By Quintin Harlan, Herald Bulletin Sports Writer
ANDERSON — The Anderson Youth Football League recently completed another season of teaching the game of football to the next generation.
The sixth-grade championship game featured the Bengals and the Raiders, who rode a strong defense and a kickoff return for a touchdown to a title.
With no score at halftime, Tracy Coles ran the opening kickoff of the second half back for the game’s only score. The Raiders’ defense made it stick for a 6-0 win.
“We had to have two stands to win,” Coach Al Johnson said. “They were inside our 10-yard line twice, and we had to stop them both times.”
For the Raiders’ coach, it was a fulfillment of a promise made to his grandson on the team.
Johnson has been coaching football in the Anderson area for more than 20 years. He coached at both North Side and South Side middle schools and has been coaching in the youth football league for almost as long.
“These kids have been playing together since third grade, and I promised these guys that we’d win a Super Bowl before they got out of junior football,” Johnson said. “And I have a grandson on the team, Jalen Roberson, and I promised him that before he got out of the JFL we’d win one and it happened to be when he was a sixth-grader.”
Johnson described the Raiders as a team that played together, didn’t point fingers at each other and helped each other. On the field, the team was led by a stout defense.
“We only gave up one touchdown all year. We were led by our linebackers,” Johnson said. “Offensively, we lost our quarterback right before the season began.”
The Raiders’ Tanner Winningham was injured the day before the jamboree to open the year. With no true quarterbacks on the roster and an abundance of running backs, a decision was made to implement an offense that is currently en vogue at the higher levels of football.
“None of our other kids had ever quarterbacked before. I just kept thinking and thinking and finally said, ‘Hey, let’s go to the wildcat offense,’” Johnson said. “We gelled off that wildcat offense. Tracy Coles and Jalen ran the offense, and then Tanner came back in time for the playoffs. He came back and did a great job.”
Johnson was a standout at Alabama State from 1969 to 1973. He was drafted by the Houston Oilers but found his way to playing for the Packers. First the Anderson Packers, the area’s semipro team in the 1970s, and then the Green Bay Packers in 1975.
After two years in Green Bay, Johnson settled in Anderson.
Johnson has played the game at every level. But his philosophy for teaching the game is the same regardless of the age or skill set of his players.
“When it’s all said and done, football is about five things: discipline, tackling, blocking, passing and running, that’s what it’s about,” Johnson said. “I don’t know why others make it so difficult.”
