The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Amherst Jr. Comets learn football, build character
Jr. Comets learn more than football
For this fall, the Amherst Jr. Comets football program has 180 players in kindergarten through sixth grade.
The first week of August, it’s still 86 degrees and humid in the evening when the Amherst Jr. Comets show up to practice wearing helmets and full pads.
For the fifth- and sixthgrade tackle group, there’s a snap, then a pass or a run, then a whistle. A coach shouts, “huddle!” and the quarterback repeats it for his teammates to circle round.
Each time, coaches point out good efforts and areas that need improvement on offense and defense.
Some players need to keep their hands down or run in another direction or stay on the proper side of the imaginary line of scrimmage extending out from the football.
Then it happens: The linemen square up, the center snaps the ball and ...
“That was a football play!” a coach exclaims.
After that, back to the huddle and repeat.
“We’re just putting in the work and we’re going to make it happen,” said head coach David Kender. “There’s no other option.”
Jr. Comet football
For this fall, the Amherst Jr. Comets football program
has 180 players in kindergarten through sixth grade.
Eventually, they may
take the field for Amherst Junior High School, then later for Marion L. Steele
High School football coach Mike Passerrello.
Until then, there is time
to learn football and build character, said Mike Biro, president of the Amherst Jr.
Comets recreational football program.
“We’ve got to provide Coach Passerello and the varsity program with kids,” Biro said. “So you’ve got to create an atmosphere and a program that’s going to keep kids interested in football and keep parents feeling good that their kids are being coached properly and safely. By changing our programs like we have, we think we’re definitely doing that.”
In transition
The program is in the second year of transition for the better, Biro said.
As participants get older, generally they spend more time on a larger field with more complex plays and more physical contact.
In 2017, executive board member Jim Snowden suggested separating kindergarten players from those in first and second grades.
“That was really the start of the restructuring,” Biro said.
This year the Amherst Jr. Comets added a rookie tackle level. The game is a USA Football model with modified rules to serve as a bridge between flag football and tackle football.
Amherst and seven other community youth football programs agreed to try it, Biro said.
“I’ve got to tell you, when we announced the change here in Amherst, it took some people by surprise,” Biro said. “But I can tell you this: Our numbers are up from last year. So that tells me the community is willing to give it a shot.”
The Amherst Jr. Comets enrollment is up by 60 players from two years ago and up a dozen from last year.
The growth also puts the onus on the board and coaches to deliver better, safer coaching, Biro said.
“That’s really what it’s about,” he said. “If the kids learn properly and they have fun, and the parents feel that it’s a safe program, then we nailed it.”
There is continuing national debate about longterm effects of concussions on players ranging from youth programs to the National Football League. Biro acknowledged there is a real risk of head injuries, but with proper awareness, instruction and actions by coaches and players, football can be safe for young people.
Kender predicted more youth football programs nationwide will adopt flag football and rules that restrict tackling for younger players.
“They’re trying to protect these kids,” he said.
Instead of resisting the change, Amherst Jr. Comets have accepted it head on, said Kender, a seventhyear coach.
“We’re all about fundamentals and safety,” said Ron Rados, offensive coordinator for the fifth- and sixth-grade tackle players. “It’s 100 percent fundamentals and safety first.”
Learning the game AMHERST JR. COMET FUNDRAISER
The Amherst Jr. Comet youth football program will hold a fundraiser noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Amherst Eagles Club, 1161 Milan Ave. The program will host a Cleveland Browns home opener watch party with the Browns taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tickets are $30 and include a pig roast dinner, drinks, deserts and entry to the grand prize raffle. The grand prize is two tickets to the Ohio State University football game against the University of Michigan in Columbus, with $250 in spending money. There will be additional contests and raffles at the event. “Our fund raiser is used to help buy additional field equipment and to hopefully put us in a position to gain access to a home field for our youth players to play on,” said Amherst Jr. Comet President Mike Biro. “Our youth football organization has not had a consistent field to play on for six years.” Tickets are available three ways:
• Contact Amherstjrcomets@gmail.com
• Contact Biro at mbiro. leyfl@gmail.com
• Pay via PayPal and put in the memo section “fundraiser dinner tickets”
If tickets are left, they will be available at the door. Anyone interested can inquire about that availability via email.
The league is open to girls, although this year the enrollment is all boys.
Starting in third grade, the teams will play seven regular season games on Saturdays, including some night games in stadiums with lights. Players in grades five and six will have opportunities for post season play in the Lake Erie Youth Football League.
There are mandatory minimum playing times for teams so each participant can expect time on the field. The older teams will have blind seeding in the playoffs, with the goals of maximizing player participation and avoiding rushing players back too quickly in hopes of getting a win, Biro said.
At the start of the season, Biro said he emphasizes to coaches that they should not be in the program to collect trophies.
“There’s a balance and there’s a fine line,” he said. “We want our teams, we want our coaches and we want our players to be competitive, but we also want the kids to play and the kids to learn. So we have to find a way to balance that out to make sure our programs do what they’re supposed to do.
“We try to find that fine line but it is not win at all costs,” he said.
Comet community
The Amherst Jr. Comets in grades three to six wear the same jerseys because the league wants the players to be Comets, Biro said.
A native of North Ridgeville, Biro coached there for years and his son played youth football there before they discovered the Amherst program.
Now, Biro said his son, Joey Tomaro, this fall will be a senior playing football for Marion L. Steele High School. Tomaro bleeds green and gold, his father said.
“When you have that, when kids feel that way and that’s in them, they tend to play harder, not just for themselves but for their coach and for their teammates and to be a Comet,” Biro said.
Among the fifth- and sixth-grade players, some are on a football team for the first time, Kender said. The program may introduce them to some good influences and teach them lessons to carry through life, he said.
“We just try to build something within them,” Kender said.