Photos by
FRANCISCO MEDINA/Tucson
Citizen
Cody Ford, 11, lets out his
battle cry as he prepares to
run sprints during practice.
|
Football dreams are dancing in the
heads of Tucson-area American Youth
Football players. Their season
starts Saturday with a record number
of teams.
Jerry
Dini, the local AYF conference
president, said enrollment is
booming.
"We
have close to 4,000 kids
participating this year," he said.
"It's by far the largest group we've
had."
The
Tucson-area AYF conference is the
Tucson Youth Football and Spirit
Federation.
With
a new association of teams from Vail
coming into play, the federation
will field 76 tackle and 26 flag
teams, Dini said.
In
addition, there are 78 cheerleading
squads.
Dini
said Vail-area residents worked very
hard to get the association going.
"President and founder Wendy Counes
was instrumental in getting this
done," Dini said. "We didn't think
there were enough kids out there,
but enrollment has more than
surpassed our expectation. It's a
lot of hard work. It can take from
$40,000 to $50,000 to start an
association of teams."
The
Vail Vikings practice and play games
at Cienega High in Vail. Dallas
Dukes, who coaches the Vikings'
peewee players, said the players and
coaches are eager to start. This is
Dukes' first season with AYF.
He and
his family moved to the area last
October. Dukes coached youth
football in Indianapolis, where he
lived previously.
"The
kids hit hard; they are pretty
competitive already," Dukes said.
The
pee-wee teams are for 11- and
12-year-olds.
"There are a lot of kids who are
playing for their first time and
that makes a huge difference," Dukes
said. "So we're starting the year in
division two to see where we
belong."
Dukes
said it's not all hard-nosed
competition.
"I
try to make it a learning and a
growing experience. We really want
the kids to have fun, too," he said.
Dukes' son, D.J., is the fullback
for the team.
