Youth Football and Cheerleading Sweep Championship

The Kearney Bulldogs have a deep bench of football players and cheerleaders. Football fever starts in the Kearney Youth Football League, where players from Kindergarten through 7th Grade learn the fundamentals, play games, and compete in the Kansas City Youth Football League.

This weekend over 170 Bulldog youth football players swept the competition in the Kansas City leagues by winning first and second place titles. The cheer team of over 40 youth cheerleaders also competed in the Kansas City league championships this weekend and earned first and second place medals. The teams competed against other youth leagues from familiar school districts like Fort Osage, Grain Valley, Belton and others.

Coach and League President Adam Ferrell says the coaches work with the Kearney High School program to get kids familiar how the junior varsity and varsity teams work: “We coordinate with the high school staff. They put on a two day event for us, and we try to take as much of their stuff to put into these boys so [as they progress] they aren’t relearning football.”

To run a program this successful, Ferrell gets help from over 60 parent volunteers, and they contribute over 5,500 volunteer hours per season. Ferrell says although coaching and being on the board is sometimes a thankless job, the program is very satisfying to him.

“Getting to see the kids grow up is really satisfying,” said Ferrell. “That’s the only reason we do it, we love the kids; we love the game of football. We really want the kids to love it and learn to play it safely, and keep playing it and provide the high school with a quality team every year.”

The Kearney Youth Football League registration opens in the spring and practice begins in August and runs to November. Parents who have kids who are interested in football or cheerleading can find more information about the program at KearneyFootball.com.

KPGZ Sports - Brian Watts contributed to this story