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Youth league super bowl in Smithville a rare event

The scoreboard said defeat. But the fans cheered “We are proud of you,” and the coach reminded the fifth- and sixth-graders, many of them fighting back tears, of everything they’d accomplished.

“Today wasn’t about the final destination. It was about the journey you took to get here,” Northland Longhorns fifth-and sixth-grade tackle football team coach Matt Bohlken told his players following the loss. “You guys have something a lot of teams don’t. You have chemistry and love for each other.”

Bohlken’s words followed his youth team’s 52-12 loss to the Necco Raiders of Claycomo in the North Suburban Youth Football League’s 2009 Bill Kelso Super Bowl XXXIV at Smithville High School’s football field Saturday, Nov. 7.

The super bowl includes the league championship games for each grade division. The event marked the first time one of the Smithville-based Longhorns tackle teams had made it to the super bowl in more than 10 years as well as the first time in nearly 10 years that Smithville was the event site.

On the unseasonably warm afternoon, families throughout the Northland and a pack of high-energy Longhorns fans, clad in burnt orange gear, filled the stadium. The large crowd was good news for the Smithville High School booster club, which ran the concession stand.

The rare occasion was a big deal not just to players and their families but to the whole Longhorns organization.

“We’re like a little family. We all support each other,” said Ceseree Maggart, who coached the Longhorns first- and second-grade flag football team this season and has a third-grade son, Payton Maggart, in the league. “I’ve met my best friends through the Longhorns. It’s a lot of fun.”

Many of the fifth- and sixth-grade players had played together — both on and off the field — since first grade. They finished their season 9-2. Both losses were to the Raiders, a team long known as a league powerhouse.

Following the game, the players, like their head coach, wished they would have come out on top but knew they had some bragging rights.

They had a trophy. They could say they played in a super bowl.

Player Jacob Bohlken pointed out he and the other sixth-graders had made it to the Division I playoffs a few times.

And some highlights weren’t as tangible.

“We all always connected on the field. And if we didn’t have that kind of chemistry, we wouldn’t have made it as far,” player Tanner Hartman said.

Smithville Editor Nancy Hull Rigdon can be reached at 532-4444 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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