Catch a Grid Kids game, see players of the future

You watch them play on television — the college football game of the week, Monday Night Football, the Rose Bowl. Whatever the uniform, the guys in the helmets and pads make incredible plays week after week.

And occasionally the question pops into your head: “I wonder where these guys learned to play like that?”

There are exceptions, but for the most part, they started right down the block from where you live. Whatever you call it, most players learned the game in the local youth league.

In this area, it’s Grid Kids, and it’s run by the YMCA. The Valley YMCA organizes a league for fifth- and sixth-graders; the downtown YMCA operates a seventh-grade and an eighth-grade league.

The kids learn football from the ground up. They learn the fundamentals of the game: how to block and tackle properly to avoid injury. They learn how to run an offense and how to play team defense. They learn how to behave as part of a team and how that team can be greater than the sum of its individual parts.

“For the first time here in the Valley, we have parochial schools involved in our league,” Valley YMCA sports director John Edwards explained. “They used to have their own Knights of Columbus League.”

The Valley YMCA league features roughly 500 youngsters, who began play in mid-September and who play their final two regular season games this weekend and next.

The season goes on with a pair of playoff games for each team, extending the season through the Halloween weekend.

“We try to weight the three divisions so that kids are playing the same caliber teams,” Edwards said. “For example, if we had a team that was dominated by fifth-graders last year and had a veteran coach, we’ll know that this year they’ll be dominated by sixth-graders and will probably be pretty good and we’ll put them in the upper division.”

The league also breaks down along high school boundaries. That way students in the Central Valley area play together, for example. The CV school district spawned three and part of a fourth team this season. Mead fields three teams and Riverside two.

The teams play at East Valley and North Central high schools and Gonzaga Prep. Because of excessive wear and tear, East Valley has asked that games be moved to the old University High School field for the remaining games and playoffs, however.

“We had been using just two fields, but with the addition of the parochial schools, we needed another facility and they pretty much brought Gonzaga Prep with them,” Edwards said. “We generally just play games on Saturday, but we’ve had to schedule a few games on Sundays this season.”

Gonzaga Prep features games at 12:30, 2:15 and 4 p.m. Games at U-Hi kick off at 9 and 10:45 a.m., and 12:30 and 2:15 p.m..

Games include three referees and a fourth official from the YMCA to help enforce a few special safety rules unique to its programs.

If anyone is interested in playing in the league, they are advised to contact the YMCA in the spring. Waiting until school starts could mean being shut out of a spot on a roster.

“Anyone who played in the league last year and is still eligible gets a form in the mail,” Edwards explained. “All they have to do is return the form within two weeks and they have a spot on a team. Only after everyone has had a chance to rejoin the league do we open it up for new players. If you wait until the first of September, we just might not have any roster spots open to give out.”

Edwards suggested calling the Spokane Valley YMCA at 777-YMCA.