BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com
A few months ago, newcomers to the Oakwood Comets Youth Football League Peanut team had trouble holding their heads up with a football helmet on.
But on Saturday, the team comprised of five-, six- and seven-year-old athletes, will hold their heads up high as they face off against the Bismarck Demons in the Vermilion Valley Youth Football Conference Super Bowl Championship game.
Head Coach Aaron Harrison, who has been at the helm for 11 years, said the 5-2 Comets focus on fundamentals, hard work, respect and sportsmanship.
“We’re building a program,” Harrison said. “That’s what our youth football program is about, by the time that they are in high school, they will be awesome athletes.”
Harrison, alongside his assistant coaches Erik Plotner, Larry Lappin, Joey Smith, Darin Hatton and Jason Freeman, coached their sons through the peanut division, then allowed the boys to move into the freshmen division and onto the high school team under the guidance of other coaches.
The coaches stayed at the peanut level because they fell in love with the kids.
“When kids come to play football for us, they are our kids and we love them like they are our own,” Harrison said. “We are always there for every one of them.
“No matter how old they get, if they need anything from us, we will be there for them as adults or kids.”
Teaching the young athletes how to play football in the safest way possible is a community effort as the coaches on both sides of the ball work to help the children understand the safest way to tackle and block.
“It’s a great league to be in. It’s very competitive,” Harrison said. “We’ve got great coaches on both sides of the football.”
The Comets were underdogs coming into Saturday’s post-season contest against Westville, who handed them their second loss of the season 14-0 in mid-September.
Saturday’s 13-8 playoff win over Westville showed Harrison how far the young Comet team has come in the last few weeks.
“When we start out, I don’t know if we will win a game, but by the end of the season, the kids catch on and really impress you,” he said.
Coming in as the underdog again at Saturday’s Super Bowl, the 29-member Comet team will face Bismarck, who defeated them 26-13 on Sept. 1.
Harrison said that practice this week will focus on shutting down some of the things Bismarck did during the first game that caused the Comets trouble.
“If we want to win football games, we’ve got to make the tackles and make the blocks,” he said.
The 11 a.m. Super Bowl kick-off will take place at Bismarck.
