Letters to AFM

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We want your input! Letters to AFM should include the name, address and telephone number of the writer. Mail to: AFM, P.O. Box 13079, North Palm Beach, FL, 33408. Or, you can e-mail your letter to us at letters@americanfootballmonthly.com or reach us via fax at (561) 627-5275. Visit AFM online at www.americanfootballmonthly.com.

Dear AFM:

I am writing to you because I would like to plug our football program at Vista High School which is located in San Diego County, Calif. We are a school of about 3,000 students and have a rich football tradition. This past season we won our third consecutive Division I CIF Championship under the leadership of head coach Steve Silberman. In 1995, Coach Silberman replaced the legendary Dick Haines, who has over 300 career wins. Also, I would like to inform you of some of our players that have been recruited and signed to play college football.

1998 - Mike Sullivan, OL, Stanford; Pisa Tinoisamoa, LB/RB,Hawaii;Michael Johnson,CB/WR, UNLV; and Edrik Contreras, OL, San Jose State.

1997 - Rusty Williams, DE, UCLA; Tony Altieri, DT, Boise State.

1996 - Robbie Robinson, California / Palomar JC / Colorado; Paris Gaines, Fresno State; Bruno Contreras, San Jose State; Matt Bride,Villanova; and Robert Guerrero, Army.

We are very excited about this upcoming season in our quest to win a fourth CIF Championship. Besides our league schedule, we think we have a great non-league schedule starting with Long Beach Poly at their place.

I appreciate the opportunity to tell you a little bit about our program, and I very much look forward to my next issue of AFM. Keep up the great work.

Chris Hauser,
Defensive Coordinator
Vista High School
Vista, CA

Dear AFM:

My name is Darrell Colman and I coach youth football in Glendale, Arizona. This will be my third year coaching. Over the last three years, I have talked to many coaches in Arizona and California about the decline of our youth playing football.

We, as coaches, are always looking for ways to get more kids playing at the youth level, which is why I was very excited to read in the latest issue of American Football Monthly magazine about the NFL's new Junior Player Development program. Your article was very uplifting and encouraging.

Needless to say, I am very interested in the program and potentially bringing it to Arizona. I would greatly appreciate any information you could send me or feel free to contact me by phone or email. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Darrell Colman
Darrell.Colman@CAS.Honeywell.com
Glendale, Ariz.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. The article by Roger Rubin about the NFL and its pilot program has drawn responses via phone and email from across the country. For more information about the NFL's Junior Player Development program and how you or your program can get further involved, email the NFL directly at gliebem@nfl.com.
Dear AFM:

I read your Letter From the Publisher (Vol. 5, June '99) entitled "I Have Seen the Future. . ." It was a very good commentary on the state of our great game. The same issue featured a great article by Roger Rubin on the NFL's Junior Player Development program. How can I get more info?

The interesting thing about Rubin's visit to JFK is that its first coach ever is still there, where's he's been since the school opened. Also, the school's first varsity featured a former teammate of mine in the Buddy Young football league of the 1970s.

The Buddy Young league was comprised of inner-city teams that were based in Harlem (Ravens, 131st Vikings, Delano Hawks, Pal Packers, Covent Ave. Church Saints and Riverside Church Warriors); the Bronx Morrisania Raiders and Bronx Lancers); and Brooklyn (Bushwick Rattlers).

It was a great time in my youth with our homefield, McCombs Park Field, in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. I live in California now and it has been 27 years since I walked that field in the Bronx. If it wasn't for the league, I don't know if I'd be coaching today. Too bad my high school dropped football in 1977 due to lack of interest and a field.

Larry Warner,
Riverside, CA
fbcoachw@gte.net

Dear AFM:

I recently had the pleasure of working with Kevin Rogers (Notre Dame OC) at the Notre Dame football camp. I have been both a college and high school coach for over 20 years and found Kevin to be an extremely knowledgable coach and outstanding person. It's not often you find a big-time college coach who goes out of his way to make a coach he hardly knows feel welcome and appreciated in a very genuine way. It's not surprising that AFM considers him a "hot" coaching prospect.

I was fortunate to have experienced Kevin's coaching first-hand as I was one of six high school coaches working with the quarterbacks at the camp. It was refreshing to see a coach of Kevin's caliber stress the fundamentals of the position day-in and day-out. I know six high school coaches who left the N.D. camp feeling they had been reassured by one of the best college coaches in the country on how important it is for all of us to stress fundamentals on a daily basis.

Working the N.D. camp was a thrill of a lifetime. I want to thank head coach Bob Davie and his coaches, all of the wonderful young men it was my pleasure to coach, and the University of Notre Dame for making my stay truly unforgetable.

Joe Gutilla
Head Football Coach,
Benilde-Saint Margaret's School
Saint Louis Park, Minn.

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