The positives of youth football and its association with our high schools

I had an interesting discussion with a couple of men who are two of the essential movers and shakers of an extended program that is attempting to put a new and long-awaited  mark on local youth football.  While a few rogue programs have gone far afield in their search for "young athletes" (when you are talking about 7 to 14 year-old kids, the term is almost a contradiction). these two believe in community programs that augment the local middle schools and, of course, the high schools.  John Billen of the Mariner Youth Football Program and Tony Indelicato of the Kamiak Fighting Knights Youth Football Program stopped by our house the other night to attempt to solve some of the myriad problems besetting both the community programs and those of the middle schools.

There would never have been a problem if the Mukilteo School District Administration had shown the collective brains that God gave a gunny sack.  They cancelled the seventh-grade program in our middle schools, giving our kids no way to be prepared for the eighth-grade program.  They felt that the community would step up and provide the teams, the training, the equipment.  And, they do...for a price.  Many of our our kids come from backgrounds that are challenging, to say the least.  Paying for football equipment along with the requisite insurances, shoes and such can be downright daunting for parents.  The schools have the equipment, and can easily add seventh-graders to compete on the same team with our eighth-graders.  The district won't hear of it, because they say it might be too dangerous.  They will, however, allow a slender eighth-grade girl to compete with boys who outweigh her by a hundred pounds.  Do we detect an intellectual vacuum? 

The defunct seventh-grade program was eliminated to save money.  How much money for the district?  Approximately 35,000 dollars, not as much as one of the many paper shufflers or pencil technicians sitting in the District office gathering paychecks and dust at the same time.  So, we are left with the task of trying to work with our community programs and to reach an accord of some sort.  The status-quo is killing both our programs.  Neither has enough players.  They have the allure of a longer season, playoffs, All-Star selections, and no  grade point average restrictions (Both John and Tony feel that this is something they can correct).  We have free equipment (and ours is better than many high schools I have seen), an experienced coaching staff, and in-school recognition for their accomplishments.  It's a toss-up.

Lake Stevens is a football power in north Puget Sound and their youth football head man is Rich Bardue, who coincidentally is a graduate of Mariner High School and is an ex-player of mine in both football and basketball at Explorer Junior High in the Mukilteo District.  The community program is a big reason for the High School's success, or so it seems.  Other Mariner grads have contributed to Lake Stevens' winning ways.  Konan (I used to call him Konan the Librarian) Giddens had at least one son playing there, and I saw Corey Dire helping out.  Corey played in the East-West All-Star game the same year a skinny kid from Cheney named Steve Entman played.  Corey, a QB/linebacker won the bench press competition.    Anyway, I digress...that is the type of program and the type of people that has helped Lake Stevens become a Wesco powerhouse.   

Meadowdale under Mark Stewart's able hand is another powerhouse which seemingly has benefited from a strong community  program.  Indelicato has had a hand in building that program as well.  If Mariner and Kamiak can hope to emulate the successes of those two programs then we are onto something special.  What both John and Tony promised is that they will take the kids in the community and coach them up.  They will not raid other teams and steal the best players with promises of gifts beyond their wildest imaginations as has happened in this area by some of the sporting world's biggest losers.  What these pieces of human refuse do not understand is that nobody cares about eighth-grade football games besides the kids, their parents and their coaches.  The people who understand how to deal with kids know that their only job is to get eighth-graders ready to play in the ninth grade...and, hopefully, beyond.  Jim Olsen