The Largest Youth Football & Cheer Organization in the Country

Trinity County strikes gold with American Youth Football

By Marty Gitlin
Special to americanyouthfootball.com

Million-dollar mansions. Hollywood glitz. Cosmopolitan San Francisco.

Such are the associations most conjur up when the subject of California arises.

But there is another side to the most populous state that remains light years away from the typical American's mindset. And that is the patchwork of tiny rural counties that may share the same state flag as areas of tremendous prosperity, but are as distant from them economically as any in the country.

One of them is Trinity County, which rests in the far northern section of California. It has been on the verge of bankruptcy.

What it lacks in wealth, however, it makes up in pride. Just ask Keith Bigham, who speaks emotionally about this small county and his little hometown of Weaverville.

Bigham now has more reason to be proud because of the rousing first-year success of American Youth Football in Trinity County, an effort he spearheaded. He expected enough representation for about three teams. Instead, a whopping 130 players and cheerleaders participated, enough to form seven teams in two separate age categories (7-10 and 10-13).

"The response was amazing," Bigham said in a recent phone interview. "Especially when you consider that every town in Trinity County is about 30 miles away from one another."

What brings Bigham literally to the brink of tears is the close collaboration exhibited by all facets of the community to achieve a common goal. Trinity High School donated its fields. Businesses promoted the endeavor through sponsorship. Volunteers donated their time through coaching and any tasks necessary. Financially struggling parents scraped together enough money to properly equip their kids. And the players and cheerleaders themselves came out in droves from as far as an hour away.

No wonder Bigham was choking with emotion as he spoke of that community effort.

"You know, there are two things for kids to do," he said. "Those are to get in trouble or to not get in trouble. So the people here were doing it for the kids. There are only two ways a kid gets out of here in their lives. Those are through athletics and through academics."

Bigham, who heads the county's little league baseball program, was assigned the task of forming a football league. Others proved too expensive, so he turned to AYF. It was a perfect fit financially and organizationally.

Other organizations required financial guarantees, but "AYF allowed us to field whatever number of teams we could field. It's just what we needed," Bigham said.

Every team played 10 games as Mother Nature cooperated quite well on the weekends. The crescendo was reached in early December on Trinity County's very own "Super Bowl Sunday." The 7-10 age division championship was decided when a 67-yard touchdown pass broke a tie with 15 seconds remaining. The 10-13 age division title game ended on a defensive stand that halted the final drive.

Adding to the dramatics and to the emotional aspect of the event was that each game had been dubbed the "Medal of Honor Bowl" due to the contributions of Trinity County veterans Jim Swett (World War II) and Jim Taylor (Vietnam).

That notion was struck when Bigham, a Vietnam veteran as well, was speaking with Trinity Youth Football vice-president Bob Jeangerard one day when Taylor walked in.

"I said to Jim, 'I want to name the trophy after you (and Swett),'" recalled Bigham. "He said 'No, you name it after someone else.' So I decided to call it the 'Medal of Honor Bowl.' I'll tell you what. Those guys are really committed to this community."

It seems everyone is. And that's why Keith Bigham must fight back tears when he talks about it.

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc.