” Frick says.

Event organizers are doing that entirely through concessions on hand, since tourney registration is free. Groups can register as a full team of seven or event organizers will take fewer and place them on a team (no same-day registration, though).

“We want to get as many people to participate (as possible),” Frick says.

That may including getting recent and not-so-recent SHS alumni out on the field in addition to community members who simply want to play.

"As kids leave the football program, we want them to feel like they can come back, that they’re Wolves for life," says Dave Ditlefsen, Sequim High School athletic director.

"I’ve wanted for a long time to involve the community in something like this," says Erik Wiker, head coach of Sequim High School’s varsity football program. Going with a seven-on-seven, light contact format, he says, makes this tourney akin to an alumni basketball game.

Concessions include standard sports fare like hamburgers and hot dogs.

Read the full story in the May 22 print edition of the Sequim Gazette.