Youth Football And Cheer Program Welcomes Back Teams, Kicks Off Season

By Andy Hutchison

The sounds of padded players colliding, pigskins getting booted, and cheerleaders cheering are back. The Newtown Youth Football and Cheer program’s season got underway with preseason conditioning earlier in August. Preseason games have taken place, and the regular campaign kicks off this weekend.

The Nighthawks, with football teams and cheer squads for student-athletes in grades 2–8, are part of the Colonial Youth Football and Cheer League which, this season, has undergone some expansion. A six-team league a year ago, there are now 11 competitors, with Danbury, Aspetuck (comprising Weston, Redding, and Easton athletes), Monroe, Shelton, and Norwalk rejoining forces with Newtown, Bethel, Bridgeport, New Milford, Ansonia, and Oxford.

“These are teams that we played with in the past that had decided to go and join a different league that actually ended up failing. So now they’ve come back to join our league and we’re looking forward to renewing these rivalries again,” league President Sean Dunn said.

All of the teams were part of the Candlewood Valley League under American Youth Football until the 2010 season. Two years ago, the Candlewood Valley League left AYF and joined a start-up league called United Youth Football, Dunn notes. Six teams, including Newtown, remained under the AYF umbrella and formed Colonial Youth Football and Cheer. After the 2011 season the New England region of the United league folded, resulting in the renewal, Dunn said.

Newtown, between football players and cheerleaders, has 350 or so athletes in the program. There will be an eight-game weekend football schedule followed by playoffs, beginning in late October.

The football teams and cheer squads have both had success in the postseason, winning regional, state, and New England championships to qualify for national competition.

“I think we have some good squads and I think this year we’ll be gearing up for another run back to nationals,” Dunn said with enthusiastic anticipation.

Of course, it’s not all about winning for this all-volunteer program. Dunn, who is an assistant coach with the fifth grade football team, points out that some coaches donate their time even if they don’t have children on a team that needs a coach, or in the program at all for that matter.

“We love the sport. We love teaching the sport that we feel is the number one sport in the country. It’s fun teaching them the fundamentals,” said league Football Vice President Pat Smith, who coached his children, went to the national championships with a seventh grade squad three years ago, and continues to coach because of the need for help at the helm.

“The girls love to cheer. They love being at the games and they love competing. They love every aspect of it,” said Vice President of Cheerleading Julie Luby, who is also head coach of the eighth graders.

The youth football and cheer teams reel in fundraising money through, among other avenues, raffles and a golf tournament, along with the Taylor Field snack stand on game days. Dunn said money is contributed to the Newtown High football program, as well as the NHS cheer and dance teams, to offset their expenses for equipment, uniforms, and mats. Last year alone, $16,000 was generated for those high school programs. The self-sufficient youth program takes care of its own equipment, field, and officiating needs thanks to the support of the community and efforts of its volunteer coaches, Dunn notes. “We’re not in it for ourselves. We’re in it as a town organization,” Dunn added.

Dunn has four boys, the oldest of whom, Julian, is a sophomore on Newtown High’s squad who came through the youth program. He has three other sons, Justin, Joshua, and Jared, in the program.

Adam Carley, a former assistant coach at Western Connecticut State University, is a second year head coach of the Newtown youth program’s fifth grade team.

“To me, there’s nothing better than youth football — the purity”, said Carley, who has a son on the 79ers team for grades 2–3.

Carley notes that a lot is asked of the young athletes. “We put them through really, really rigorous conditioning,” he said. The program works hand-in-hand with the NHS program and Steve George, head coach of the high school gridders in town, helps out with the up-and-coming players. The youth program mimics the play style of the high school players, some of whom are volunteer assistants with the up-and-comers.

The cheerleaders get similar direction from their older peers. “It’s something I’m passionate about,” said Newtown High cheerleader Ashley Meisenheimer, while taking a break from directing the seventh graders during a preseason drill at Dickinson Park this week.

“We know what it takes to make a good team,” fellow NHS cheerleader and youth program volunteer Liia Elken added.