They don’t keep league records or stats, but head coach J.C. Wilkes knows the Beaver Local Little Beavers varsity squad is a good football team.
“I’ve been coaching little league football for 12 years and this is the best team I’ve ever coached by far,” Wilkes said. “Undefeated throughout the season. We scored 256 points and given up 14.”
This weekend, the Little Beavers are heading to Troy, Ohio, for the 2009 Trojan Horse Football Tournament. Nearly 40 teams across the state applied for entrance to this year’s invitational, but only 20 teams were picked.
The Little Beavers, made up primarily of sixth-graders, are slated to play their first game Saturday morning against Defiance. The double-elimination tournament ends at 5 p.m. Sunday with the championship game.
Wilkes said he thinks his team can pull off a tournament win and that he wouldn’t be driving five hours if he didn’t. He said the Little Devils will face some tough teams—most of the districts play Division I sports—but is confident in his team’s ability
“I have a 12-year-old quarterback that can through the ball 40 yards,” Wilkes said. “That’s unheard of at this level.”
Bridgette Murphy, mother of the lone 5th grade player Jordan Murphy, said the Little Beavers haven’t won a championship since 1986 when Coach Wilkes was playing on the team.
Wilkes, who has been coaching little league football since 1997, said he cannot confirm or deny that fact because he missed a couple of years in the early ‘90s. He said to the best of his knowledge the ’86 Calcutta Bulldogs, as they were then known, was the last team to win the championship.
“We’re just very proud and excited for our team,” Murphy said. “For the way they play with the passing and running and making the touchdowns… I don’t know much about football, but it’s very exciting to go.”
