Cambridge football: Moms tackling sons and lift-off hit fundraising goal

The Cambridge football team and Cambridge Blitz Club fundraiser on Monday, July 22 was a big hit.

Literally and figuratively.

Members of the Cambridge community gathered inside the Cambridge High School gym to watch the football team lift weights and also for moms to get the opportunity to tackle their sons as a fundraiser for the two programs.

Between the two fundraising events, the football team and blitz club raised over $22,000, exceeding the original goal of $15,000.

“Cambridge is a football town,” said Cambridge football head coach Rob Nelles. “With the amount of people there and the enthusiasm shown, we’re super proud of how the community backs the football program.”

For the lift-off, football players picked a weight goal in hopes of achieving it by repetitions of the bar. A computer would then calculate the weight on the bar and the amount of reps done by the player to determine the max.

Donations were made either per pound of weight or one flat rate.

This is the second year that the Blue Jays have participated in the lift-off as a fundraiser. Nelles got the idea of the lift-off from coaching clinics.

“The kids know we push the weight room, and this is the way to show the entire community if they’ve been lifting or not,” said Nelles.

After the lift-off, moms tackling their sons made its debut as a fundraiser. A mother of a player had to raise $100 to tackle their son.

Parents who participated in the event wore shoulder pads and a helmet. Each parent got a small running start towards their sons, who were also wearing shoulder pads and a helmet, and tackled them onto an inflatable mat.

One of the best tackles of the night came from Stephanie Nottestad, who flew through the air like Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, and tackled her son, Cal, onto the mat. Stephanie Nottestad’s helmet also flew off during the tackle.

The idea of the moms tackling their sons came from Nelles getting sent a video of another team doing it to end the last day of practice. Nelles then decided to use it as a fundraising opportunity.

“We just wanted to encourage moms to do something with their sons,” said Nelles. “We were hoping to get about 50% of the moms and we were pretty close to that.”

The money raised at the event will be used on new football equipment, food for the players, clothing, tackling mats and new bleachers that will be put up next year.