Building strong men is the aim of Kosciusko Cardinals Youth Football President Antonio Riley. However, the type of strength that Riley’s conversations invariably lead to is strength of character.
“A lot of people look at it as just football,” Riley said. “We’re an organization that’s striving to do better for our community.”
Riley said his giving-back orientation is something he attributes to the example his father set.
“He was at every game,” Riley said. “That kind of instilled in me ‘pass it on to the next generation,’ instead of just dealing with my child, you know, other kids might need a little help in the community, too.
“We have coaches who step up to the plate, buy cleats, food—we do what we have to do.”
The emphasis on character building, however, does not make Cardinals players exempt from early Saturday morning practices, running laps or the drain of working out in pads beneath a steamy July sun.
“This is a tough group of kids,” Megan Hill, of McCool, said, as she watched to the side of a recent practice with Buffy Rone, of Ethel. Their sons Eli, 8, and Rowdy, 8, are Cardinals.
When asked if the physicality of the sport has resulted in any aches, pains or complaints, both Hill and Rone furrowed their brows and shook their heads to express emphatic
“no’s.”
“They’re used to being in the yard and playing ball, wrestling with their brothers and that kind of thing,” Hill said.
“I beat my brother up, so he’s tough,” added Cyrus Rone, 14, a former Cardinal set to be a freshman at Ethel High School.
Tough is a word one might use to describe Tristan Cochran, a member of the Cardinals ages 6 through 8 team. Another might be fortunate, but, as his father Jeramy Shirley sees it, he is just blessed.
“He was born with one kidney,” Shirley said. “We didn’t think he was going to be able to play.”
However, a trip earlier in the year to a consultant revealed Tristan’s kidney had grown and was matching the functionality of two healthy kidneys.
“We’re thankful to the good Lord to allow him to be able to play,” Shirley said.
Miracle mentioned, Shirley’s attention turned back to football, as well as his two other sons who were practicing with the Cardinals, Peyton Cochran and Ethan Shirley.
“We didn’t have this growing up,” he said. “When we started we’d go out there in junior high and high school, and just say ‘Here I am, teach me how to play ball.’ Now you’re starting these kids at 6 years old and they’re teaching them everything they need to know.”
The Kosciusko Cardinals Youth Football is comprised of three teams. Riley is the head coach of the 6 through 8-year-old, 28-member team, Dejuan Miller is in charge of the 35-member ages 9 and 10-year-old team, and Corvan Greer is the head coach of the 11 and 12-year-old, 20-member squad.
Each team will run a 4-4 defense, and lean primarily on an I-back, option formation on offense.
It is the finer points of the game, not the physicality, that these young men are most challenged by, according to Hill and Rone.
Introducing these boys to the culture of football is something Riley has focused on this summer. The team has attended multiple camps, including a Dak Prescott camp held at Mississippi State University, another hosted by Philadelphia native Marcus Dupree, and a Starkville High School camp manned by the varsity program’s coaching staff and players.
Finer points aside, the “why” of it, for all involved is simple.
“You get to hit, juke and play quarterback,” Elijah Kilbert, 8, son of Kosciusko residents Charles Smith Jr. and his wife LaChelle.
“It’s fun,” Jordan Teague, 8, said.
Teague’s father, Ernest Mayers, assists Riley with the 6 through 8-year-olds.
“I was already here,” Riley said, who is entering his first full year as president, after 5 years of helping out. “Why not just step up to the plate and help out.”
On Friday, July 28, members of the three teams will be hosting “Meet the Cardinals” at Jason Niles Park, on Love road, in Kosciusko, from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m..
The Cardinals’ first game is on Aug. 18, at Durant. The home opener is the following week, Aug. 25, against the Holmes County Raiders at the Kosciusko High School Landrum Field, where all home games will be played.
