(WITH PHOTOS) Perfect Times Three: Hartland Youth Football Teams Finish Season Unbeaten

For the second time in three years, a trio of Hartland youth football teams finished the year undefeated.

Varsity Blue, Gold and White — which consist of seventh- and eighth-graders — each ended the year 9-0. This matched the achievement made by many of the same players two years ago on the teams' JV squads as fifth- and sixth-graders.

"It’s extremely exciting and forshadows great things to come for our high school," said Greg Light, commissioner of the Hartland Area Youth Athletic Association (HAYAA) Football and gold team assistant coach. "We have a group of boys going to that program who should be extremely successful. … I can’t imagine it doesn’t translate at that level as well."

Light said except for a thrilling 23-20 win by the Blue team over Howell Varsity Black in the last game on Oct. 22, it was a dominating year by the Eagles. No other team in the 30-plus team league were undefeated.

"That was an exclamation mark on the season," he said. "This was just one of those years when the other communities couldn’t match up with us."

Strong records are nothing new for most of the teams in Hartland youth football. For example this is White's third undefeated season since 2008 — a team that's only recorded a handful of losses the past five years, Light said. In addition, this year the four varsity squads were 31-4 combined. Two years ago, JV was 34-2 when three of the teams were perfect, he said.

Key the program's success is not stressing winning but a philosophy of character building in teaching football fundamentals in system with lots of continuity where players and coaches move along together, he said.

The HAYAA program starts players early with two instructional teams of first- and second-graders. At the next level, there are four teams (Black, Blue, Gold and White) that have freshman (third- and fourth-graders), JV and varsity squads.

Players are drafted with an emphasis on keeping siblings together and the numbers of players equal on each squad.

Many of the coaches who have had multiple children in the program have participated for years. For example, Karl Hamina was honored for his 12th year as a coach.

In addition, several at the also bring college and pro experience. Doug Skene, who played as a lineman for the New England Patroits and Michigan Wolverines in the 1990s, is a coach while Light played as a linebacker for Northern Michigan University and Al Rivet was a lineman at Western Michigan University.

Others at the varsity level with college experience are Hamina, who was a center at Adrian College, and Todd Vydick, White's Varsity head coach, who was a lineman for Wayne State University.

"Having that type of football knowledge is huge," Light said.

So, which undefeated team is the best? Hartland won't know this year. Under Livingston County Area Junior Football League rules, teams from the same community don't play each other.

But Light said other communities have their own informal championship — something Hartland is considering for the future.