Youth football program teaches game's fundamentals

By Kevin Hampton


Mid-Valley Sports

Every practice is a learning experience for the players on the Corvallis Raiders junior peewee Pop Warner team.

On a warm weekday afternoon at Ashbrook Independent School, Scott Sanders and his coaching staff are constantly on the alert, reminding the linemen to find the proper spacing and blowing the plays dead before a ball carrier winds up on the bottom of a pile.

A pitch flutters wide and sends the players n who range from eight to 10 years old n scrambling after the ball.

Corvallis has two Pop Warner teams in the Linn-Benton league this fall and fields another jointly with players from Albany. The Corvallis Raiders mighty mite team (7- and 8-year-olds) also practices at Ashbrook.

It is the first time the players have pulled on a full uniform and played tackle football.

Pop Warner requires 10 hours of conditioning before the participants can even put on their pads. Sanders, a former Oregon State linebacker, and the rest of the coaches spent the following few weeks in late August and early September teaching the basics of tackling and blocking. The idea is to develop the proper technique while staying safe.

"It's an exciting time for these kids," Sanders said. "They've really grasped what we're trying to teach them. They grew up playing soccer, so they get the idea of competition, but this was an eye-opener for most of them when they put the pads on."

Corvallis has not had an organized tackle football league for grade-school kids in decades. The earliest opportunity was the Boys & Girls Club middle-school football program.

Sanders said Pop Warner allows the athletes to learn the sport earlier than in sixth or seventh grade and prepares them to compete with the teams in nearby cities that offer youth programs.

"This is a great base for them," he said. "They get the idea of hitting and also lets the kids know who wants to play football and who doesn't, because it isn't for everybody. (And) maybe some of the problem with the high school teams here is that kids just go out for it in ninth grade and they have no idea what they've been doing and they haven't been taught the right things."

Corvallis Pop Warner coordinator and mighty mite coach David Hodgert said he has seen the positive effects of AYSO and club soccer on the Crescent Valley and Corvallis High soccer programs.

"Corvallis has a strong soccer program and that goes all way up to the high school level," Hodgert said. "I hope we can do the same."

Hodgert said he realizes there is a stigma surrounding tackle football despite the determination of his organization to teach the fundamentals.

The players are not allowed to take big shots at ball carriers in practice and they are drilled to keep their heads up when making contact to avoid neck and head injuries.

The Pop Warner players are simply not as big, strong or move as fast as the athletes seen on Saturdays and Sundays. Bumps and bruises are common, but major damage is rare.

"These are little guys," Hodgert said. "The rate of speed to impact is pretty minor and we're just not seeing injuries. We're teaching them good, safe, strong fundamental football."

Matherin Langley, 10, said he decided to play because he wanted to try running back and found that he enjoyed the contact.

"I kind of like the collisions and stuff," he said. "I like tackling people. It's fun."

Langley said the players have learned the numbers for their plays and know what to run when they're called in the huddle.

"We've learned plays, we learned how to work as a team and pretty much have fun," he said.

Luke Reynolds, 8, said he tried out because his dad told him he was a hard hitter. He has played linebacker and fullback and said he's done a lot of blocking.

"You always put (your hands) on the shoulders and just move them out of the way for our fullback," he said of blocking.

Reynold's teammate on the Corvallis Raiders mighty mites team, James Ragan, 8, said he has been waiting for years to play tackle football.

"I like that you can just go out and tackle each other and run through people and play," he said.

He has played running back on offense and linebacker on defense and said he likes both sides of the ball. He said he likes tackling on defense.

"You wrap up, keep your feet moving and bring them to the ground," he said.

The players all get a chance to run with the ball and catch a pass, but they also play both sides of the line as well.

The divisions have weight limits, so the players are all roughly the same size.

"So there's no bigger boy that becomes pigeonholed as a lineman," Hodgert said. "They all get to develop different skills. We also have a rule that no player can play the same position for the whole game and so you've got to have a couple quarterbacks and a couple running backs.

"Some of these guys will be linemen when they're older, but right now, they're running backs."