12/1/2009
Written By: Aaron McFarland, ISC Editor
Category: Pee Wee Sports  

Cadence Drill. Corner Blitz. Defensive Skeleton. Trap Block. All of these terms can be heard throughout the state on high school varsity practice and game fields, but when you hear it with a group of 6th graders, you know you have something special.
 

Chad Bartlett, head coach of the Cedar Falls Broncos, will echo that statement with confidence about his team that finished the season 5-0 and played a bowl game at the UNI-Dome this football season. Being able to coach such disciplined young athletes made it easy for the coach and his team to outscore they’re opponents 168-18.
  

The former Cedar Falls High School assistant coach took over the Broncos last season with a team that was the youngest in the league, undersized, and had many young athletes who had never been on a football field before. Finishing last season 3-3 was a success and having eleven athletes return for another year together was the first step to finishing the regular season undefeated in the Northeast Region Optimist Division with the Youth Sports Foundation.
  

Not only did these young men come back bigger, faster, and stronger but they prepared in the off-season by going to the Cedar Falls Fit to Hit camp. Coach Bartlett was so confident in his team’s football knowledge that he would even let the kids call their own blitzes on certain plays. To have such a good defense transitions into having a disciplined team and Coach Bartlett doesn’t take all the credit. “They came ready to play. Everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing. It was easy to teach the basics and we could expand on the game of football”, Bartlett said of his intelligent team and disciplined defense.
  

Not only was the Broncos’ defense a stingy one, but the offense saw nine different players score touchdowns. At the 6th grade level, a team would normally have one standout athlete score the majority of the points, but the ability to score with more than one player is another testament to just how disciplined and focused the Broncos were. They ran a double wing offense that instituted “The Core”, four plays to the left and right that were mastered, along with a “Diamond Offense” which was four additional plays in the red zone and hurry up offense. To expand on the intelligence of his offense, Coach Bartlett told a story of his quarterback, Connor Neuroth, coming to him on the sideline wanting to run a certain play because the opposing defense was running a Cover 2. This is something that is unheard of at the 6th grade level. For such a young person able to recognize a certain defense shows great coaching and an extreme knowledge of the game from this Broncos team.
 

Once again listing terms that could easily describe a high school varsity team, the Broncos weren’t all about the wins and losses. As mentioned before, the team returned eleven players from the previous year and that correlates to the kids having fun and the coaching they received from three young men that loved to coach.   
  

Coach Bartlett also noted the relationship between the team, himself and his assistant coaches, Tony Fischer and Brad Stageman, playing a vital role in making it fun for the young athletes.  “All of us wanted to be there. We are all interested in what we are doing and we want to see the kids succeed. It was nice to all share the same goals. The kids really seemed able to relate with us, our experience, and enthusiasm”, Bartlett said of having great relationships between coaches and players.
  

Ultimately, the Broncos were a perfect 6th grade team with enjoying success, having fun, and being fans of the game themselves. According to Coach Bartlett, “All of them attend the UNI home football games. They always seem to make it onto the jumbotron for every single game.”
 

Already having played two full years of football together, the majority of the Broncos will continue to be successful together as 16 will go onto play at Holmes Middle School then Cedar Falls High, one will go to Dike New Hartford and another to George Washington Carver Middle School.
 

Disciplined and intelligent, each and every player on the Cedar Falls Broncos will continue to bring something special to their respective middle school and high school teams as they continue their great football careers.