Youth football: Playing for a title

3 local teams still alive in playoffs

With the semifinals of the Six Rivers Youth Football Conference looming on the horizon on Sunday, three local squads still remain to play another day with the title contests just a game away.

The Del Norte Youth Football League AAA squad faces Fortuna at home at Del Norte High School at 2 p.m. on Sunday. At noon in Crescent City the DNYF AA Gold team faces Redwood. The DNYF AA Blue team takes on Ferndale at St. Bernard’s in  Eureka at noon.

Below are profiles of the three teams.

AA Gold Team

The AA Gold team has been dominating the competition on the gridiron this year. The team, consisting of 11- and 12-year olds, are a perfect 9-0 heading into Sunday’s game. Even more impressive is the fact that they have not allowed one point scored this season.

 Zero. Zilch. Zip.

While head coach Danny Forkner thought his team was quite strong this year, paticularly on defense, he and his coaches did not expect the team to perform this well.

“They are doing everything we are asking of them and more,” Forkner said. “As a coach you can’t ask for anything more than that.”

He has emphasized to the players that someone will likely score on them and when they do, they can’t get too down on themselves and need to push on.

After all, Forkner said, by the end of the game, they just need one more point than their opponent to come away with the win.

And if they do end the season with no one scoring on them, it will certainly be something to be proud of, Forkner said,

While the defense has dominated things Forkner said the team also has a good offense that can put points on the board.  As a coach it’s nice to have strong units on both sides of the ball, he said.

Ryland DeSomber plays on the offensive line and at nose tackle.

He loves playing football “because it’s a contact sport.”

He and the rest of his teammates love the game and work well together, which has helped them do so well this year, DeSomber said.

“We’re a very disciplined team,” he said.

In the first round of the playoffs the Gold squad took down Southern Humboldt on the road 26-0.

Forkner said it will be nice to host a home game and have a large, enthusiastic group of Del Norte fans cheering them on.

AA Blue Team

The Blue squad has had a successful year so far, going 8-1 and making it to the semifinals.

On Sunday they face Ferndale, whom they narrowly lost to 14-12 earlier this year.

Head coach Lonnie Levi said the team looked strong in its first-round game, a 36-12 victory over Hoopa

 If they can continue to play disciplined, well-balanced football and keep mistakes and mental errors to a minimum they could make it to the title game, he said.

“We just got to keep doing what we do best,” Levi said. “We’re a well-balanced team.”

Running back Chee Shorty said a key is for the offensive line to continue to “block well,” which was the case last week.

“We just got to work together,” he said.

Regardless of what happens on Sunday, Levi is proud of his team and said one of the biggest things, especially at this age level, is to teach his team the basics about football.

“We teach them the fundamentals of this sport so they’ll be ready when they move on to triple A and high school,” he said.

AAA Team

Coming into last Sunday’s playoff game against Redwood at Arcata, the DNYF AAA squads were the underdogs. After all, they had only two wins coming in, with one of them being a forfeit, and were the final seed at No. 6. Redwoods was the No. 3 seed.

The squad, consisting of 13 year olds, surprized  a lot of people by jumping out to a 18-0 halftime advantage on its way to the 18-12 win.

Head coach Jim Maready feels that his team came together at the right time.

“The kids put together their best game collectively the whole year,” he said. “They  really stepped it up.”

Earlier this year Del Norte lost to this week’s opponent, Fortuna, by the score of 12-2. Maready believes that if the offense continues to improve, they have a good shot at coming away with the victory.

“We’re putting things together at the right time,” he said. “I’m proud of this team. They never hung their heads all season and have never given up ... They are ready to go.”