Getting it Right with Darien Junior Football League
Our Town | written by: PAMELA DEY VOSSLER | photos by: BAMBI RIEGEL | riegelpictureworks.com
The eighth-grade DJFL football team with coaches (from left): Dario Agarabi, Dick Krant (hidden in back), Chris Harwick, Cliff Snell, Ben Velishka (hidden in back), Christian Dobbs and Jason Gromelski (not pictured: Kevin Solomon, Kevin Mullane and Ben Joseph)
The participation numbers for Darien Junior Football League (DJFL) are high, according to DJFL president Chris Harwick. With 313 fourth through eighth grade boys in full pad programs this fall (girls are welcome too but none signed up), they’re very nearly setting records.
And these numbers don’t include the 180 kids participating in the flag football program. So much for assumptions and stereotypes about a sport that is sometimes considered too physical, too dangerous, too much, especially for the very young.
So why the surge?
According to Chris, who took the lead at DJFL six years ago and has seen all three of his sons through DJFL, it has a lot to do with their holistic approach to player development and coaching. It drives everything he, the DJFL Board and the coaches do. It starts with the gradual entry to the sport provided by its many on ramps, including no-tackle flag football for first- through third-graders, and a modified flag program which provides a bridge between flag and tackle for combined teams of third- and fourth-graders.
DJFL devotes much practice time to skills development including safe blocking and tackling
“In modified flag, the kids are in full equipment except there’s no tackling,” explained Chris who also coaches an eighth-grade team. “They wear flags to stop a ball carrier but everything else is full football—blocking at the line of scrimmage, quarterbacks, hand off passes, everything else,” he continued.
“Third-graders can choose flag or modified. Fourth-graders can choose modified or tackle,” added Chris who played tight end at Boston College for Coach Tom Coughlin before he left to coach the New York Giants.
“If a parent feels a child isn’t ready to make the jump, they could play modified for an additional year. That gives them a little bit more runway to get comfortable with the sport,” continued Chris.
Coupled with this gradual entry is a fierce commitment to skills development including safe blocking and tackling techniques taught consistently across all grades. It’s the thinking behind the coaching clinics DJFL runs, the mentoring they give coaches and the paid coaches they bring down from the high school to help, including Joe Testa, one of the wrestling coaches at DHS who splits his time among the grades teaching proper tackling techniques.
“We try to empower each player to develop those skills and get to that point where they take pride in executing the fundamentals and the skills they’re taught,” added Chris.
It helps that DJFL understands there are different ways to win. They celebrate the progression toward mastery of the techniques they work so hard to teach and coaches focus on every one of the 11 players on the field, not just the few who touch the ball.
“We’re not focused on the player who runs down the field for a touchdown. We’re focused on who made those blocks and who did their jobs properly in order to make that play happen,” said Chris.
…and no man is left behind.
“We realize kids change over the years. Kids who might be playing tackle or offensive line at the junior level, might be a full back or tight end at the high school level. So the last thing we want to do is discourage anybody along the way from continuing to play football,” explained Chris. “Part of the reason I think the families like the program is we don’t discourage kids no matter the ability level, no matter the size, we want everybody involved. And we basically will forego the wins and losses for getting as many kids as we can in the program, keeping them in the program and moving them on to the next level,” he continued.
DJFL’s 60 plus volunteer coaches commit countless hours to the hundreds of DJFL players in practices and games from late August through mid-November
Certainly DJFL leaders care about sending as large a pool as possible of players with a strong set of football skills to the high school, but they know they’re giving these kids so much more than that. They know DJFL is also on ramp to self-belief as players hone their skills. It is a path to camaraderie and understanding the importance of attention to detail, urgency and accountability to one another.
“If one guy doesn’t do their job on a play, the whole thing falls apart,” said Chris. “It’s something we stress with the kids.”
DJFL is also an on ramp to understanding why volunteerism matters in the community service projects the players take on—from clean up days and food drives for P2P to doing chores for older residents in town. It is an on ramp to friendships as well, connections these kids take into high school and the rest of their lives.
This is the nonprofit program the 22-member volunteer DJFL Board of Directors and 60 volunteer coaches bring to town, working endlessly to deliver it. The Board meets monthly year ‘round handling everything from registration, scheduling and mountains of equipment, to serving on a coaching committee that works with the coaches to make sure they’re doing the right things with their players.
The coaches give six hours during the week to practices plus game time each weekend during the season which lasts from late August to mid-November. This is on top of the certifications they must earn to fill their volunteer role, and the daily two-hour practices the first two weeks of the program.
It takes a lot to get it right. And at DJFL, they do, with every on ramp they create.
