The Largest Youth Football & Cheer Organization in the Country

Hard work by Pollins leads to success for NYC Football

By Marty Gitlin

The two most effective means of promoting American Youth Football are word of mouth and experience.

In that order.

Once kids and families hear about the benefits of AYF, they are drawn to it. And once they participate, they are hooked.

Nobody is more aware of that than Courtney Pollins, who is an organization president based in New York. The Big Apple was small potatoes in AYF four years ago, with just eight teams. It was on the verge of collapse in the nation's largest city. Pollins refused to let it die. He began a campaign to revitalize AYF.

He spoke to officials and parents involved in another youth football organization. He bragged about the positive differences of AYF, including cost and competition. He lured former Coney Island Sharks president Rodney Knight to revitalize that organization, which had folded four years earlier.

By the start of the 2003 season, AYF boasted 14 teams encompassing Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

"After that conquest, I was interested in telling everyone what we could do for them with our organization," says the 42-year-old Pollins. "I told them what we could do for them not just today, but two or three years from then. We were able to get a lot of people … just based on faith."

The campaign resulted in 37 teams and 11 organizations, but Pollis was just getting started. He contacted AYF President Joe Galat, who told him that it would be possible for his group to receive a grant from the NFL to help defray the costs of participating in the national tournament in Florida.

"I never had spoken to him before, so I was a little skeptical about that," Pollins said. "After all, we New Yorkers are a little bit rough around the edges."

Pollins was eventually convinced. He sent his Renegades Midget and Junior Midget teams that had captured AYF titles in New York to the national event. Not only did he receive a grant from the NFL, but the Midget Renegades placed second in the national tournament, which resulted in publicity from the New York media. By the time the 2005 season rolled around, 74 teams and 20 organizations were in the fold for 2005.

The proverbial snowball was rolling downhill in a hurry. It now features 30 organizations with 110 teams and is still growing.

What does that mean to Pollins?

"What I've been able to do makes me think about what Dr. (Martin Luther) King said," Pollins says. "Dr. King said, 'If I can help somebody as I travel along, then my living shall not be in vain.' I like to think I helped somebody."

Pollins didn't just help kids and families involved in other youth football organizations. He visited neighborhoods without youth football and developed AYF teams there. That created more work for Pollins, but he it considers well-worth the time and energy.

"I would say to myself, 'This neighborhood doesn't have any youth football,' and we would work to give birth to it there," Pollins says. "And we're still creating new organizations."

All of which makes Pollins think about the work of his parents. Father Edward was a community activist who pioneered the East New York Little League in which his son played baseball. Mother Barbera spent her professional career as a police officer.

Even more rewarding for Pollins, who played baseball and football at Tilden High School in New York, is that his parents are still alive to be proud of his work creating an athletic outlet for the youth of their city.

From eight AYF teams to 110 in four years? Pollins is helping a heck of a lot more children and their families than ever before.