The whole enterprise is a serious commitment of time for adults. The seven football teams, each with 25 to 35 kids, each have six to eight coaches, with one a designated “head coach.” Beginning July 30, there is practice every night for two hours. After school starts, it’s three days a week, but then in September and October, there are eight games to play. Then if you win, you play playoff games, which can mean more games in regional playoffs, state playoffs, and if you’re successful, a national game. Add to that Homecoming Weekend, photograph sessions, a punt, pass, and kick competition, and Board meetings and coaches meetings, and, well, you get the idea.

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But the question remains, why do the kids do it? Sure, some kids just like football, but they hardly need an organization that rivals the NFL to go out and play a little ball. It is, after all, an enormous amount of work, time commitment, academic stress, pressure, and, in the long days of August, heat. And yet, huge numbers—over 400 kids—not only sign up for the Pop Warner experience, they go back year after year after year. What gives?
TJ Hardiman is eight years old and is an unlikely-looking football player. If you were his father, Tom Hardiman, who is also a coach with the league, you might be afraid that he could be carried away either by an opposing team member, who had eaten a large burger the night before, or a medium to strong breeze. But what he lacks in size he makes up for in enthusiasm and self-knowledge.

The boy from Roger Sherman was helping his dad one day on the sidelines when an errant ball rolled his way. He threw an impressive pass back to the referee who complimented TJ on his throwing ability. “Nice throw son, the ref said,” TJ recalled. “And right then I knew I was going to be a quarterback.” That’s a position, of course, that takes a lot more than just throwing a football. As the team leader, he has to have fifteen to twenty plays in his head, which, according to his father, he knows cold. This year he’ll be in the Mitey-Mite division with full uniforms and a chance to prove his leadership skills. He’s also excited about his dad being there as coach. Why? “Because after the game, we can talk about it and we can work on stuff together.”

TJ’s sister, Ellie, is also involved in Pop Warner, but as a cheerleader. Now if you’re still stuck back in Wally Cleaver land, you might think a cheerleader is, well, a cheer leader. And it’s true that they have to memorize an amazing number of cheers, the repetition of which at one point threatened to drive the Hardiman family to the madhouse. Now in her seventh year of cheerleading, though, she knows all of them without hesitation. But that’s not the point. The point is that cheerleading has developed into a highly skilled tumbling and acrobatic sport that would give the flying Wallendas pause