In the Jamestown Area Midget Football League, playing football begins at age 8 and continues until players age out at 13. Then it’s into high school and beyond, if they choose. Players learn teamwork and discipline as well as sportsmanship.

“I like to have the aspect of actually giving back,” said Westside Modified Coach Jamie Bloomquist. “I was a Jamestown Red Raider. I graduated in 1995. I saw how Wally Huckno (former coach at Jamestown) influenced me throughout my whole entire life through, you know, to being a Jamestown Red Raider. And, you know, he motivated everybody. And that’s what I triy to do.”

And it’s about respect. When Bloomquist talks to his players, they respond, “Yes, sir!”

The other teams in the league include Southside Blue Devils, Northside Warriors, and the Dunkirk Marauders.

Bloomquist started coaching at Southside in 2007 with Steve Sischo and Tom Fisher. He said he coached at Southside for about three years and then decided to take some time off. Bloomquist started as a jayvee coach and throughout his time has seen players progress from jayvees to modified. About eight years ago, Bloomquist started coaching again for Westside.

“And ever since then, I just like to give back and teach, what I was taught, to other kids,” he added.

General Manager of the Dunkirk Marauders Phil Collier agrees.

“Coaching for me is inspiration. It’s my soul. It’s always been my passion to motivate somebody,” Collier said.

Collier has been coaching since about 1998 and has been the general manger for about six years.

“It teaches you important values of life. No other sport, to me, teaches you that besides football,” Collier said.

He added that one person can’t accomplish everything by himself. A running back can’t score a touchdown without the offensive line. Games can’t be won if there isn’t 10 other players on the defense helping out that linebacker.

Bloomquist said that 8- and 9-year-olds play on the junior varisty; 10- and 11-year-olds play on the varsity; and 12- and 13-year-olds play on the modified team. He said the modified team is made up of players in seventh and eighth grades. Bloomquist stresses the fundamentals of the game as well as teaching how to play safe.

On the practice field you can hear the coaches giving instructions and evaluating how players are learning their positions.

Northside head coach Brian Bigelow got into coaching a little bit differerently.

“It satrted out as an activity,” Bigelow said. “I was one of those sideline parents.”

What happened, he said, is that he started an argument with the former head coach, Mark Panebianco. Bigelow said Panebianco told him if he didn’t like the way things were done, then he should sign up to be a coach.

“That’s exactly what I did. When he stepped down, I took over for him,” Bigelow added.

Bigelow has been coaching since 2015, and he will be the first to tell anybody that it is a labor of love.

“This is my therapy,” Bigelow noted.

For some of the players, the coaches are the only male role models they have in their lives consistently three to four months out of the year. He and the other coaches are trying to rebuild Northside into a family-safe environment where the players can have somebody they can depend on throughout the year.

“Northside is in my heart and soul. My success personally as a coach is judged not by wins and losses but if these kids comeback and want to play for me again year after year,” Bigelow said.

For Fisher, Southside general manager, has been coaching for nearly 33 years. One of his assistant coaches, Steve Sischo, has been with the Southside program for 26 years, but has coached for about 42 years. He said he has six jayvee coaches in which three were previous players under Fisher; two of his modified coaches also played for him while his son is in charge of the flag football team.

“I started here (at Southside) in 1990, when my son was nine. I enjoyed it so much, that I stayed,” Fisher said.

Over the years he has coached multiple sports including Bambino Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball, and YPL Basketball. And he has enjoyed them all.

“No program’s successful unless you surround yourself with good people. We try as hard as we can emulate the (Jamestown) high school program,” Fisher said. “I like to keep people that are involved.”

In trying to emulate the Jamestown program, Fisher said he uses the same formations and the same terminology with his varsity and modified teams.

Games are played in Dunkirk, Strider Field, Persell Middle School, and Roseland Park this year. The field at Washington Middle School is being repaired.

The support and trust of the community is important, and the community’s becoming really excited, Bigelow said.