Tom Rhoades appears to be a serious young man. Not long after finishing a game Saturday, the sixth-grader talked about what playing in the Bonny Eagle youth football program means to him.
“It’s been my privilege playing the sport,” said the center/nose tackle. “Stuff that coaches like Dan (Lariviere) teach me is stuff I’m going to use in real life: sacrifice, thinking, mental toughness, courage.”
For his part, Lariviere said that he just enjoys passing on what he knows.
“I love the game of football and being able to teach the kids,” the coach said. “It’s a passion.”
Bonny Eagle joined Westbrook and a pair of teams from Windham in a round-robin to end the season under a blue sky Saturday morning at Windham High School. Parents were spread out around the field, calling out encouragement and cheering on the action.
Stella Hills was “extremely psyched” when her son, Connor, said he wanted to join Windham’s youth football program.
“I just started watching football three years ago, so I was thrilled that he’d be interested in a sport that is about team,” Hills said. “It’s absolutely a team effort. That one block that you make could be the game.”
She also sees valuable lessons in the commitment that is required of the youngsters.
“When you start practicing all the way to the end, you have to make sure that you show up because if you don’t, you let down your team. I think that’s critical for kids at this age, and it can really transfer to the classroom as well.”
Greg Tanguay said that his son, Joel, who plays for Bonny Eagle, likes the camaraderie of the sport.
“It teaches him to be part of a team,” Tanguay said, “and to be responsible for his own part of the game.”
George Apt has been coaching in Westbrook’s Tuffy Football program since 1973. He said that he enjoys working with the kids in the age range of the league – second through sixth grades – because they’re willing to listen and learn.
“These kids here still understand,” Apt said. “They get knocked down and they stand up and keep coming.”
Lariviere agreed that his young players are receptive to coaching.
“They really want to learn,” he said. “Some of them are even first-time players, and you’ve got to teach them from the beginning. It’s fun.”
The Bonny Eagle coach also pointed out another social skill that team sports helps develop.
“They learn how to take criticism, which is very important,” Lariviere said. “You might be (correcting) them, but you’re trying to teach them the right way to do something.”
For the youngsters, the joys of playing are sometimes much simpler.
“When you break tackles and run down the field for a touchdown it’s a good experience,” said Westbrook running back Ryan Lebel.
“I like the intensity,” Windham quarterback T. D. O’Brien said. “It’s a tough sport and it’s really fun.”
“I like how it’s physical and mental,” said Magnes Lewis, a slot back on the Westbrook squad. He provided the lone score in a game his team won early in the day with a 25-yard run.
“The play is called a power right slot toss,” Lewis explained. “It’s where I go out and get a toss, and I go around, but since the entire place I was supposed to go was crowded I had to go all the way on the other side and scored a touchdown.”
Windham coach Jon McCarthy noted that youth football leagues often work in tandem with a town’s high school coaches so that youngsters learn plays and formations, becoming fluent in the system by the time they’re ready to play at the upper levels.
“We get a direction from the varsity coach as to what we are going to run for an offense, what the terminology would be,” McCarthy said. “As the kids progress, the offense is more and more complex, but it’s based on the same system from this level all the way to high school.”
Bonny Eagle coach Terry Bowen said that it works the same way in his league.
“We work very closely with high school and middle school coaches,” he said. “We put together playbooks for all of our coaches at the youth level and they are all run by both of those coaches before they go out to the youth coaches, so they have a hand in what we do all the way down the program.”
Bowen, in his fifth year coaching, feels that football is one of the best games that youngsters can play.
“There’s a spot on that field for every type of individual, and I think that is the best thing about it. We get them all out there.”
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