10-24-2009, 01:57 PM
Football: They start 'em young round here
By Tom Groeschen • tgroeschen@enquirer.com • October 23, 2009
Tony Pike is considered a 2009 Heisman Trophy candidate, and Pike unabashedly credits his Cincinnati youth football roots.
The football-crazy Greater Cincinnati area has sent scores of players into colleges and the National Football League, with Pike the latest local product apparently headed to The League.
"A lot of what I do today is thanks to Brian McKeown, when he coached over at St. Saviour," Pike said. "He really taught me the basics and got me started on the right foot."
![[Image: bilde?Site=AB&Date=20091023&...mp;title=0]](http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=AB&Date=20091023&Category=SPT030101&ArtNo=910250342&Ref=AR&Profile=1062&MaxW=550&MaxH=650&title=0)
Wearing Highlands eye black, fourth-grader Nathan Combs puts on his helmet before running out onto the field during a game at Highlands in Ft. Thomas.
Pike, the University of Cincinnati senior quarterback and Reading High School product, said the coaching and competition he had in elementary school truly helped make him what he is today. He is the No. 2-rated college senior quarterback by ESPN analyst Mel Kiper, and several 2010 online mock drafts rate Pike as a first-round NFL pick.
Pike, who also played in the Reading youth system, is yet another successful product of the fertile Greater Cincinnati feeder school system that has produced numerous NFL players including Shaun Alexander (Boone County), Brent Celek (La Salle), Ray Edwards (Woodward), DeShawn Wynn (Reading), Mike Matthews (Sycamore), Eric Wood (Elder), Kevin Huber (McNicholas), Brandon Underwood (Hamilton), Robert Brewster (Wyoming) and Jared Lorenzen (Highlands).
Tom Fitz, a coach for the All Saints elementary program (next door to Moeller High), has tracked former players from the All Saints system and figured they have earned, over the years, nearly $2 million in college scholarship money.
"We try to get them technically advanced and let the high school coaches take it from there," Fitz said.
It all starts somewhere, and that somewhere is local elementary and middle schools.
"It's almost like an addictive thing," St. Saviour's McKeown said. "Shoot, they tailgate at these little kids' games. There's just something about football in Cincinnati, the autumn leaves turning, the crisp air, the camaraderie and the teamwork ... the feeling of community energy."
Big numbers
Joe Owens, USA Football central regional manager, said his database indicates at least 12,000 elementary-school aged youngsters play football in Greater Cincinnati. Other ballpark estimates place the figure at between 15,000 to 20,000, when the extended Tri-State area (beyond the I-275 loop) is considered.
Pike is one of the more high-profile products of local youth teams, who start them young (ages 5 and 6, in some cases) and gradually feed players into the local high schools. Pike, whose brother Doug is a walk-on lineman at UC, also has a brother (Devin) playing eighth-grade football.
Tony Pike returns and visits Reading youth practices and games when his busy schedule permits, which is not often at this time of year.
"I know youth football in Reading is huge," Pike said. "They've won some (youth) Super Bowls the past few years. I go back any chance I can to watch, and I'm trying to figure out a date to go talk to some of the players. When they're young, it's important for them to keep enjoying it and keep wanting to play football."
Greater Cincinnati has long had national cachet on the high school football scene. The 2009 season alone has seen Highlands, St. Xavier, Elder, Colerain and Moeller all rated in national polls at some point. Hardly a year passes without multiple state champions from the Southwest Ohio/Northern Kentucky area.
![[Image: bilde?Site=AB&Date=20091023&...mp;title=0]](http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=AB&Date=20091023&Category=SPT030101&ArtNo=910250342&Ref=V1&Profile=1062&MaxW=550&MaxH=650&title=0)
Our Lady of Lourdes player Justin Tebbe catches a pass and runs as Lourdes coach Ozzie Bowns (right) looks on during their football game against Our Lady of Visitation at Oskamp field in Westwood.
Toss a dart at any spot on the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky maps, and you probably strike a hotbed of youth football. The local feeder programs create the monster that is local high school football, with thousands of youngsters - boys and girls - involved in youth football and cheerleading programs.
"It's like a machine, the way these teams turn out football players," said Theresa Guard, a West Side mother whose sons have played for Elder feeder Our Lady of Visitation. "The coaches are into it, the kids are into it, and the parents are into it. It's fun, but the football development of the kids is taken very seriously too."
Gina New, mother of youngsters who play and have played in the Fort Thomas Junior Football League, said the youth leagues create an outlet for children who worship their high school heroes on Friday nights.
"The first thing the kids do, when they see that, is want to run around and throw a football around," New said. "They start following that dream of playing for their high school team."
New actually comes from a basketball family. Her father, Ken Shields, was a big-name boys' basketball coach at Highlands and the now-defunct St. Thomas, and later coached the Northern Kentucky University men's team to national prominence.
"I didn't realize this whole football buildup until I got into this as a mom," New said. "I've never seen another sport with a following like football."
A long history
In Northern Kentucky, the many youth leagues include the Fort Thomas Junior Football League, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. The league has helped produce Highlands' multiple Kentucky varsity state titles.
Hunter Schlosser, a Highlands senior offensive lineman, is a product of the league formed by men including his grandfather, Clem Fennell Jr., legendary former Highlands varsity coach Homer Rice, and former St. Xavier/Notre Dame/Cleveland Browns quarterback George Ratterman.
"I'd see my older brother getting ready for his games, and I couldn't wait for the day I put all that stuff on," Schlosser said. "I really liked watching people hit each other. Now, my fifth-grade nephew loves coming to the games and seeing me play."
Highlands coach Dale Mueller was a guard/linebacker in his Fort Thomas Junior Football League playing days in the 1960s. Mueller idolized Highlands stars of that era, including Tim Racke and Hank Pogue.
"I remember it like it was yesterday," Mueller said. "I used to go on the field after games and try to bump into them, just to have any contact between me and them. Just to get a chin strap from them, it was bigger than you can even describe. I remember seeing Homer Rice coaching on the field, wanting to be part of that in the worst way."
Rice later was head coach at the University of Cincinnati and head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Many local leagues date back 50 years or more. Loveland Youth Football this year also celebrates its 50th anniversary, currently with 16 football teams and 15 cheerleading squads from grades 1-6. The entire organization, like most area programs, is run mainly by volunteer parents.
The Northern Kentucky Youth Football League celebrated 50 years in 2008. Alumni include former Bengals kicker Doug Pelfrey, former New York Giants quarterback Jared Lorenzen and former Buffalo Bills linebacker Mark Pike.
League organizers estimate between 1,200 and 1,300 youngsters play in the league. An estimated 85 percent of NKYFL players go on to play high school football.
In Cincinnati, the local Catholic Youth Organization, featuring mainly East Side schools, has 86 teams from grades 3-8, with more than 2,000 youngsters playing football.
The Western Football Conference has 16 elementary schools and hundreds of players represented from Delhi to Bridgetown to Mack to Price Hill. About 95 percent of the players wind up at Elder or St. Xavier, with smaller amounts going to Oak Hills, La Salle and Taylor.
At Our Lady of Visitation, one of the major Elder feeders, former players often come back to coach.
Rob Florian, who quarterbacked Elder to Ohio Division I state titles in 2002 and '03, now helps coach the Visitation team.
Former Elder star Kyle Rudolph, a Visitation product and now a standout tight end at Notre Dame, brought Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen with him to a Visitation game on a recent Notre Dame bye weekend. Rudolph's father, Dan, still coaches in the Visitation program.
Start 'em young
The Reading Youth Football organization includes preseason camps with specific drills for running backs, quarterbacks and linemen - for 5-year-olds on up. And Reading, where the high school has produced UC's Pike and Elder's Doug Ramsey (a former quarterback), is not unique in starting players younger.
"With the amount of kids that are coming out younger, it kind of forced everybody's hand to open it up more to a 5- and 6-year-old team," Reading Youth Football president Tim Martin said.
At Reading, the players (ages 5-11) are split into six total teams: A team for 5- and 6-year-olds, and teams for age 7 only, 8 only, 9 only, 10 only and 11 only. From there, the kids head to middle school and then to the high school level. More than 50 coaches and 300 players are involved with Reading Youth Football, Martin said.
Some players are stars from the get-go. Former St. Xavier running back Darius Ashley, now at the University of Louisville, debuted at age 5 in a Sycamore Athletic Club youth game. The first time little Darius touched the ball, he disappeared into a pile of defenders, bounced and spun, and dashed about 70 yards for a touchdown. Ashley eventually led his teams to three "Super Bowl" titles - the peak for area youth teams. Ashley later helped lead St. Xavier to two Ohio Division I state titles in his varsity career.
On the East Side, the Anderson/Forest Hills youth programs feed both the Anderson and Turpin high school programs. Anderson coach Jeff Giesting is one of several local varsity coaches who give their youth teams the option of running the high school's offensive and defensive sets, so as to keep everyone on the same page.
Giesting is somewhat amused by the notion of tiny 5- and 6-year-olds bulked up in football gear. Giesting did not start playing football until seventh grade.
"They look like little bobbleheads running around," he said of the young players. "It takes some pretty good coaching with 5-year-olds. ... It's like herding cats."
At Colerain, the Little Cards youth program sets the tone for the Cardinals' varsity success.
"Our job is to teach the kids the fundamentals, so when they get up to the high school level they already have that general base of knowledge," Little Cards president Brian Rabe said.
Colerain's trademark triple-option offense starts in the youth leagues.
"Just how to make a handoff, how to make a tackle," said Colerain athletic director Dan Bolden, brother of Colerain varsity coach Tom Bolden. "We bring the kids to our high school games, introduce them to the crowd. We have a field for the kids behind the Biggs (store) on Colerain Avenue, with concession stands and goalposts.
"Sometimes they play on the high school field. The connection is that it starts when they're young, and one day they grow up from being Little Cards to big Cards."
La Salle coach Tom Grippa, a Reading graduate, has coached and played in both public and parochial feeder systems. Currently at parochial La Salle, Grippa said the elementary feeder schools are "huge" to his program.
"Many people have the belief that the Catholic schools are successful because of going out and recruiting," Grippa said. "To be honest, the success is directly related to the quality of the CYO coaching. The kids are better prepared with better coaching."
Coaches at some high schools do some casual scouting of youth league games, seeing who is coming up through the ranks. For anyone who thinks this does not matter, think again. A few years ago, one local varsity coach was fired partially because he had largely ignored his area's youth league program.
Community connections
At Colerain, the Little Cards youth program has gained even more cachet with the success of the high school varsity program. Former Colerain varsity stars such as Dominick Goodman, Connor Smith, Eugene Clifford, the Byrd brothers and Andre Revels are Little Cards products.
And here's some irony: Little Cards president Brian Rabe is a former St. Xavier player. "There's a little conflict there every once in awhile," Rabe said, chuckling. "The thing is, 75 percent of our coaches are volunteers that don't have kids in the community. These are people in the community that love coaching football and giving back."
Also at Colerain, the Little Cards sometimes attend varsity games en masse and, before the game, form a human tunnel for the varsity team to run through.
The Lakota Tomahawks, a feeder into the Lakota East and West systems in suburban West Chester and Liberty Township, are among many youth teams with their own Web sites. The Tomahawks also have an official hot dog (a name brand, Eckrich), a local bank that features "Tomahawk Specials" and some games that are televised on local cable.
Jerry Rowley, treasurer of the Lakota Tomahawks program, has had sons Brandon and Bradley play in the Lakota system and a daughter, Brooke, who volunteers to wear the "Tommy Hawk" mascot uniform at game.
"The way the system works, we have almost 1,000 Lakota families," Rowley said. "You start with a group and stay with them, first through sixth grades. We have a jamboree every year, a youth night where all the kids go to a UC game, an invitational every year with 21 teams that's televised on local TV. Then once they get to the high schools, it's really a neat feeling to see kids out there playing who were on the youth teams years ago."
There are poker tournaments, candy sales, restaurant gift card sales to raise money. Of course, everyone wears the school colors. About 50 percent of the kids move up to play high school football at Lakota East or West, depending on geographics.
"That's a pretty good total for a community that's still a little transient," Tomahawks president Mike Groh said. "Everybody brings their lawn chairs, even to practice. It's like a social hour without the alcohol."
Coach's perspective
University of Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly knows he is in a youth football hotbed, and he tries to take full advantage. Kelly said the Bearcats annually host more than 1,000 youngsters (ages 12 and under) to football camps at UC, trying to get the "C-Paw" embedded into their consciousness.
"Honestly, it's about branding," Kelly said. "Part of the draw of this job was the move to the Big East and the recruiting area. This is not as good a job if it's in Missouri of Wyoming or Colorado. It's a great area from a recruiting standpoint. ... If you make an impression on a young man early, you've got a chance to get them. It's pretty important stuff."
Kelly cited UC linebacker J.K. Schaffer as an example. Schaffer, from La Salle High School, recently told The Enquirer: "Ever since I was a little kid, I loved watching UC play. I loved going to the games. All through the recruiting process I said UC was the place I wanted to play. I didn't care who else was recruiting me. I just wanted to play for the Bearcats."
That's what Kelly likes to hear.
"You go to an Elder game or a St. X game or a Highlands game, that atmosphere is what it's all about," Kelly said.
And it starts when they're quite young.
"Football is part of the fabric of the culture and society around here," Kelly said. "It's not like that everywhere you go in the country. Around here, it's part of what you are."
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091...round+here
By Tom Groeschen • tgroeschen@enquirer.com • October 23, 2009
Tony Pike is considered a 2009 Heisman Trophy candidate, and Pike unabashedly credits his Cincinnati youth football roots.
The football-crazy Greater Cincinnati area has sent scores of players into colleges and the National Football League, with Pike the latest local product apparently headed to The League.
"A lot of what I do today is thanks to Brian McKeown, when he coached over at St. Saviour," Pike said. "He really taught me the basics and got me started on the right foot."
Wearing Highlands eye black, fourth-grader Nathan Combs puts on his helmet before running out onto the field during a game at Highlands in Ft. Thomas.
Pike, the University of Cincinnati senior quarterback and Reading High School product, said the coaching and competition he had in elementary school truly helped make him what he is today. He is the No. 2-rated college senior quarterback by ESPN analyst Mel Kiper, and several 2010 online mock drafts rate Pike as a first-round NFL pick.
Pike, who also played in the Reading youth system, is yet another successful product of the fertile Greater Cincinnati feeder school system that has produced numerous NFL players including Shaun Alexander (Boone County), Brent Celek (La Salle), Ray Edwards (Woodward), DeShawn Wynn (Reading), Mike Matthews (Sycamore), Eric Wood (Elder), Kevin Huber (McNicholas), Brandon Underwood (Hamilton), Robert Brewster (Wyoming) and Jared Lorenzen (Highlands).
Tom Fitz, a coach for the All Saints elementary program (next door to Moeller High), has tracked former players from the All Saints system and figured they have earned, over the years, nearly $2 million in college scholarship money.
"We try to get them technically advanced and let the high school coaches take it from there," Fitz said.
It all starts somewhere, and that somewhere is local elementary and middle schools.
"It's almost like an addictive thing," St. Saviour's McKeown said. "Shoot, they tailgate at these little kids' games. There's just something about football in Cincinnati, the autumn leaves turning, the crisp air, the camaraderie and the teamwork ... the feeling of community energy."
Big numbers
Joe Owens, USA Football central regional manager, said his database indicates at least 12,000 elementary-school aged youngsters play football in Greater Cincinnati. Other ballpark estimates place the figure at between 15,000 to 20,000, when the extended Tri-State area (beyond the I-275 loop) is considered.
Pike is one of the more high-profile products of local youth teams, who start them young (ages 5 and 6, in some cases) and gradually feed players into the local high schools. Pike, whose brother Doug is a walk-on lineman at UC, also has a brother (Devin) playing eighth-grade football.
Tony Pike returns and visits Reading youth practices and games when his busy schedule permits, which is not often at this time of year.
"I know youth football in Reading is huge," Pike said. "They've won some (youth) Super Bowls the past few years. I go back any chance I can to watch, and I'm trying to figure out a date to go talk to some of the players. When they're young, it's important for them to keep enjoying it and keep wanting to play football."
Greater Cincinnati has long had national cachet on the high school football scene. The 2009 season alone has seen Highlands, St. Xavier, Elder, Colerain and Moeller all rated in national polls at some point. Hardly a year passes without multiple state champions from the Southwest Ohio/Northern Kentucky area.
Our Lady of Lourdes player Justin Tebbe catches a pass and runs as Lourdes coach Ozzie Bowns (right) looks on during their football game against Our Lady of Visitation at Oskamp field in Westwood.
Toss a dart at any spot on the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky maps, and you probably strike a hotbed of youth football. The local feeder programs create the monster that is local high school football, with thousands of youngsters - boys and girls - involved in youth football and cheerleading programs.
"It's like a machine, the way these teams turn out football players," said Theresa Guard, a West Side mother whose sons have played for Elder feeder Our Lady of Visitation. "The coaches are into it, the kids are into it, and the parents are into it. It's fun, but the football development of the kids is taken very seriously too."
Gina New, mother of youngsters who play and have played in the Fort Thomas Junior Football League, said the youth leagues create an outlet for children who worship their high school heroes on Friday nights.
"The first thing the kids do, when they see that, is want to run around and throw a football around," New said. "They start following that dream of playing for their high school team."
New actually comes from a basketball family. Her father, Ken Shields, was a big-name boys' basketball coach at Highlands and the now-defunct St. Thomas, and later coached the Northern Kentucky University men's team to national prominence.
"I didn't realize this whole football buildup until I got into this as a mom," New said. "I've never seen another sport with a following like football."
A long history
In Northern Kentucky, the many youth leagues include the Fort Thomas Junior Football League, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. The league has helped produce Highlands' multiple Kentucky varsity state titles.
Hunter Schlosser, a Highlands senior offensive lineman, is a product of the league formed by men including his grandfather, Clem Fennell Jr., legendary former Highlands varsity coach Homer Rice, and former St. Xavier/Notre Dame/Cleveland Browns quarterback George Ratterman.
"I'd see my older brother getting ready for his games, and I couldn't wait for the day I put all that stuff on," Schlosser said. "I really liked watching people hit each other. Now, my fifth-grade nephew loves coming to the games and seeing me play."
Highlands coach Dale Mueller was a guard/linebacker in his Fort Thomas Junior Football League playing days in the 1960s. Mueller idolized Highlands stars of that era, including Tim Racke and Hank Pogue.
"I remember it like it was yesterday," Mueller said. "I used to go on the field after games and try to bump into them, just to have any contact between me and them. Just to get a chin strap from them, it was bigger than you can even describe. I remember seeing Homer Rice coaching on the field, wanting to be part of that in the worst way."
Rice later was head coach at the University of Cincinnati and head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Many local leagues date back 50 years or more. Loveland Youth Football this year also celebrates its 50th anniversary, currently with 16 football teams and 15 cheerleading squads from grades 1-6. The entire organization, like most area programs, is run mainly by volunteer parents.
The Northern Kentucky Youth Football League celebrated 50 years in 2008. Alumni include former Bengals kicker Doug Pelfrey, former New York Giants quarterback Jared Lorenzen and former Buffalo Bills linebacker Mark Pike.
League organizers estimate between 1,200 and 1,300 youngsters play in the league. An estimated 85 percent of NKYFL players go on to play high school football.
In Cincinnati, the local Catholic Youth Organization, featuring mainly East Side schools, has 86 teams from grades 3-8, with more than 2,000 youngsters playing football.
The Western Football Conference has 16 elementary schools and hundreds of players represented from Delhi to Bridgetown to Mack to Price Hill. About 95 percent of the players wind up at Elder or St. Xavier, with smaller amounts going to Oak Hills, La Salle and Taylor.
At Our Lady of Visitation, one of the major Elder feeders, former players often come back to coach.
Rob Florian, who quarterbacked Elder to Ohio Division I state titles in 2002 and '03, now helps coach the Visitation team.
Former Elder star Kyle Rudolph, a Visitation product and now a standout tight end at Notre Dame, brought Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen with him to a Visitation game on a recent Notre Dame bye weekend. Rudolph's father, Dan, still coaches in the Visitation program.
Start 'em young
The Reading Youth Football organization includes preseason camps with specific drills for running backs, quarterbacks and linemen - for 5-year-olds on up. And Reading, where the high school has produced UC's Pike and Elder's Doug Ramsey (a former quarterback), is not unique in starting players younger.
"With the amount of kids that are coming out younger, it kind of forced everybody's hand to open it up more to a 5- and 6-year-old team," Reading Youth Football president Tim Martin said.
At Reading, the players (ages 5-11) are split into six total teams: A team for 5- and 6-year-olds, and teams for age 7 only, 8 only, 9 only, 10 only and 11 only. From there, the kids head to middle school and then to the high school level. More than 50 coaches and 300 players are involved with Reading Youth Football, Martin said.
Some players are stars from the get-go. Former St. Xavier running back Darius Ashley, now at the University of Louisville, debuted at age 5 in a Sycamore Athletic Club youth game. The first time little Darius touched the ball, he disappeared into a pile of defenders, bounced and spun, and dashed about 70 yards for a touchdown. Ashley eventually led his teams to three "Super Bowl" titles - the peak for area youth teams. Ashley later helped lead St. Xavier to two Ohio Division I state titles in his varsity career.
On the East Side, the Anderson/Forest Hills youth programs feed both the Anderson and Turpin high school programs. Anderson coach Jeff Giesting is one of several local varsity coaches who give their youth teams the option of running the high school's offensive and defensive sets, so as to keep everyone on the same page.
Giesting is somewhat amused by the notion of tiny 5- and 6-year-olds bulked up in football gear. Giesting did not start playing football until seventh grade.
"They look like little bobbleheads running around," he said of the young players. "It takes some pretty good coaching with 5-year-olds. ... It's like herding cats."
At Colerain, the Little Cards youth program sets the tone for the Cardinals' varsity success.
"Our job is to teach the kids the fundamentals, so when they get up to the high school level they already have that general base of knowledge," Little Cards president Brian Rabe said.
Colerain's trademark triple-option offense starts in the youth leagues.
"Just how to make a handoff, how to make a tackle," said Colerain athletic director Dan Bolden, brother of Colerain varsity coach Tom Bolden. "We bring the kids to our high school games, introduce them to the crowd. We have a field for the kids behind the Biggs (store) on Colerain Avenue, with concession stands and goalposts.
"Sometimes they play on the high school field. The connection is that it starts when they're young, and one day they grow up from being Little Cards to big Cards."
La Salle coach Tom Grippa, a Reading graduate, has coached and played in both public and parochial feeder systems. Currently at parochial La Salle, Grippa said the elementary feeder schools are "huge" to his program.
"Many people have the belief that the Catholic schools are successful because of going out and recruiting," Grippa said. "To be honest, the success is directly related to the quality of the CYO coaching. The kids are better prepared with better coaching."
Coaches at some high schools do some casual scouting of youth league games, seeing who is coming up through the ranks. For anyone who thinks this does not matter, think again. A few years ago, one local varsity coach was fired partially because he had largely ignored his area's youth league program.
Community connections
At Colerain, the Little Cards youth program has gained even more cachet with the success of the high school varsity program. Former Colerain varsity stars such as Dominick Goodman, Connor Smith, Eugene Clifford, the Byrd brothers and Andre Revels are Little Cards products.
And here's some irony: Little Cards president Brian Rabe is a former St. Xavier player. "There's a little conflict there every once in awhile," Rabe said, chuckling. "The thing is, 75 percent of our coaches are volunteers that don't have kids in the community. These are people in the community that love coaching football and giving back."
Also at Colerain, the Little Cards sometimes attend varsity games en masse and, before the game, form a human tunnel for the varsity team to run through.
The Lakota Tomahawks, a feeder into the Lakota East and West systems in suburban West Chester and Liberty Township, are among many youth teams with their own Web sites. The Tomahawks also have an official hot dog (a name brand, Eckrich), a local bank that features "Tomahawk Specials" and some games that are televised on local cable.
Jerry Rowley, treasurer of the Lakota Tomahawks program, has had sons Brandon and Bradley play in the Lakota system and a daughter, Brooke, who volunteers to wear the "Tommy Hawk" mascot uniform at game.
"The way the system works, we have almost 1,000 Lakota families," Rowley said. "You start with a group and stay with them, first through sixth grades. We have a jamboree every year, a youth night where all the kids go to a UC game, an invitational every year with 21 teams that's televised on local TV. Then once they get to the high schools, it's really a neat feeling to see kids out there playing who were on the youth teams years ago."
There are poker tournaments, candy sales, restaurant gift card sales to raise money. Of course, everyone wears the school colors. About 50 percent of the kids move up to play high school football at Lakota East or West, depending on geographics.
"That's a pretty good total for a community that's still a little transient," Tomahawks president Mike Groh said. "Everybody brings their lawn chairs, even to practice. It's like a social hour without the alcohol."
Coach's perspective
University of Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly knows he is in a youth football hotbed, and he tries to take full advantage. Kelly said the Bearcats annually host more than 1,000 youngsters (ages 12 and under) to football camps at UC, trying to get the "C-Paw" embedded into their consciousness.
"Honestly, it's about branding," Kelly said. "Part of the draw of this job was the move to the Big East and the recruiting area. This is not as good a job if it's in Missouri of Wyoming or Colorado. It's a great area from a recruiting standpoint. ... If you make an impression on a young man early, you've got a chance to get them. It's pretty important stuff."
Kelly cited UC linebacker J.K. Schaffer as an example. Schaffer, from La Salle High School, recently told The Enquirer: "Ever since I was a little kid, I loved watching UC play. I loved going to the games. All through the recruiting process I said UC was the place I wanted to play. I didn't care who else was recruiting me. I just wanted to play for the Bearcats."
That's what Kelly likes to hear.
"You go to an Elder game or a St. X game or a Highlands game, that atmosphere is what it's all about," Kelly said.
And it starts when they're quite young.
"Football is part of the fabric of the culture and society around here," Kelly said. "It's not like that everywhere you go in the country. Around here, it's part of what you are."
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091...round+here