This is the fourth year of the YMCA contact football program, which has grown each year and involves about 340 players in third to sixth grades. The season starts in August and ends in October. One week of the 2009 season remains this fall.

This is the second year of a flag football program for first- and second-graders. There are more than 100 players in that program.

Randy Hagedorn, executive director of the YMCA, said there was a lot of demand from parents and players to start a contact league.

Some parents from Norfolk were driving to Columbus five years ago so they could compete in a tackle football league, he said.

“We said we’d go ahead and try it,” Hagedorn said. “We formed a committee, got organized in January and by the next August, we were ready to go.”

With both the contact and flag programs, there are more than 100 coaches involved. There also are parents and other volunteers who run the chains and yard markers at games.

The coaches are treated to a dinner by the YMCA toward the end of the season.

“I know some of them take it serious,” said Lane Werner, who coaches the Buckeyes, “but I think the first goal is to make sure they’re having fun.”

Werner comes from a football family, having played at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. His brother, Tom, played at Nebraska in the early 1990s as a wingback, while his father, Kerry, was a high school coach.

“Football is one of those sports that I think is great for young kids. It’s a sport where you’ve got to have teamwork, a work ethic, and it just teaches a lot of good things about life,” he said.

Hagedorn said many of the coaches, like Werner, come from football backgrounds, having played college football. At least one played professionally, he said.

Nevertheless, the emphasis is on fun and fundamentals.

“We try to reel the coaches back,” Hagedorn said. “We don’t want real intense coaches because then the players get intense and the fans get intense. We don’t need that.”

There’s not a lot of contact at this level, especially in third and fourth grades. Sometimes at the lower grades, a player may appear to get hurt one play, get some encouragement from a parent or coach, then return to action two minutes later.

“This is all designed to be safe,” Hagedorn said. “It’s more of a wrestling match than anything sometimes.”

Hagedorn said he has received a lot of positive feedback from parents. Many of the players talk about how much they look forward to the games.

Although most games are on Sundays, some are played on Tuesday and Thursday evenings because there are not enough fields to get all the games in during daylight on Sunday.

The teams practice twice a week. During the first half of the season, practices last about 90 minutes. Once the teams learn their offensive and defensive plays, the practices are limited to 60 minutes, which is just enough time so players can stay sharp without too much of a burden with school work.

This year, 48 players from west of Neligh have joined the league. The players come from such towns as O’Neill, Lynch, Atkinson, Spencer, Clearwater and Orchard.

Hagedorn said the players from west of Neligh wanted to compete in a contact league but did not have enough players to form their own league.

One of the highlights each year comes for the sixth-graders, who get to play a game under the lights. They also get to run on the field with a national anthem and Husker tunnel walk.

This year’s program includes two girls who are competing in the fifth grade. It is the first time there has been a girl playing since the first year, Hagedorn said.

“The players treat them like anybody else,” he said. “The coaches said they are some of their top players.”

The games feature paid referees. The referees usually are high school football players, as well as some officials who referee high school games.

Each of the teams has a business sponsor, which pays for the jerseys as well as the name on the back of the jersey. Players also have to pay a fee to participate, although some players receive a scholarship.

Players are tested in agility drills in the spring, with teams chosen and assigned in August.