Learning the fundamentals is one of the most important parts of any sport. That’s why Fair Grove has the Mighty Mites Youth Football program. Mighty Mites is a program for children in the grades one through six under the age of 13. It gives those kids a chance to play and learn about football before entering a middle school or high school football program. Lennie Peterie, Vice President of the Fair Grove Mighty Mites program, is the Rules and Regulations head mainly focused on Fair Grove, Strafford, Pleasant Hope, and Buffalo programs. He has been coaching Mighty Mites for 20 years. He stated that his favorite part is, “transforming young kids into great football players, watching them as they get older, and seeing how far they have come. Teaching them not only to be good players, but to be good kids.”

Kimberly Peterie, Lennie Peterie’s wife, helps him run the Mighty Mites program but she hasn’t been as involved as long as he has. Kimberly is the Assistant Field Supervisor and Communication Liaison meaning she helps get information out to parents and coaches and makes sure that practices and fundraisers go well. “We work with an amazing group of people that volunteer countless hours to serve our communities in the beloved game,” said Kimberly. The Mighty Mites sell chocolate candy bars every season to help raise money for new equipment for the players, paint machines for the fields, paint, and gift card prizes for athletes that sell two or more boxes of candy.

The young athletes practice every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday along with the young cheerleaders. The cheer program got added to Mighty Mites three years ago by Tiffany Hill and the cheerleaders will perform at the games, getting the players and the crowd pumped up for the game. Their games will be held on the practice football field next to the FGHS football field.