CHRIS DETTRO
Sep 02, 2008
Copyright © 2008 GateHouse Media, Inc.

Practice for the Springfield Junior Football League's Southwest Bears starts at 5:30 p.m.

Between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m., assistant coach Jim Tamblin, also known as "Coach Dad," has informed five or six players (and one coach) that they are late, followed by one word: "Run."

Tamblin is one of 14 assistants who help his son, Brian, coach the 98 players who make up the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade Bears teams.

"And every one of them thinks he's going to play in the NFL," the elder Tamblin said.

Most likely, none of them will go on to the pros. But Tamblin and his fellow coaches think the JFL has more important responsibilities than teaching football skills.

"There is peer pressure, drugs, gang influence," said Jessica Pickens, the league's vice president. "They need positive role models. A lot of people have seen football as the draw, but what we want to do is turn kids around."

Jim Tamblin became involved with the JFL when Brian joined the league as a sixth-grader. But the JFL, and Springfield youth football in general, have undergone a lot of changes since Tamblin started coaching.

On one level, that's especially true this year. The JFL has joined forces with the 11-year-old Springfield Youth Football League to field four teams in each of the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Every team plays eight games in the Mid-State Junior Football Conference, which also includes entries from Jacksonville, Chatham, Rochester and Lincoln.

Most importantly, however, officials say, the league has shifted emphasis over the years to character-building over football skills.

Coaches are instructed to spend 15 minutes on character development every week, said Steve Thomas, president of the SYFL.

"We're more about life than about football," he said. "It's a growing thing. We hope to get through to them that coaching isn't about Xs and Os. It's about leadership."

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