BY SANDI CARPELLO
Staff Writer
Mark Williams
RED BANK — On the dewy grass of the Count Basie Field, Mark Williams lines the Mighty Midgets up like soldiers.
"You’re out here. Have fun, think about winning the championship, but remember — the game is not about winning," Williams told his squad.
While participation in sports like basketball, baseball and tennis have been lagging among Red Bank’s youth, the Red Bank Regional Pop Warner football team is thriving.
"We have about 250 kids signed up to play this season. But we always get a lot of kids," Williams said.
Williams, 43, a Red Bank native and a star kicker on the Red Bank Regional High School Bucaneers’ 1979 team, has been coaching Pop Warner for 28 years. Leading several division championships and cultivating some of his Mighty Midgets into college football players, Williams, a die-hard fan of the San Francisco 49ers, said the secret to coaching kids is staying highly involved, while integrating strict discipline with positive reinforcement.
Most importantly, Williams makes sure his players know — if they want something, they have to earn it.
"A lot of kids tell me they want to be running backs. They say they want to be linebackers, defensive ends. They like to hit. I tell them, if they want to play those positions, they have to work hard and they have to earn it. Every time we do drills, they have to work hard. … No kid ever gets cut, unless they cut themselves."
From late July to mid-November, the 8- to 13-year-olds from Red Bank, Shrews-bury and Little Silver are expected to arrive at their scheduled practices on time.
After 20 minutes of running around the field’s perimeter, the budding athletes are expected to perform a strict regimen of calisthenics, abdominal crunches and good, old-fashioned push-ups. "And I make sure they’re doing it correctly," Williams said. "If they’re not doing it correctly or if they are misbehaving, I make them do more push-ups or I make them hold themselves in a push-up position."
At Red Bank Regional High School, Red Bank students make up 30 percent of the high school’s population.
Only 11 percent of the varsity football team is made up of kids from Red Bank.
That number, however, is substantial in comparison to the non-participation of Red Bank students on the high school’s tennis team, fall cheerleading squad and boys cross country team.
In addition, the Red Bank Regional football team is almost entirely comprised of Pop Warner graduates.
Williams said the success rate is owed to the high participation of the Pop Warner coaches.
Red Bank Regional Pop Warner coaches Cliff Tootle and Joseph Wilson; Red Bank Regional football coach Harry Chebookjian; and Leroy Jones, a disciple of Williams, who played football for the University of Nebraska, were all graduates of the Red Bank Regional Pop Warner program.
According to Williams, these coaches rarely miss a game. The Pee Wees’ coaches attend the Midgets’ games, and the Midgets’ coaches attend the Mitey Mite games.
The coaches become familiar with all of the kids’ names and playing habits. When the coaches are involved, the kids are more apt to participate the following year, Williams said.
All the Pop Warner coaches "know how to talk to kids; they know how to encourage them to keep up with their studies," Williams said. "Once they sign up for Pop Warner and see how the coaches react to them, the kids are ready to take it on."