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GRID KIDS

During a game of YMCA Grid Kids tackle football at Evergreen Middle School, third-grader Chase Binder, left, of the Central Valley No. 2 Bears tackles Gage Felix, also a third-grader, with the University No. 2 Angry Midgets. (Holly Pickett photos / The Spokesman-Review)
Steve Christilaw Correspondent
During a game of YMCA Grid Kids tackle football at Evergreen Middle School, third-grader Chase Binder, left, of the Central Valley No. 2 Bears tackles Gage Felix, also a third-grader, with the University No. 2 Angry Midgets. (Holly Pickett photos / The Spokesman-Review)

Among the seasons of sport, football is autumn’s game.

Sunday belongs to the Giants, Raiders, Dolphins, Packers, Cowboys and Seahawks of the National Football League.

Saturday belongs to the college campuses – from the Black Bears of Maine to the Toreros of San Diego, from the Panthers of Florida International to the Warriors of Hawaii.

On Friday nights, lights shine in neighborhoods across the country as high schools battle back-fence rivalries.

But those young players don’t emerge fully formed on high school campuses.

They start on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on high school fields after the echoes of Friday night die away, and on middle school fields. They start with programs like the YMCA’s Grid Kids.

“All 11 of the kids from the Greater Spokane League who earned college football scholarships played Grid Kids football,” said Josh Guthmueller, the YMCA Youth Sports Coordinator. “They all got their start playing in our program.”

For the past nine seasons, Grid Kids has offered an area-wide, six-game season for boys and girls in fifth- through eighth-grades. This year, the program expanded to include a third/fourth-grade program.

“In fact, this weekend is our championship weekend,” Guhmueller said. “Our fifth/sixth-grade division and our seventh/eighth-grade division will be playing their championship games.”

This year, the YMCA brought in defensive specialist Rob Keefe and quarterback Kyle Rowley of the ArenaCup Champion Spokane Shock to help coach.

“They helped us out as game monitors and they talked to the kids about technique,” Guthmueller said. “They signed autographs for the kids, and Kyle Rowley even stuck around and did a special quarterback clinic for the kids.”

Watching third- and fourth-graders play tackle football is a visual treat.

For starters, the players more closely resemble bobble-head dolls than they do NFL gladiators – and they play with that unaffected joy that youngsters invariably bring to every game.

And while the coaches meticulously draw out their plays, paying particular attention to where each player must go, those plans have a way of breaking down.

At the end of one recent game at Evergreen Middle School, the coach called on his team to run a toss sweep left – a basic running play that was a staple of the Vince Lombardi-led Green Bay Packers, with Hall of Famers Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston leading Paul Hornung around end.

This time, however, the basic play design found a flaw.

The halfback took the toss and started to the left, with 10 bobble heads running interference. Unfortunately, by the time the young running back reached the sideline, those 10 blockers were replaced by 11 opposing bobble heads all looking to pile onto both the ball and ball carrier.

In the instant the youngster recognized his predicament, his eyes went from determined slits to white-rimmed saucers and he made a complete about-face. As hard as he ran toward the sideline, he churned that much harder away from it.

A Grid Kids sideline is equally interesting.

In the age of cell phones, there is a steady traffic in play-by-play commentary for distant family members, complete with e-mailed photos as proof.

Parents cheer enthusiastically while children, often wearing soccer uniforms, wait for their time in the spotlight. The post-game celebration often is short-lived while families pile into minivans and head off to their next game, their next activity.