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We Own This Game: A Season the in the Adult World of Youth Football
Although its participants are still in grade school, Pop Warner football is serious business in Miami, where local teams routinely advance to the national championships. Games draw thousands of fans; recruiters vie for nascent talent; drug dealers and rap stars bankroll teams; and the stakes are so high that games sometimes end in gunshots. In America’s poorest city, troubled parents dream of NFL stardom for children who long only for a week in Disney World at the Pop Warner Super Bowl.
In 2001, journalist Robert Andrew Powell spent a year following two young teams through rollercoaster seasons. The Liberty City Warriors, former national champs, will suffer the team’s first-ever losing season. The inner-city kids of the Palmetto Raiders, undefeated for two straight years, are rewarded for good play with limo rides and steak dinners. But their flamboyant coach (the “Darth Vader of youth football”) will be humbled by defeat in a down-to-the-wire playoff game. TITLE OF BOOK is an inside-the-huddle look into a world of innocence and corruption, where every kickoff bares political, social, and racial implications. By an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The Best American Sports Writing, it is an unforgettable drama that shows us just what it is to win and to lose in America.
INTRODUCTION
A portrait of Miami, a city whose government, even after race riots which crippled the black community in the 80s, serves the interest mostly of the Cuban-American constituency and has been rocked by various political scandals (bribery, fiscal mismanagement, etc.). The author tells how he witnessed inner-city blacks find hope and identity during a high school football semifinal that was attended by tens of thousands. He takes a newspaper assignment covering Pop Warner football games and sees much he admires (“a depressed community proud that its boys could do something better than anyone else”) but also “the corruption of sport at its infancy” (recruiting, fans assaulting the coach after the team’s only loss, parents living through their kids, gambling, etc.). He quits his job to cover a season of Pop Warner, from the first day to the last game, attending every single season and game of the 95-pound Gwen Cherry Bulls, whose coach is dubbed the ‘Darth Vadar of Pop Warner’.
Prologue
Registration day. Coach Brian Johnson of the Liberty City Warriors is introduced as he prints out ridiculously complicated game strategies for his team, based on the Georgia Southern Eagles game plans. It is his first year as head coach and he is determined to prove himself. “I wouldn’t be a man if I didn’t aspire to run my own team.”
We’re introduced to the “Darth Vadar of Pop Warner” Raul Campos, the ostentatious coach of the 110-pound Palmetto Raiders, who is editing a video hyping his team as the greatest of all time, winners of back-to-back national champions at Disney World Sport Center, undefeated in the last 2 seasons.
We’re introduced to Diamond Pless, a young kid whose uncle was confined to a wheelchair after a shooting with a rival drug dealer, and who is now helping his uncle live his dream of NFL superstardom vicariously
We’re introduced to Mark Peterson, the head of the league who tries without much success to discourage the recruitment of black inner city players to suburban ballparks, and is still torn over last year’s national championship, where a Suniland team made up mostly of recruits won 56-6. The coach lost his job because he ran up the store, but is suing to be reinstated.
CHAPTER First Practice
The first practice, plus a history of Pop Warner football, the largest youth football league in America, started in 1929 in Philly to prevent youth crime and eventually to over 6,000 teams nationally competing to play in the national champion at Disney World.
CHAPTER Liberty City
A tour of Liberty City—past the wealthy enclaves of Miami and the poverty of Little Havana is a black neighborhood torn by race riots in the 80s and gang-related assassinations in the 90s. The neighborhood grew out of a black ghetto called Nigger Town which eventually became a progressive experimental black-only community named Knight Manor until a highway ran through it and tore the neighborhood apart. This is wear porno rapper Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew comes from, who helped found the Liberty City program. Since then, the Warriors have won city championships in 7 of 8 weight divisions and have spawned other all-black parks.
CHAPTER CAMPOS
Inside the home of the Cuban exile turned real estate wizard Coach Campos, who is hated and called a “cracker” and takes his players to games in chartered motor coaches and used to take them in Hummer limos. After being banned from another Pop Warner team, Campos took over the Palmetto team comprised mostly of white suburban kids and replaced them with mostly black players recruited ...
In 2001, journalist Robert Andrew Powell spent a year following two young teams through rollercoaster seasons. The Liberty City Warriors, former national champs, will suffer the team’s first-ever losing season. The inner-city kids of the Palmetto Raiders, undefeated for two straight years, are rewarded for good play with limo rides and steak dinners. But their flamboyant coach (the “Darth Vader of youth football”) will be humbled by defeat in a down-to-the-wire playoff game. TITLE OF BOOK is an inside-the-huddle look into a world of innocence and corruption, where every kickoff bares political, social, and racial implications. By an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The Best American Sports Writing, it is an unforgettable drama that shows us just what it is to win and to lose in America.
INTRODUCTION
A portrait of Miami, a city whose government, even after race riots which crippled the black community in the 80s, serves the interest mostly of the Cuban-American constituency and has been rocked by various political scandals (bribery, fiscal mismanagement, etc.). The author tells how he witnessed inner-city blacks find hope and identity during a high school football semifinal that was attended by tens of thousands. He takes a newspaper assignment covering Pop Warner football games and sees much he admires (“a depressed community proud that its boys could do something better than anyone else”) but also “the corruption of sport at its infancy” (recruiting, fans assaulting the coach after the team’s only loss, parents living through their kids, gambling, etc.). He quits his job to cover a season of Pop Warner, from the first day to the last game, attending every single season and game of the 95-pound Gwen Cherry Bulls, whose coach is dubbed the ‘Darth Vadar of Pop Warner’.
Prologue
Registration day. Coach Brian Johnson of the Liberty City Warriors is introduced as he prints out ridiculously complicated game strategies for his team, based on the Georgia Southern Eagles game plans. It is his first year as head coach and he is determined to prove himself. “I wouldn’t be a man if I didn’t aspire to run my own team.”
We’re introduced to the “Darth Vadar of Pop Warner” Raul Campos, the ostentatious coach of the 110-pound Palmetto Raiders, who is editing a video hyping his team as the greatest of all time, winners of back-to-back national champions at Disney World Sport Center, undefeated in the last 2 seasons.
We’re introduced to Diamond Pless, a young kid whose uncle was confined to a wheelchair after a shooting with a rival drug dealer, and who is now helping his uncle live his dream of NFL superstardom vicariously
We’re introduced to Mark Peterson, the head of the league who tries without much success to discourage the recruitment of black inner city players to suburban ballparks, and is still torn over last year’s national championship, where a Suniland team made up mostly of recruits won 56-6. The coach lost his job because he ran up the store, but is suing to be reinstated.
CHAPTER First Practice
The first practice, plus a history of Pop Warner football, the largest youth football league in America, started in 1929 in Philly to prevent youth crime and eventually to over 6,000 teams nationally competing to play in the national champion at Disney World.
CHAPTER Liberty City
A tour of Liberty City—past the wealthy enclaves of Miami and the poverty of Little Havana is a black neighborhood torn by race riots in the 80s and gang-related assassinations in the 90s. The neighborhood grew out of a black ghetto called Nigger Town which eventually became a progressive experimental black-only community named Knight Manor until a highway ran through it and tore the neighborhood apart. This is wear porno rapper Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew comes from, who helped found the Liberty City program. Since then, the Warriors have won city championships in 7 of 8 weight divisions and have spawned other all-black parks.
CHAPTER CAMPOS
Inside the home of the Cuban exile turned real estate wizard Coach Campos, who is hated and called a “cracker” and takes his players to games in chartered motor coaches and used to take them in Hummer limos. After being banned from another Pop Warner team, Campos took over the Palmetto team comprised mostly of white suburban kids and replaced them with mostly black players recruited ...
- GenresSportsNonfictionFootball
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 26, 2019
Fascinating read, especially for someone who has been involved in youth football himself for almost a decade. Some of this seems exactly like what happens with kids football in rural Wisconsin, but some seems like a completely different sport/age group. Wonder how much of that is due to evolution of youth sports since the book's setting in 2001. Also thoroughly enjoyed learning about Miami in general, didn't know much about the city coming in. Kudos to the author.
October 1, 2017
Good read about the twisted side of youth sports, which is showing up everywhere nowadays. I know a bunch of people that should read this, problem is they would probably enjoy it and to them it would reiterate that what they are doing is okay.
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April 3, 2023Dnf @ 30%
August 22, 2025
If you like a good nonfiction sports book, you'll love this. It's the Friday Night Lights of youth football, with insight on the poverty of Miami.
August 12, 2009
A tightly written portrait on a season of youth football in Miami. Football is truly treated like a religion in Fla-outsized expectations fall on every team from the pros down to the Pop Warner level. While youth football should be for the kids, it's serious business for the parents and coaches. Few of the adults came across well-for the most part the adults appear to be meddlesome stage parents who rarely act in the best interest of the kids. Coaches are both inspiring and shallow. While some do their best to motivate and make a good experience for the kids, others are looking at the bottom line and what they can get out of the players instead of what they can give the players. Meanwhile the kids are lost in the mix and don't seem to enjoy playing.
Highly recommend this book if you are interested in youth football.
Highly recommend this book if you are interested in youth football.
August 8, 2013
I'm a big fan of Powell's writing since I first read him on Grantland, and picked this up to catch up. Very glad I did. Powell immerses us in the community of inner-city Miami for a season of Pop Warner football, and it's honesty, relatability, and power is jaw-dropping. He clearly is seen as a trusted equal, a participant, and not as an outsider. Even better, this does not get bogged down in the minutiae of football, instead emphasizing the challenges of the community, the individual human dramas at play, and the power of sports to give meaning. I definitely recommend this to anyone with an interest in education, athletics, and community development.
September 18, 2008
As much a sociological study of Miami's poor as it is a story about youth football, We Own This Game is about as interesting as it could have been. Good reporting on the part of the author, and plenty entertaining, but I would only recommend this book to a certain type of person, namely a liberal male football fan ... I haven't had a chance to recommend it to anyone yet.
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August 12, 2008it was nice to see a different angle on something I've been a part of for 12 years
May 12, 2015
Pop Warner was such a big part of my life as a coach on the cheer side. I enjoyed this because I could relate to what was going on!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews