The Menominee Indian High School football program will receive a boost from former NFL coach Jon Gruden and his Fired Football Coaches Association, which announced Thursday that they would be making donations of money and equipment to four Northeast Wisconsin schools, including Menominee Indian.
Gruden in Green Bay to call the game between the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football, will host four high school coaches and some of their players, including Menominee Indian coach Chris Clache, for a dinner and clinic Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Green Bay.
“Jon Gruden called me today to formally invite me,” Clache said.
Clache said he’ll bring about a dozen players with him.
The Menominee Indian football team has struggled with numbers in the last few years, finishing this season 1-8 overall and 1-6 in the Northern Lakes Conference.
“We got selected,” Clache said. “It’s a big honor. It’s a huge surprise. There’s a dinner and they’re going to make a contribution to our team.”
Gruden, who was a Packers assistant coach in the early 1990s, started the FFCA after being fired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“When he got let go from the Buccaneers, he decided he was going to coach his son’s high school team,” Clache said. “It was there that he realized that they didn’t have a lot of equipment. They didn’t even have practice balls. So he formed this organization.”
The FFCA uses money raised from licensed products for the donations to high school programs. The charity has made four other stops this season.
“I don’t know the exact amount. I just know that he said he’d make a contribution,” Clache said. “He gives these GoPro cameras. They’ll show us how to work them. It’s just another contribution to the program.”
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