The South Tama YSF youth football season has officially come to a close as the 3rd & 4th grade tackle football team ended their season on Oct. 26 with a post-season exhibition game against Hampton-Dumont-CAL at the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was a great battle between two good teams, but the Trojans fell short in the end, 14-21. Kolson Zmolek and Kai Upah rushed for the two Trojan touchdowns. Quarterback, Brextyn Doyle, aired the ball out 4 times for 2 completions to Solaris Jefferson and Kai Upah. The kids really enjoyed the experience of playing on the same field as the Minnesota Vikings. The 3rd & 4th grade tackle team ended the regular season with a record of 3-2. The young Trojans were led by coaches Curt Raue, Josh Bly, Joe Hoskey, Dalton Doyle, Vern Jefferson, Justin Jacobi, Ludy Ortiz and Mike Zmolek. A picture and roster of all of the 3rd & 4th grade tackle football players can be found below.

The 5th & 6th grade team was made up heavily of 5th graders, but this young team showed a lot of grit this season. The team ended the regular season 1-5, with the lone win coming against East Marshall. The season started with the first game being held at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls against a tough Manson team. Playing in the dome was a great experience for our young players. The rest of the schedule was against Waterloo Columbus, North Tama, AGWSR and Dike-New Hartford. Touchdowns this season were recorded by Javantae Roberts and Kade Haughey with Jayce Dostal handing them the ball at Quarterback. Ryker Sawyer led the team on defense as the “mike” linebacker and play caller. The 5th & 6th grade team was led by coaches Jayson Mull, Eric Haughey, Brent Dostal, Nathan Cox and Ben Naniot. A picture and roster of 5th & 6th Grade can be found below. Coordinators for the South Tama YSF programs are Eric Haughey and Amber Dostal.

New this year was YSF flag football which replaced the REC flag football during the fall for 1st through 4th grade kids. This was a great introductory program that taught fundamentals of football. The 3rd and 4th graders were on a “travel” team and they got the opportunity to play Dunkerton, North Butler and Janesville and came out with a couple of wins. The 1st and 2nd graders were “home-based”, meaning they practiced and then scrimmaged each other. The flag football teams were led by Scott Bolen, Brenon Chyma, Bryan Anderson, Logan Mathes, Lars Avery and Bryan Pickering.

“I am so proud of what we are building here. We have so much support from our community and parents. We never have issues finding people to help coach and we are never short on parents helping out with concessions, Homecoming parades, fundraising, etc. Amber Dostal has been a blessing with being co-coordinator. She keeps everything organized and stays on top of stuff which makes us a really good team. Our numbers have been outstanding. In 2024, we actually had to split the 5th & 6th grade team into two teams because we had 37 kids register. Our main focus is giving the kids a great football experience and making sure they continue to participate in football at South Tama. We are usually seeing around 14 players per grade since 2021 with this year’s 6th grade class being an exception with only 6 players. The numbers are really good and we are proud of that. This past spring we introduced 7V7 football for 5th & 6th grade and they ended their season undefeated, coached by Jayson Mull. This fall we added flag football for 1st-4th grade and Kailee Meek tried to get a cheer squad together but fell short on numbers. This coming spring (2026) they will be offering 7V7 for 5th/ 6th grade and 7th/8th grade and will also have a girls division as well. Hopefully we get good participation in that as well. Fundraising has allowed us the ability to supplement the registration fees for our players as well. We are able to cover close to half of the registration fees. We are hoping that we can eventually make it free for all of the kids,” Eric Haughey said.

Fundraising has not only helped with covering registration fees, but it is used to purchase equipment and do fun, team-building activities with the kids. This fall they took 32 of the YSF players to an Iowa Hawkeye football game and had pizza parties. On Oct. 18 it was YSF day at the UNI Dome where 25 of the players got to stand on the field and high-five the UNI Panther football players as they came onto the field, then they got to go on the field at halftime and be recognized, and finally after the game the kids went on the field and met the players, got autographs and asked players questions about playing DI collegiate football.