G. Michael Graham Photo. The Fort Thomas Youth Football League is purely instructional. That keeps kids interested and is a huge reason why the Bluebirds are 94-3 with six straight state championships since the start of 2007.
By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
Youth
football leagues around the country may be great or detrimental in the
development of high school programs.
The Fort
Thomas Youth Football League has been a major asset to the success of the
Highlands Bluebirds football team. That’s a big reason why nearly 100
sophomores, juniors and seniors grace the sidelines for the Blue and White on
Fridays.
“Ít’s awesome how we have a junior league and how the
coaches make each of the kids on the team work hard and they don’t push them to
the point where they don’t want to play anymore,” said Kyler Dalton, Highlands junior offensive
lineman. “When they get up to freshman
year, we’re all really excited to play Highlands football.”
Dalton even
said the coaches encourage the high school players to interact with the players
in the league. That often adds to the excitement of becoming a Bluebird one
day.
Players can
join the league starting in the third grade. You have third and fourth-grade
teams, then fifth and sixth-grade teams before going to a seventh and eighth-grade
team. Each level has four teams. Flag football is offered to first and
second-graders. The league plays games at David Cecil Memorial Field.
“Even if they don’t (develop), we still keep them on
the team. The overall goal of high school sports is to make it a positive
experience,” said Dale Mueller,
Highlands Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator. “The players don’t get paid to do a service for the coaches. The
coaches get paid to do a service for the players.”
Doug Merkle
is in his second year as the president of the league. Merkle and Mueller said
the league is purely instructional.
“We try to keep things as positive as we can,” Merkle said. “People
are people. They have different personalities. But for the most part, our
coaches are stressing the fundamentals. Kids are going to make mistakes. It’s
not the end of the world. We want to show people what we can do to make that
mistake. We might have missed a block here. But next time, we’re going to do
what we can to get in better position.”
Players
develop at different stages of their lives like Patrick Towles, who now plays
quarterback at the University of Kentucky. Towles grew to 6-foot-5-inches as a
sophomore. But Towles did not start as a freshman. He played on defense in 2008
before being thrust into the starting varsity role as a sophomore in 2009
against Cincinnati St. Xavier in the huge 12-7 win when Will Bardo went down
with an injury. Bardo now starts at the University of Dayton.
“They want to focus on a couple kids’ developments
instead of the overall team,” Merkle
said. “We’ve seen some kids that may be
the smallest on the team as fifth and sixth graders end up being three-year
starters at Highlands. So we want kids to enjoy playing the game even when
they’re that small kid as a fifth and sixth grader.”
Former
Highlands running back Stephen Lickert started playing in the league as a fifth
grader. The 1997 Highlands graduate played flag football in the third and
fourth grade. Lickert is in his third year as the head coach at Campbell County.
“I think the Fort Thomas Junior Football League does a
good job of getting kids to play football. When you split 44 kids into four
teams, that’s 11 kids that are playing football on a given day,” Lickert said. “Those
kids get to play all the way through the eighth grade. By the time they’re
freshmen, they’re not going to go do something else because they’re football
players. It keeps kids interested. That is the main thing you have to have when
you’re running a program.”
Crosley New
is in the Eighth Grade at Highlands Middle School. He plays running back and
middle linebacker on the 7/8 red team sponsored by Crawford Insurance. New said
the teams are made of players all over the city and not based on where they
live. That gives players the opportunity to meet new coaches and teammates.
“They give everyone a chance because the skills and
positions have changed over the years,”
New said. “Nobody’s treated differently
by what they are, what they’re known or what they’ve done in the past. Every
year is a new with a new coach. They really care about us. The coaches put a
lot of time and effort into it. A lot of them played in this league.”
Some
parents have a hard time deciding when the time is right for their sons to
start tackling. Merkle said that is left up to each family.
“If the kids are developed, third and fourth grade are
great years to start them at,” Merkle
said. “They have the understanding what
they’re getting involved in. In fifth or sixth grade, they’ve seen their older
siblings play and are ready to go. In the third and fourth grade, everyone has
to be comfortable with it.”
The end of
the season normally sees a big night before the high school coaching staff
welcomes the eighth graders to the program. They then start lifting with the
high school in the winter.
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