Junior All-American Football: No Poor Sports Allowed

Steve Virgen

CORONA DEL MAR - When Zack Firth woke up Saturday morning, his

first thoughts were of football. It was as if the eight-year-old had been

waiting all summer long for the Newport-Mesa Junior All-Amercian Football

season to begin.

On his first carry of the season, Firth broke loose for a 35-yard

touchdown run in which he used a wicked cutback move to elude a tackler

in the Seahawks’ Opening Day scrimmage game with the Fountain Valley

Jaguars.

The Junior Clinic division (7- and 8-year-olds) game was just one of

five scrimmages at Corona del Mar High Saturday. Up to 300 football

players, 125 cheerleaders and a slew of their family members opened the

2001 season with delight and much optimism.

“I’m so proud of you guys,” Junior Clinic Seahawks Coach Jeff Dennis

told his players after they ran their first 10 offensive plays of the

season. The Seahawks scored three touchdowns, including two scoring runs

from quarterback Austin Blodgett. “It’s not going to get any easier guys.

That’s why we got to try even harder. Hey, are you guys having fun?”

“Yes, sir,” was the response.

Fun is what Newport-Mesa Junior All-American Football is all about,

said president Jim McGee, who is making sure the season remains fun by

implementing a code of conduct for the players and the parents.

“I recognized there seemed to be a nationwide trend toward

inappropriate adult behavior relating to youth sports,” McGee said. “I

proposed to my board adopting an adult code of conduct that would apply

to all of the adults connected to the league, whether they were parents,

coaches or any other volunteers. And the purpose of the adult code of

conduct was to set guidelines for adult behavior that would encourage

sportsmanship, fair play, respect and love of the game of football and

de-emphasize negativity and violence.”

Each adult involved with the league had to sign the code of conduct

before the season.

Included in the code, “do not argue with or criticize the football

players, cheerleaders, coaches or NMJAAF officials in front of spectators

by word of mouth or gesture, but reserve constructive criticism for

private meetings with the person who is the subject of the constructive

criticism.” Also, “do remember that winning at all costs is not a message

we wish to impart to our youth. Instead, we want them to have fun, to

play safe and to encourage sportsmanship.” Penalties include,

disqualification, suspension or disbarment.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Jenny Firth, Zack’s mother, said of the

code. “Some parents get obnoxious. And parents want the game to be about

the parents instead of it being about the kids.”