LYNN — Building an organization takes hard work, dedication and plenty of commitment. Lynn’s Joel Machado exemplifies that.
After four years of coaching in East Lynn Pop Warner, Machado took it upon himself to start a league dedicated to teaching the skills and fundamentals required to flourish on the gridiron. Now his vision is coming to fruition.
New England Youth Tackle Football held its inauguration ceremony Tuesday at Lynn City Hall. The league is a non-profit organization that strives to teach its players the basics of football while maintaining safety as its priority. Machado is the league’s president.
“With recent reports of CTE, we wanted to find ways to play safer football,” Machado, a native of Dominican Republic and Lynn resident who served in the Army, said. “We want kids to learn new techniques that are taught now at the NFL level. These are USA Football techniques. In order to do that, we need more time. Myself and the board members, we got together with the idea of putting this league together and now here we are.”
At Tuesday’s inaugural ceremony, the league’s players were treated to inspirational speeches from Lynn School Committee member Brian Castellanos and NFLPA certified agent Sean Stellato, a former Salem High football quarterback.
“The youth level is a level where you can develop and be inspired to do anything,” Stellato said. “It’s great for the kids to learn core values at a young age, using sports as an avenue. I commend the youth coaches. They’re doing it all for the love. I just want the kids to know that anything’s possible if you work hard.”
New England Youth Tackle Football will open its inaugural season Friday at Lynn Tech’s McManus Field. The league plays all its games in Lynn, and is scheduled entirely during the football offseason.
“We don’t do anything during the regular season,” Machado said. “We allow the kids to go back to playing in other leagues. That’s fine with us.”
The program has 16 teams, referred to as “franchises,” split by four different age groups. The “Tiny Mites” division is for players ages 5-7, the “Cadets” division for players ages 8-10, the “Varsity Group” division for players ages 11-13 and there’s a “14u” division. Thus far, the league has 235 registered players and the vast majority are Lynn residents.
“We’re pretty excited,” Machado said. “We can’t believe the amount of support that we’ve gotten from parents. We’ve been told this is something that won’t work in the city. We’re very confident that this is something that’ll work and that parents wanted.”
One of the league’s unique features is an all-girls team in the “Varsity Group” division. The team includes 22 girls, all from Lynn, who’ve received support from Riddell and ESPN for equipment and participation costs.
“They received a grant from Riddell and they outfitted them with helmets,” Machado said. “They also got a grant for $5,000 from ESPN to help participations costs. They want to get more women involved in sports that are dominated by males.”
While putting together the league’s schedule, Machado kept two factors in mind. The first was travel factors, the second was work conflicts. The league plays all its games in Lynn in hopes of taking worries of travel off parents shoulders.
“We didn’t realize that so many people have issues traveling outside the city to play games,” Machado said. “Kids that wanted to play Pop Warner couldn’t play because their parents don’t own a vehicle or their work schedules don’t allow them to make games. With us, that’s never an issue. We never leave Lynn.”
Machado’s confident about the group of coaches the league carries. It includes a handful of coaches from the North Shore and surrounding areas, most of which have years of experience in coaching youth football.
“We have coaches from East Lynn, West Lynn, Salem Youth, Lawrence Pop Warner, Chelsea Pop Warner, Lynn Chargers,” Machado said. “We have a really good mix of knowledge involved in the league. It’s not about winning or going to Disney for us. It’s about safety and having the kids ready for the regular season.”
The current cost to play in the league is $190 but Machado’s goal is to lower that fee in the next few years.
“We hope that by next season we’ll lower our cost from $190 to somewhere around $100,” Machado said. “We hope that by our third year, we’ll lower the cost to somewhere near $50. That’s our goal.”