The Largest Youth Football & Cheer Organization in the Country

Football: Youth football league grows to 4,000

AYF games to include Vail area

SHELLY LEWELLEN
Tucson Citizen

Photos by FRANCISCO MEDINA/Tucson Citizen Cody Andersen, 12, is tackled by James Counes, 13, during practice at Cienega High School.

Football dreams are dancing in the heads of Tucson-area American Youth Football players. Their season starts Saturday with a record number of teams.

Jerry Dini, the local AYF conference president, said enrollment is booming.

"We have close to 4,000 kids participating this year," he said. "It's by far the largest group we've had."

The Tucson-area AYF conference is the Tucson Youth Football and Spirit Federation.

With a new association of teams from Vail coming into play, the federation will field 76 tackle and 26 flag teams, Dini said.

In addition, there are 78 cheerleading squads.

Dini said Vail-area residents worked very hard to get the association going.

"President and founder Wendy Counes was instrumental in getting this done," Dini said. "We didn't think there were enough kids out there, but enrollment has more than surpassed our expectation. It's a lot of hard work. It can take from $40,000 to $50,000 to start an association of teams."

The Vail Vikings practice and play games at Cienega High in Vail. Dallas Dukes, who coaches the Vikings' peewee players, said the players and coaches are eager to start. This is Dukes' first season with AYF.

He and his family moved to the area last October. Dukes coached youth football in Indianapolis, where he lived previously.

"The kids hit hard; they are pretty competitive already," Dukes said.

The pee-wee teams are for 11- and 12-year-olds.

"There are a lot of kids who are playing for their first time and that makes a huge difference," Dukes said. "So we're starting the year in division two to see where we belong."

Dukes said it's not all hard-nosed competition.

"I try to make it a learning and a growing experience. We really want the kids to have fun, too," he said.

Dukes' son, D.J., is the fullback for the team.

Cody Ford, 11, lets out his battle cry as he prepares to run sprints during practice.

"I think the team is doing really well," D.J. Dukes, 11, said. "There are a lot of newbies, but our defense is really tough. We have a quarterback who is fast and tall."

Dukes, 4 feet 11 inches, also plays linebacker.

Tucson will host the AYF National Championships this winter. The event, Dec. 4-10, is expected to draw almost 100 teams from all over the nation. The finals will be held at Arizona Stadium on Dec. 10.

The Sept. 3 schedule is posted online at www.tyfsf.com/schedule.shtml.

Tucson team wins contest

A Tucson Little League team has again shown the industriousness to win the Upper Deck Rip Into It and Win contest. The AAA Rattlers sent in the most baseball trading card wrappers to win a workout with Ken Griffey Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds.

Last year, the Tucson AAA Diablos won the contest. The Rattlers will travel to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., for the meeting with 10-time Golden Glove winner Griffey. Tucson's Continental Ranch was a runner-up.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=youth&story_id=083005c4_youth_story