Roar!
Time now to talk a little noisily about the Burien Bearcats and their Junior Football League.
These pad-bearers, 6-14 in age with various weights, classify into five divisions: Juniors, Bantams, Midgets, Pee-Wees and 89ers.
As usual, the Juniors division made a lot of noise last season, getting to the playoffs for the third straight year. And, under head coach George Jackson, offensive coordinator John Howard, and defensive coordinator Milt Chatman, they have owned this league with championships littered all throughout the late 1990s and into the 2000s and consistent playoff qualification the last few years.
But this year the pickings at this point, appear slim for this flagship group of usually 13-14 year olds, with some heavy 12s mixed in at this classification.
Only 13 players so far for the Juniors, and that is not good. But with Jackson, Howard and Chatman, the triumverate of coaching talent, it should be all good before things are through.
“Yeah, we went through the rumor mill of folding the franchise (Junior division) and now we are letting them know we are not going anywhere,” said Jackson, whose son, Andre, played for his dad and now attends Eastern Washington University. “Forty years in the community and we are not going anywhere.”
Chatman mentioned that things look rough right now for this oldest age group of Bearcats.
“Not a whole lot of good stuff to report,” said Chatman, who mentioned some coaching problems that caused some players to jump ship for the West Seattle JFL team.
“But we are here,” said Chatman. “We are going to ride the ship out.”
“Only 13 players out but we are looking to fill out the roster with 20-25,” said Jackson. “It is coming together.”
These guys mean business and, no doubt, it will all knit, with some good leaders like Joey Hignite and Leo Christian.
A lot of good players from this Bearcats program, who enter the real world, a.k.a. high school football, from these coaches’ tutilage.
“Our No. 1 goal is to get these guys ready for high school and college,” said Jackson.
One such player is Luther Leonard, the Evergreen quarterback, who commandeered his team to the playoffs from starting out with a nearly winless record his freshman year. Leonard is now on scholarship playing football at the University of Washington entering his sophomore season.
There was only one Bearcats team, the 89ers, that went into the Gridiron Classic championship game -- that is, made it through the regular season and then won a couple playoff games before the Gridiron battle at Husky Stadium.
“We had a chance to play at Husky Stadium,” said Elia Fatuesi, who coaches the 89ers now, but whose head coach was Xavier Cardenas last season and Fateusi assisted.
“Luther Leonard came over and spoke to us, that was neat,” said Fatuesi.
Leonard is not only a gifted athlete, with a cannon for an arm, and speed rivaling an ostrich (hint: Ostrichs can travel over 40 mph); he is also a close to 4.0 student when at Evergreen in high school.
Past that good stuff of Leonard talking to the players and coaches, there was at a recent practice going on a lot of good things from the coaches teaching players what to do with the pigskin. How to find the gap. How to run the routes. How to plug the line.
“Run through it,” shouted Fateusi to his running back as a drill was run and the running back, Isaiah Puloka, hit the lineman and missed the hole. “Run through it!”
Fateusi then took Puloka by the shoulder pads and walked through the drill as he showed him the holes.
“Here is the 1-hole through this gap and here is the 2-hole,” said Fatuesi.
Puloka looked a little indifferent at coach Fatuesi urging him.
“You want to do this,” said Fatuesi.
“Yeah,” said Puloka, firmly.
And he did. Puloka found the 1-hole (right side opening through offensive linemen blocks) and went for a ways before a nice tackle from Fatuesi Jr. 10 yards downfield got him.
That nice Puloka run got other coaches like Dave McFarland shouting.
“Wrap him up, wrap him up, boy,” he said. Not talking to anyone in particular. But it was a nice strong, running play from Puloka.
Jacob McFarland is a 9-year-old quarterback for this division, the 89ers. He was quick to say what the highlight of his season was last year.
“Playing at Husky Stadium,” McFarland said.
What about this team? You guys going to build off that last season?
“We have a pretty good team,” he said. “We know each other a lot.”
Fatuesi noted that the team has six returners out of 35 kids.
“That’s really good,” said Fatuesi. “We have captains that are all returners.”
Michael Carver, Anthony Lee, Fatuesi Jr., and McFarland were all mentioned as the leadership.
“We have good chemistry between myself and the other coach of mine, Dave McFarland,” said Fatuesi. “He’s been with me (and Cardenas) and this group for four years now. We know each others’ coaching style.”
What strategy style do you hope to employ?
“We want to utilize the big guys,’ said Fatuesi. “A lot of running, maybe a few passes.”
Lee is going to be a marquee guy for that running department since he is a main RB, according to Fatuesi.
After just making it in to the playoffs with a couple wins, the Cardenas, Fatuesi, McDonald trio went all the way to the championship is exactly how that underdog story goes.
Going to another division, the Midgets are Cardenas’ team.
The Midgets were definitely feeling growing pains last year, with a 1-6 record and no playoffs.
Cardenas, along with his son, Xavier Cardenas Jr., look to change things around to a successful campaign like his prowess with the 89ers.
“We are looking at doing a whole lot better than last year,” he said.
Among those helping him will be defensive coordinator Joseph Yuhashi.
“I’m seeing a lot of improvement from kids,” said Yuhashi, who worked with players in this division last season, too. “It lets me know I am doing my job.”
Cardenas mentioned the Midget’s QB, Austin Hollis, who should be passing for some good yards this season.
“Our focus will be on passing,” said Yuhashi.
Some other names, playing both sides of the ball for a lot of these guys, will be Jerome Taafulisia, noseguard on offense and linebacker on defense. Mark Schnec, Jaylen Milus and Cardenas Jr., and Isaiah Ramirez will be running the ball.
The number of players for Cardenas’ team on the 89ers last year was around 25 and this year he is at 21 players and counting.
“The number is growing by the day,” he said.
Cardenas has coached well at the 89ers level and will bring that skill to the Midgets.
“Preaching the fundamentals,” said Cardenas of his personal coaching style. “Teaching them how to play the game right.”
This team of Midgets with a one-win season probably wasn’t too much fun last season. Fundamentally or otherwise, things were just not good.
“Fun wasn’t something they were having,” said Cardenas. “We want them to have fun, enjoy football, and just become men. To be a good football player, you have got to be a good person. School life must be a priority. And football just instills the kind of values, a certain something, to players’ lives.”
The Bantams will be coached by Jason Cunningham. He hopes to get things going in his first-year coaching role, taking over for last year’s coach, Rich Wellington.
“We were 3-4 last year,” said Cunningham, who graduated from Evergreen a decade ago and played football back then too, when Evergreen was right up there with Kennedy in terms of top teams in the Seamount League in high school. “
There were players that did well like Brandon Wellington, the quarterback who scored six touchdowns in the postseason. They got to the playoffs and lost. Cunningham has been with the PeeWees division, below Bantams, as an offensive coordinator. He plans to do some things.
“We run an option offense, or motion offense is a better way to put it maybe,” said Cunningham.
Motion offense means there will be two runners in the backfield.
Wellington is fast with the football so he can pass or run. That’s a third option, too, that will likely give opposing teams fits.
“Brandon’s good,” said Cunningham. “There are 5-6 returners from last season.”
Junior Ngauamo is one who will tell you the first round loss in the playoffs was not so bad a loss.
“We played out butts off, but we lost to the No. 1 team,” he said.
Cunningham filled in more details, “We barely made it in to the playofff’s and had to play the best team our first game. We hung tough until the fourth quarter. And they had 32 players and we had 16.”

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