Youth football head coaches survive many tests in their rookie season.
Three years ago, Ryan Turnbell, first-year head coach in the Mighty Mites Division of the Northern Arizona Youth Football league, was just a parent watching head coach Gary Barnes from the sidelines, itching to coach his 6-year-old son.
“I finally talked to the coach at the end of the year,” Turnbell said. “I took clinics and coached with him as an assistant for a year.”
Despite starting practices a week late Aug. 4, with barely a full team with any previous football experience, Turnbell led his Camp Verde Coyotes to third place among the eight NAYF Mighty Mites teams Saturday, Nov. 8.
“By the end of July, we were still trying to determine if we were going to have football,” Turnbell said after 8-year-old Keegan Hardy’s quarterback sneak avenged a 12-6 regular-season loss to the Cottonwood Lobos in a 6-0 victory for Camp Verde’s only 6- to 8-year-old football team. “We weren’t sure because sign-ups didn’t happen, and we have to have so many hours of conditioning before [players] can even get pads on. We were kind of behind the 8-ball.”
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Nov. 12, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
