WS Chronicle

The 8-and-under team for the Youth Character Football League (YCFL) walked into the playoffs with an undefeated 8-0 record. The team is sporting a top five ranking in the state of North Carolina for their age group as well.

YCFL, based out of Union Baptist Church, have been climbing the ranks of the local youth football leagues for the last few years.

Jermell Barringer, head coach of 8U team, says he was confident his team would be talented, but did not know they would walk through the regular season undefeated.

“We brought in a couple of kids from another organization and with the weapons YCFL already had, it was a pretty good match,” said Barringer. “The kids just bought into our system and they believed in what we were coaching them.”

Tom Brown, director of YCFL, says the success of the 8U team comes from good coaching and the fact this group of kids have played together for a couple of years.

“That camaraderie between the kids helps the coach in terms of his ability to gel a football team,” said Brown.  “At the beginning of the year, you never really go beyond one game at a time. With the kids returning from the 6U level at YCFL, mixed with the kids coach Jermell brought over, you couldn’t help but to expect good things.”

This is a big turnaround from the record last year’s 8U team posted for YCFL. According to Brown and Barringer, the 2017 8U team only won one game. To turn around a year later and go undefeated in the regular season is amazing, they said.

Assistant coach Phillip Hairston Jr. says another contributing factor for the team’s success was the constant communication between the coaching staff. The fact the staff was able to mesh ideas to come up with a great game plan each week was paramount in their success.

“I really didn’t have too many expectations, I just wanted to see my guys do well on the field,” said Hairston. “This is the first time we have had an undefeated season as coaches and the performance of the kids has been amazing.”

Heading into the playoffs, the team was beaming with confidence. Unfortunately for the 8U team, they were defeated in the first round of the playoffs by the score of 12-0. That blemish does not take away from what these young boys did on the field during the regular season, coaches say.

Coach Barringer wanted to thank assistant coaches Hairston Jr. and Tyrell Russell for their dedication this season.