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As many of you may know, besides working my wonderful jobs with WRUF Radio and for the Gators, I also in my spare time coach a middle school football team.

This year, our Kanapaha Middle School Coyotes won the championship! it is the first championship we've won since we went to the middle school format at the Boys and Girls Club a few short years ago. We have made it to the finals before and won the regular season last year but we had never won it all until this year.

I will always have a special place for this team, not because we won the championship but because of HOW we won it.

We started the season 3-0 and then the flu bug hit us like it hit the Gator football team. We lost players and proceeded to lose three in a row and qualified for the playoffs as the final seed with a 4-4 record. In our last game, we were beaten soundly and that's when Neal Anderson, the former Gator who coached with us this year, asked if he could speak with the team.

It turned our whole season around.

Neal talked to them quietly but frankly about how on tape we were embarrassed and pushed around physically. But he also pointed out that in life you don't get a chance too often for redemption, but in the playoffs, we had that chance. I then gave a much tougher speech on the same subject and to be truthful, did not know what to expect.

But in the next practices leading up to our first game against top seed Lincoln Middle School, the attitude of the kids began to change. We kept telling them they were going to shock the world and win the game and you got the sense they were buying what we were selling. They came into that game prepared and focused and won 20-0 and then won the championship with that same toughness and focus 6-0.

We were champions!

Frankly, I was stunned. I couldn't believe we had won. As I walked off the field after the handshakes with the other kids, my team ran up to me in unison. I almost cried. I don't let me emotions out much but i wanted to hug every kid out there to let them know how proud I was of them.

Every so often, you get a special group of kids, and this group was special. From the first day together to the last, we never had a fight, never had a cross word; they all hung out together and genuinely liked one another and that made them a pleasure to coach.

And the support of our parents was unreal. Starting with our great "Team Mom" Julie Christian who let everyone know what was going on with practice and game schedules and everything else, our parents came out and loudly supported their children. With Julie's urging, at the championship game, we had parents, friends, school administrators and teachers there to cheer on the kids. It was a great show of school spirit I will never forget.

I can never say enough about the great men I coached with this season. Frank Stankunas, (who put together two great defensive game plans in the playoffs) Greg Armagost, Neal Anderson and my son Drew not only are terrific coaches but they are better human beings, teaching our kids not only football but values and life lessons too.

My son always knows when to set his Dad straight when I am on the sidelines and knows just what to say to calm me down. I love him more than words can say.

Someone said to me this season that they appreciated the fact that I have coached all these years without having a son on the team; this year, I felt like I had 28 sons every day at practice. This group was truly special and years from now I will remember them fondly.

I am a little sad today because we had our team party this past weekend and I knew it was the last time we would be together. Typically, we all got along great there too, playing football and basketball, watching the videos of our games and interacting with our coaches and parents.

I only hope the kids and our parents know how special this season was for me and how much I truly love this group. I will never forget them.

Congratulations Coyotes! You're champions...on and off the field!