Airmen volunteers send peewee teams to championship

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Stephanie Englar
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  When most people think of volunteer work, they think of cleaning up a highway, helping to build a house, or volunteering at a soup kitchen. A group of Airmen from Columbus Air Force Base found another way to help better the local community, by coaching youth peewee football.

"I love working with kids and having the opportunity to help build them into great young men," said Tech. Sgt. Horace Conney, 14th Civil Engineer Squadron, and coach of two years. "By volunteering we have the opportunity to teach the kids great life goals and try to inspire them to achieve those goals."

For almost 200 hours over the last 16 weeks, seven Airmen have had the opportunity to teach youth in Caledonia, Miss. how to play football and had the opportunity to take them to the championships.

The "Mighty Mites", the peewee football team with children aged seven and eight years old and coached by Conney and Tech Sgt. Jim Sliger, 14th Flying Training Wing Maintenance Quality Assurance, tackled their competition and won the North Mississippi Tackle Football Superbowl Championship on Nov. 16 with a final score of 8-6.

Another team with a great season was the "Juniors", the peewee football team with children aged nine and ten and coached by Jason Chrest, league representative, 2nd Lt. Jacob Ringrose, 14th Civil Engineer Squadron, Senior Airman Christopher Saunders, 14th Contracting Squadron, Airman 1st Class Chris Coover, 14th Operations Support Squadron, and Airman 1st Class Marques Dollard, 14th Operations Support Squadron. The team won the North Mississippi Tackle Football South Division Championship.

"I liked volunteering for this because I miss playing football, and I'm pretty sure my football playing days are over, so I wanted to get back to the game and teach kids the right way to play," said Dollard.

"It's a huge benefit to all the kids because of the level of commitment and discipline that the coaches from the Air Force Base provide," said Chrest. "The coaches have a sense of discipline and self-awareness that they were taught in Basic Training and they teach that to the children. It really helps the children evolve as football players and individuals."

Chrest said that, along with the 200 hours spent coaching, many of the volunteers also drove an hour and a half to volunteer their time helping the children.

"The amount of time the Airmen spent with the kids was phenomenal," said Chrest. "We are looking forward to next season and hoping to get more Airmen from the base to come out."