Owen #53 charges forward with the ball

Owen had his first football game of the season on Saturday. The team had played the week before, but Owen missed the game because of the wedding. It was the team’s second win and they really looked great.

Owen played four positions — fullback, outside linebacker, guard and center. This is the first year he’s run the ball and he looked like a young John Riggins or Franco Harris. He just gets the ball and goes … forward. And his legs never stop moving, regardless of how many defenders he’s dragging along.

He switched off at fullback/guard on offense and did a great job penetrating the backfield when he was a linebacker. The team got quite far ahead by hafltime, so Kevin (he’s the head coach) was able to switch up the players quite a lot and give a lot of kids a chance to run the ball. Owen has always been a great center, so he went in at center to finish the game.

Click here for more photos.

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Scroll through to the end of the post for the link to all the photos.

Jack goes for an interception in a one-on-one drill

We spent most of last week with Jack in Williamsburg, VA while he attended the invitation-only “Top Gun” football camp. Although the thermometer read 103-106, the heat index hovered around 110 and field turf added what felt like another 20 degrees, I don’t think Jack could have enjoyed it more. He was in heaven. (I was happy too, but man, was I hot.)

Look at the smile on Jack's face -- could he be any happier?

Football University (FBU) holds 28 camps through the year across the country for 6th to 12th graders (FBU is the organization that puts on the Army All-American Bowl game for high school seniors each year). They select about 36 kids (roughly six per grade) from each camp to come to the Top Gun camp in July. There  were about 1000 kids at Top Gun camp.

Someone said last week that more than half of the top 50 ranked high school senior recruits in the nation were there. Many of the kids we watched play last week will be playing at D-I and D-IAA schools next year and in the years to come.

At FBU camp in June, Jack worked out with #37, who is the 7th-ranked LB in the country & had a verbal commitment from Stanford his junior year

In April, we snuck Jack in a  year early (he was a fifth grader) to a FBU camp at Rutgers. He had a great time and loved the field/classroom format of FBU camps.

We knew he had a done a great job working out at camp and in the classroom, but he’s just so tiny compared to the older kids. (At FBU Top Gun, the kids were grouped by grade. At the regular FBU camps, all the grades are together). Because he was a year young and not huge for his age anyway, we were a little bit surprised that he was selected to attended Top Gun.

Jack also attended a FBU camp in June in Pennsylvania, which featured a different set of coaches, and he was selected again for Top Gun.

All the FBU camps separate players by position — QB, RB, WR, OL, DL, LB, DB & K — and train them specifically for that position.  The coaches are all well-known college and NFL coaches and former players. Jack’s linebacker coaches at the Rutgers camp were:

• Ted Cottrell (former defensive coordinator of  the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, and the San Diego Chargers; fun fact: he went to Del Val College), and
• Ricky Hunley (7th draft pick out of Univ. of AZ, played for Broncos, coached various places including Univ. of MO and Cincinnati Bengals).

Click here for photos from FBU Rutgers. Blog post about the camp is here.

At the PA camp, the coaches were:

• John Fontes (assistant coach at LSU, Miami and Oregon State,  then coach for the Detroit Lions and the Vikings) and
• Ed O’Neil (All-American LB at Penn State, 1st round NFL pick, played for Lions and Packers).

Click here for photos from FBU Pennsylvania.

My favorite moment from FBU in PA was when Jack answered a question in class. Here’s how it went:

The linebackers are in the classroom after an 8-hour day. High Schooler #1, who’s being highly recruited by DI schools,  flails at detailing coverage progressions in cover 2 defense. High Schoolers #2, 3 &4 are clueless as well. Coach Fontes asks for volunteers.

Tiny little fifth-grader-masquerading-as-a-sixth-grader JACK raises his hand and proceeds to the white board to detail  and draw every possible permutation of the coverage, sounding like the Professor talking to Sherman in Rocky & Bullwinkle.

The best thing: He said he did it because he knew if he didn’t volunteer I would kick his butt.

Coach Cottrell seemed to really like Jack at FBU Rutgers and we were thrilled when we realized after the opening ceremonies that he would be in charge of the sixth graders at Top Gun. He recognized Jack right away and they bonded about Del Val and Doylestown.

Camp started off really well for Jack. The photo at the top of the post happened the first night in one of the first one-on-one drills. It led to one of Jack’s best moments at camp: the Coach Cottrell hug.

After Jack made that play, Coach Cottrell started yelling praise at him from way across the field; he continued yelling good things at Jack as he walked across the field to him. When he reached Jack, he told him that that play deserved a hug.

The general schedule for the three days was workout on the field then class room session, three times a day.

The workout on the field was broken into a drills session, a one-on-one session (LB versus QB/RB), and then seven-on-seven (which is kind of weird to watch: 3 LBs, 2 DBs, 2 Ss against 2 QBs, 2-3 WR and 2-3 RB, so there are two balls flying around and a lot to keep track of).

Although it’s hard to be objective, I would say Jack was in the top three LB in his age group at  camp. He struggled a bit with the outstanding speed some of the offensive players had and he was consistently giving up many inches in height and some weight to the guys he was covering. (Remember, he’s at least a year younger than everyone else in his group.)

Also, so much of Jack’s game — and excellence — is his hitting. Obviously, this camp was no contact, so that worked against Jack showing the best of his skills. Almost all the drills are geared toward covering the pass, which again, probably isn’t Jack’s best strength. You could tell that he was just dying to blast through a line and hit a QB hard.

Even though Jack was sometimes getting outpaced in the open field (these are some of the best players in the U.S.), we were most surprised at the speed he showed.

When he did get beat by a speedy RB/WR it was usually only by a step and while he often lost touch with the guy at the beginning of the play, he just as often ran him down and ultimately made the play. I think he realized by the third day that roughing them up a bit at the start of the play slowed them down.

All in all, we had a great few days — apart from the heat. I was impressed with the level of coaching. They demanded a lot of the kids and for the most part, the kids responded. There was very little fooling around; everyone was serious about learning to play better and competing and kept up the pace.

Jack loves FBU because he really like the classroom element. While the coverages he was working on are probably too sophisticated for him to use in the next few years, he loves to increase his football knowledge and he’ll be ready when the complexity of the game steps up in high school.

Click here for photos (many with captions) from FBU Top Gun 2010.

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Jack spent Friday night, and all day Saturday and Sunday at “Football University,” a training camp for serious football middle school and high school players. They take just a few players at each position and work them HARD with NFL & college coaches and players. Jack was in heaven.

The camp has a big classroom component, which Jack absolutely loved and had never had in any of his other football camps. I hung out in the classroom with Jack, and it was fast-paced and detailed.

They flew through the information about difference defensive formations and were expected to absorb it and then demonstrate they knew what they were doing when they hit the field.

(I noticed a lot of the players with glazed looks on their faces and many of them never took any notes — Jack took six to eight pages of notes a session. Some of those with blank stares were decent players on the field, but in the classroom, they couldn’t answer the questions about coverage assignments or shifts. Some couldn’t name the gaps correctly. I kept thinking “JaMarcus Russell.”)

The coaches for linebackers were Ricky Hunley (7th draft pick overall out of Univ. of AZ, played for Broncos, coached various places including Univ. of MO and Cincinnati Bengals) and Ted Cotrell (former defensive coordinator of  the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, and the San Diego Chargers; fun fact: he went to Del Val College.)

Once they got to on-field drills, they players broke into two groups, 10-12th graders and 9th grade and younger. There was VERY LITTLE standing around!! If you messed something up, 20 pushups  was usually the penalty.

On Sunday, the coaches gave the players/parents individual evaluations. Coach Cotrell seemed to have taken a liking to Jack on Saturday and had many good things to say about Jack’s play, summing it up by saying that, “Dynamite comes in small packages.” (I think Jack was the shortest player in the lineback group.)

He also praised Jack a number of times on the field and was overheard telling the FBU head coach during a 7-on-7 game, “Watch my little man out there.” Just after he said that, Jack dominated one of the best 8th graders.

More photos from Saturday are here. Jack is #654.

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Someone reminded me that I never posted the link to the book we made for the football players and coaches at the end of the season. (I made one for Owen about his season as well, but it’s not “quite” done yet. I’ll post that when I get it printed.)

Here’s the link for the book. We had them printed at Shutterfly and they turned our really nicely.

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I think this is my favorite photo of the whole season — the post-game
Haka. Can’t you just feel how happy & proud they all are?

More photos are here.

Lions Blank Marsh Creek in Final Contest

The New Hope Solebury Junior PeeWee Gold Lions traveled to Marsh Creek last Saturday to take on the much improved Marsh Creek 5  Eagles in a Bux-Mont battle.  The Eagles were coming off a 25-6 drubbing of Lenape Valley 6 and it was hungry for a big win at home to finish out their season.  The Lions and their stout defense would have none of it.   As has been the pattern over the past two weeks, the Lion’ combined stout defense with timely offense to secure a hard fought 6-0 victory.

The Lions defense finished the year allowing a miserly 43 points, propelling the team to a 6-4 record (statisticians are still checking on this but it appears that this is the first time a NH-S team has ever won six games).  Four of those victories were shutouts for the Lions.

The Lions received the opening kickoff and it looked good for Lions as Cam Tealer burst over the right side for five yards behind the blocks of Jake Harraka, Max Adar and Matt Kilgariff.  But after the Lions picked up an initial first down the drive stalled as a holding penalty set the Lions back.

Now it was the Lion defense’s turn to take the field and take it they did.  On the first play from scrimmage, middle linebacker and defensive captain Jack McKenna ripped through the line to drop the Eagles running back for a five-yard loss.  The rest of the Lion defense was locked in as well with defensive tackle Tommy Valletto blasting through the “B gap” to stuff an Eagle ball carrier at the line of scrimmage and Tealer coming up from his corner spot to stop a sweep attempt in its tracks.  An incomplete pass on fourth down gave the Lions back the ball.

This time the Lions vaunted O2 took the field.  On its first play Tyler “The Bus” Brennan rumbled for five tough yards behind the blocking of Josh House, Chris Braun, McKenna, and Jake Perkins.  Brennan carried at least four Eagle defenders on his back for the last two yards of the run.  But O2 couldn’t capitalize on its strong start, and the Lions turned the ball back over on downs to the Eagles.

The Eagles came out throwing but Blaze Hutkin was ready for it, blowing by his man to record the Lions’ first sack of the game—it wouldn’t be their last. After off-tackle try was thwarted by a big hit from defensive tackle Colin Patrick and after a defended pass, the Lions once again took over on downs. Unfortunately a missed connection on the snap led to a Lions turnover and once again the Lions defense took the field.

This time the Eagles nearly struck pay dirt as the they swept around the left side for big yardage—only a touchdown saving tackle by Tealer denied them.  The Eagles chipped away moving the ball steadily until once again Valletto burst through to make a big hit for a loss in the Eagles backfield.  Then it looked the drive was over when House first forced and then appeared to recover an Eagle’s fumble—it was not to be as the officials ruled it was still the Eagles ball.  While the Eagles kept the ball, two more plays strong play by the Lions pushed them back further.

The Lions once again sought to gain the advantage on offense with Tommy Lupo gaining positive yardage on a 26 blast but the Lions turned the ball over again on the next play and the defense was back on the field yet again.

Still the Lions were up to the challenge and they got the ball back with no harm done and the half ended with the score 0-0.

The Eagles took the ball on offense to start the second half and once again the Lions defense stood tall.  Andrew Wheelan joined the hit parade, teaming with cornerback Harraka to make big hit on the Eagles QB.  Then DE Lucas Lasher and Harraka teamed up to thwart the Eagles big back #39 as he attempted to go around the right end and the Lions got the ball back on downs.

It was the Eagles turn to play tough defense as the turned back a Lions scoring effort despite a great blocking on the outside by Perkins and Tealer and a heroic effort by Lasher to dive for the first down marker that fell just short.

Now the Lions were running out time and needed to step up their already impressive efforts and get the ball back for the offense to make one last go at the goal line and avoid an overtime period.  Wheelan answered the call with a big hit.  On the next play, Connor Schmutz sealed the middle from his nose tackle position while Lupo came up to help him on the stop.

The Lions then made three plays that turned the momentum in their favor.  First, Wheelan burst through on a well-timed blitz then Patrick and  Valletto crashed in from their tackle positions to stop the Eagles running back for a loss.  Finally Valletto burst through yet again for a big sack and the Lions had the ball and their fate back in their hands.

The Lions began to methodically move the ball down the field behind the running of Mike Fitzgerald, Tealer, Lasher and McKenna.  They were eating up not just yards but the clock as well as the offensive line of Perkins, Hutkin, Chris Braun, Brennan, Harraka, Adar, and Kilgariff began to dominate the line of scrimmage.

The Lions moved the ball down to the Eagles fourteen yard line before a questionable call presented them with a second and long at the twenty.  With the game on the line, Fitzgerald coolly stepped into the pocket and threw a high strike to Alec “Mr. Clutch” Coburn, who made leaping grab to give the Lions a fourth and less than one for a first down.  A quarterback sneak gave the Lions a first and goal at the three.

From there a busted play turned into a golden one as Fitzgerald ran into the end zone for the winning score with just 18 seconds left on the clock. The Lions defense then thwarted the Eagles last second attempts to even the score as Lasher snuffed out their hopes with a game ending sack.

After the game the proud smiles on the faces of the boys said it all as they enjoyed a successful end to a wonderful season.

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Jack (#24 Gold) drags defenders while he drives down the field.

The Lions stepped up in class on Friday night traveling to Penndel to play the Division II Wildcats.  On a night when the Lions struggled to find their rhythm on offense, the vaunted Lions defense stepped up to deliver a 7-0 victory.  It was the team’s third shutout of the season.  Paul Keating’s Lions defense continues to impress giving up an average of less than one touchdown per game through the first nine games of the season.

It looked like a promising start for the Lions when Cam Tealer took the opening kickoff back to the Wildcat thirty on a brilliant zig-zagging run—unfortunately a penalty brought the play back and put the Lions in an early hole.  After an unsuccessful offensive series, the Lions turned the ball over on downs at their own 15.

Here the Lions defense began to go to work.   The interior defensive line of Matt Kilgariff at nose tackle and Colin Patrick and Chris Braun at defensive tackle brought a load of pressure up the middle and defensive ends Blaze Hutkin and Josh House forced the action outside helping to push the Wildcats back fifteen yards.

Once again however the Lions could not muster an offensive attack, but this time Lucas Lasher got the Lions out of trouble with a long punt.  When Lions D went back on the field they continued to dominate—this time Lions cornerbacks took control with Tommy Capriotti picking off an errant Wildcat pass.

This time Lions offense began to gel behind the blocking of Tyler Brennan at center, Capriotti and Jake Harraka at guard, Ryan Keating and Max Adar at tackle, and Jake Perkins and Kilgariff at tight end.  After an initial first down, a penalty stalled the lions progress and they once again turned the ball over on downs to the Wildcats.

Again the Lions defense stepped up with Tealer breaking up a potential fourth down completion and nearly picking off the pass.

This time when the Lions offense took to the field, they turned to the air.  Mike Fitzgerald stepped up in the pocket under fierce pressure and delivered a bullet to Lasher who gathered it in and galloped fifty yards for the score—shaking off the last Wildcat defender at the ten-yard line.  Jack McKenna then followed great blocking up the middle for the extra point and the Lions had a 7-0 lead going into half time.

The Lions took the initiative to start of the second half with McKenna recovering an onside kick and getting the Lion’s ball in Wildcats territory.  The Lions offense picked up a first down but couldn’t move deep into Wildcat territory and once again the Lions defense went to work.

The Lions linebackers stole the show on this defensive series.  First  Tommy Lupo teamed up with House to stop Wildcats tailback for a loss on an end around.  Then  Andrew Wheelan came up from his outside linebacker position to level the Wildcat’s QB for no gain.  McKenna continued the hit parade separating the Wildcat’s tight end from the ball on a monster hit from his middle linebacker spot.  Finally  Capriotti finished off the Wildcats drive with his second pick off of the game (and team leading fifth pick of the season).

A Lions turnover forced the defense back on the field quickly and this time defensive line put on the pressure.  First Kilgariff stuffed the Lions tailback on  a dive up the middle, then  Braun delivered a huge hit in the backfield dropping the Wildcat’s fullback for a loss.  Then House stayed home on a reverse forcing the Wildcats into a long yardage situation.  The Wildcats went off tackle on the next play but Harraka stopped the Wildcat runner short of the first down and the Lions had the ball back.

Again the Wildcat’s were up to the challenge and the Lions had to turn the ball back over to them on downs.  It was here that Wildcat’s began their most impressive drive of the game.  They drove the ball down to the Lions twenty-five and might have evened the score had it not been for Alec Coburn’s touchdown-saving tackle on a third and long yardage play.  The Lion’s defensive line led by a strong push from Adar and  Patrick stuffed the Wildcats on fourth down with 6:45 to go in the game.

The Wildcats offense wouldn’t see the field again as the Lion’s offense rose to the occasion.  First McKenna followed blocks from Keating and Perkins to pick up seven big yards.  Than the Lions went to the right behind Harraka, Adar, Kilgariff and Lupo to pick up the first down.

The Lions put some fresh legs on the line with Braun and Hutkin adding their support to this critical effort.  With their help, Lasher followed a crushing block on the corner by Tealer to gain fifteen yards on a counter play.  The Lions then continued to pound the ball inside picking up two more first downs and running out the clock.

As the whistle blew the Lions left the field to the high fives of their supportive but sick/injured teammates Connor Schmutz (flu) and Ryan Walton (broken elbow).

This Saturday the Lions will play finish their season against conference opponent Marsh Creek after moving up and acquitting themselves quite well against two tough non-conference teams on the road.

More photos from the game are here.

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(Owen is #53 in the gold, putting his shoulder
into that really really really big kid.)

I’m running around trying to get ready for Halloween. Owen’s team played well, but lost to Lenape Valley this morning.

A couple of people have said they can’t find the links to the photos, so below are links to the photos from all the Mitey Mite games I’ve attended this year.

Scrimmage at Pennridge

Mitey Mites at Marsh Creek

Mitey Mites at Abington

Mitey Mites at Penndel

Mitey Mites v Horsham

Mitey Mites at Pennridge

Mitey Mites v Methacton

Mitey Mites at Lenape Valley

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Owen (Gold #53) had his toughest football game ever yesterday.  Poor guy, he was playing center and they were lining up in both A gaps against him and he was trying to handle two huge guys on his own.

At one point, I saw him try to just run forward with his arms outstretched at his sides, to sort of clothesline them. Nothing else he was doing could stop those two guys. He just didn’t know how to stop two guys at once.

(Maybe when he’s older and a bit stronger, he’ll use Jack’s (#24 Gold) technique of grabbing the two guys at once and then smashing them into each other!)

Owen played linebacker on defense and had a couple of good tackles, but also got fooled on the counter and came inside a couple of times, missing the play. All in all, I think he’s ready to move on to next week!

The team was sapped by illness and injury and only had 13 players to face Methacton. They all tried their best and there were definately some bright moments.

Some photos are here.

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Well, there was much that wasn’t pretty last night:

• the weather,
• the flu and injuries that were taking over our team,
• the abominable refereeing (are they deaf AND blind as well as biased?) ,
• the utter lack on sportsmanship and low-class behaviour from players on the Lenape Valley 04 team and its assistant coach,
• even the Bux-Mont League officials who “spontaneously” re-did our schedule five days ago and forced our team to play this game.

Amid all the ugliness, the one bright, shining light was the NHS Jr. PeeWee Gold team.  To a man, the players stepped up to the challenges, found untapped reserves of physical and emotional strength, and showed everyone on the field how champions act.

Our players were verbally abused by a Lenape Valley coach and the referees stood by and did nothing; our players were tackled out of bounds, repeatedly held, and our QB and punter were illegally roughed up and the referees stood by and did nothing.  Instead, the referees demonstrated their ineptitude by inventing penalties against us. According to the rules, IT IS THE REFEREE’S JOB to protect the children. Well, they failed big time.

Our golden boys didn’t fail. They rallied around each other, fought for every yard and tackle and made everyone who loves them proud.

More photos from the game are here.

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(Photo 1: Jack #24 running it in for six points; Photo 2: This is one of my favorite photos all year…Jack’s done this a couple of times; he blitzes through the line and then just grabs two players at once and bashes them together.)

The Jr. PeeWee Gold gave it their all, but came up a little bit short. It was a exciting game to watch, and just one or two little mistakes sent the game in the wrong direction.

Photos from the game are here.

Here’s Kevin’s game wrap-up:

Pottstown Slips By Golden Boys

The Junior Pee Wee Gold Lions put a scare into the undefeated Pottstown Patriots before giving up two late touchdowns in a tough loss at CB West’s Memorial Field.

The big stage seamed to suit the Lions just fine as Tommy Lupo took the opening kickoff and rumbled twenty yards into enemy territory. With “Cool Hand” Mike Fitzgerald at the helm the Lions then drove the ball straight up the middle behind Tyler Brennan, Jake Harraka, Tommy Capriotti, Chris Braun, and Ryan Keating.  The drive stalled deep in Patriot territory but the Lions had clearly sent their opponents a message—”hope you brought your lunch you’re in for a long day.”

It was time for the vaunted Lions D to take the field.  Alec Coburn made two great stops to let the Patriots know that the Lions meant business.  After Lion’s OLBs Lupo and Andrew Whelan stuffed two off tackle plays, the Lions blitzed and their gang tackle stopped the Patriots on downs.

The Lions O took than took control as Jack McKenna followed blocks by Keating and Colin Patrick, broke two tackles and burst into the end zone to complete a 30 yard scoring run.  The Lions extra point try was unsuccessful but the Lions were on the board first 6-0.

The rest of the first half was spent in Patriots territory with the Lions threatening but unable to punch in the second score.    Still the Lions had done good work to take a 6-0 lead into the half.

The second half started strong with Lions’ D standing tall.  The defensive interior line of Connor Schmutz at nose tackle and Ryan Walton and Blaze Hutkin at the tackles were getting penetration and the OLB Tommy Valleto was filling the gaps allowing the Patriots nothing inside.

Pottstown tried the outside but the end Josh House and corners Cam Tealor and Tommy Capriotti shut that down.  Finally they tried to take to their air but Jake Harraka closed that option with two timely sacks.

A key play in the fourth quarter occurred when Lucas Lasher boomed a punt to get the Lions out of trouble.  With plays like that it looked like it would be the Lion’s day until Pottstown’s all-conference tailback broke free for two late scores sealing the Golden Boys’ fate.  Even in defeat however, the Lions continue to play tough, aggressive football.  This kind of effort will surely lead to a better result next week.

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