"Making A Difference"

I was at work today and for whatever reason these two guys probably in their mid 30's were talking about putting a flag football team together. I kind of just laughed to myself because neither one of these guys looked very athletic at all. It did make me recall my recent experience with flag football though. I came home tonight and found the tournament bracket in a box in my bedroom. I thought I would share the story with you. I am suprised that I hadn't before.

When I worked as the sports director for The Boys and Girls Clubs of Las Vegas one of the clubs put on a 12 and under 7 on 7 flag football tournament. Seven out of the eight clubs that were in the tournament had a weeks notice about the event. My club that I worked at had 2 days notice thanks to my boss for not tellling me right away. My boss was fired a few months later, I know shocking right. I coached the team I put together a group of 9 kids and had two days to get them ready to go. A couple hours of running over the plays I wanted to use and the system I was going to use to call the plays in from the sidelines. The tournament took place on a Friday over the summer. It began with pool play and then the top 4 teams advanced to the tournament. The rules stated the coach could be in the huddle after every play. I wasn't going to do that though. I figured if I could speed up my offense I would catch the defense off guard by calling the plays from the sideline by saying a color followed by a U.S. state and that would symbolize which play to run. I was suprised that it worked. I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to do that for very long. Let me introduce you to the O'Shea and Deion show. These were 2 twelve year olds on my team that were already playing on a pop warner team, so they had a decent knowledge of the game. I would rotate them between quarterback and runningback after every play. Most of the time it would be a sweep to the left or the right with a pass here and there.

The games were scheduled for two 12 minute halfs. Our first game didn't start as planned. We were down 7-0 and my quarterback threw a pick 6 so now we were down 14-0 at halftime. Now the area where I worked in Las Vegas is the 3rd worst neighborhood in the country as far as drugs, gangs, and crime rate are concerned. The kids I delt with on a daily basis were for the most part from a rough home life. The kids didn't really respect authoritative figures in their lives. Every day at work was a struggle with the kids, but something I enjoyed doing. I remember looking at those kids faces at halftime. They were upset and pointing fingers at each other for whose fault it was for losing. I clapped my hands together to put a stop to that talk and told the kids to forget about that stuff. I don't remember word for word how I said it, but I explained to the kids that there is going to be times in life as you grow up where things don't always go your way, it's up to yourself on how you can change the situation. I told them you got two choices right now. You can continue to pout and we will lose this game, or you can suck it up and try to win this game. Now I will be honest with you I didn't expect us to win that game. I've seen these kids lay down and quit numerous times since I began working with them. I figured everything I said went in one ear and out the other. I was wrong.

The second half of that game couldn't of gone any better. We came out and scored a touchdown in 3 plays. We never looked back after that. We ended up winning that game 21-14. I was as proud as I ever was while I worked at that club. I was happy for those kids. Seeing the joy on their faces after that game and them joking around with each other was great to see. We won the #1 seed during the pool play and it was time for the tournament. The coach from the other team took this thing a little to seriously and approached me before the game and told me that "They would take it easy on us." We didn't play them in pool play so I was just like "Umm okay." We ended up winning that game 35-0. Thanks for the warning coach. We ended up playing the team that we played our first game against in the finals. Some of the kids looked concerned because we really had no business winning that game. We came down and scored on the first possession and then Deion made a interception that was amazing. The kid from the opposing team dove for a catch and kicked the ball in the air. Deion dove and caught it and got up and ran it back for a touchdown. We were up 14-0 in a matter of minutes. We won that game 42-7. I had to take Deion and O'Shea out with a few minutes left because they were both playing safety and intercepting almost every deep pass. I wish I would of left them in because they found a water cooler and doused me with it.

I was extremely happy for those kids. Some of them had never won anything before in their lives. We got a team trophy and medals for the kids, along with a free pizza party that followed. Usually when the kids ate together they always found something to argue about and I would have to break it up. Today though was different. They ate and were laughing about whatever they were talking about. I sat there and just watched them. They took what I said and stood up for themselves instead of quitting like they had in the past. In the van ride home I let them listen to whatever they wanted to on the radio and they were having a ball singing along and dancing to the radio. I took the long way back to the club and drove the kids down the Las Vegas strip to keep this celebration going as long as I could. The "Teach Me How To Dougie" song came on and the kids were all dancing to it. We were at a stoplight and they asked me to try it. I did and it was not pretty. The kids were laughing at me, but I didn't care. The boys were pointing and talking about the girls they saw walking on the strip. I was trash talking back and forth with them about certain things. It was a pretty fun day all in all. After that day I began to notice I didn't have too many problems with those kids I took on that football trip. I use to have to kick Deion and O'Shea out of the gym on a weekly basis for causing problems. Now they were wanting to help me with the little kids activities.

Unfortunately I had to move back to Indy. I wish I could have stayed out there and continued to work with those kids. I was finally making some progress with them. I didn't tell any of the kids I was leaving. It would of been to hard to answer their questions that they would of asked. My second to last day there I was sitting in my office towards the end of the day. Deion's little 7 year old brother Tyrice came up to me with a picture he had made. He handed it to me and I looked at it but couldnt really tell what it was. I saw a person and some grass but that was it. I asked him what it was, he was smiling from ear to ear and he told me it was him playing footballl and that he was going to play on my team when he got older like his brother did. I will never forget that day. I was at a loss for words. I think about those kids every day, and hope they are doing well.