Small Town Celebrities – Coaches Gallegos, Key and Smith Lead Youth Football Team

tcyfl coach
From left, Leonard Smith, Tony Gallegos and Shane Key are the coaches of a youth football team.
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By Gail Wood

woodshed furnitureThere were a lot of other places they could have been.

But over an hour before kickoff, the three coaches – Tony Gallegos, Shane Key and Leonard Smith – were putting their seventh-and-eighth grade youth football team through some plays, preparing for the game.

“Don’t let them get to the outside,” Gallegos said to his defensive end as a running back ran up field.

It’s Saturday, game day. And for the past 11 years that’s meant Gallegos, as a coach for the Thurston County Youth Football League, is on a football field throughout the fall, coaching the Hawks.

tcyfl coach
From left, Leonard Smith, Tony Gallegos and Shane Key are the coaches of a youth football team.

“I love it,” Gallegos said. “I do it because it’s fun.”

It’s not like Gallegos’ life isn’t already busy. In addition to being a dad and a husband, he works for DSHS as a social security disability judicator, and he’s working on his masters in social work through an online program with the University of Southern California. But four times a week – two-hour practices are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with games on Saturdays – Gallegos is coaching.

TCYFL started in 1973.  Currently, there are about 90 coaches in the league.  This year marks an all-time high 2,100 kids playing in the league. There are teams from Lacey, Olympia, Rainier, Tenino, Tumwater and Yelm. Teams are divided into five different age groups starting with second grade and continuing through eighth grade.

Without volunteer coaches like Gallegos, Key and Smith, there’d be no youth football. Each of them has or has had a child on the team.

“I do it to spend time not only with my son, but with young kids who are going to be the future of this community,” Gallegos said. “I want to do my part to make sure that they grow up to be productive members of our society. And that they’re making the right choices in life.”

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Gallegos (with hand up), Key (gray sweatshirt) and Smith put their team through plays before their game at Steilacoom High School.

Football, Gallegos will tell you, isn’t just about learning how to block, tackle and throw and catch a football. It’s about how to be a good worker, a good neighbor and a good parent.

“My coaching staff and myself teach the fundamentals of the game,” Gallegos said. “That’s an emphasis. But we’re also teaching these young kids how to be successful adults in life and productive members of society. That’s what’s important.”

Football is the lure.

“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that they’ve got the skills to make them good adults and to make good decisions in their lives,” Gallegos said as he watched his players warm up.

Like Gallegos, Key got involved in coaching youth football because his sons wanted to play football. Key’s oldest son started playing football in second grade and he’s now a senior at River Ridge High School. Even though his sons have finished playing in the TCYFL, Key keeps volunteering to coach. One of the things that keeps him coming back to coach, in addition to just enjoying it, is that he enjoys the ah-ha moment – the time when a player finally understands a technique or strategy.

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Gallegos (blue shirt) and Key give their players some instructions before their game.

“There’s usually a time in the season when it starts to click,” Key said. “And they start to understand. And that’s enjoyable to see when they figure it out. There’s nothing better than to see the light go on.”

Key is clearly all in on coaching football. In addition to coaching in the TCYFL, Key also coaches the running backs on the River Ridge High School football team. So three days a week, Key goes from the high school football practice directly to the youth football practice. He likes what football teaches.

“You have to be disciplined,” said Key, who is a paraeducator at River Ridge. “It teaches you discipline. And your team is like family. Once you start football for that season you’re family.”

Naturally, playing football, Gallegos tells his players, is about trying to win. They keep score and the objective is to score more points than the opponent. But that’s the game-day goal. Coaching, Gallegos said, goes deeper than that.

“And that’s to let them know that there’s people out there that love them and care about them and that they care what they turn into as adults,” Gallegos said.

Smith, a 1997 River Ridge graduate, likes what football teaches you. It goes beyond learning the Xs and Os.

“It teaches you to be part of a team,” Smith said. “To do what’s right. Always try to do for someone else first. Team goals over personal goals.”

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Key (gray sweatshirt) watches as his quarterback is about to take the snap while preparing for their game Saturday.

Smith, who joined Gallegos’ coaching staff four years ago, is still a proud Hawk, 18 years after playing the line for River Ridge.

“He’s the proudest River Ridge Hawk I’ve ever met,’ Gallegos said with a smile. “He loves being from River Ridge High School and being a Hawk. He still has his letterman’s jacket from high school. He’ll wear it to games on Friday nights.”

Part of the reason for Gallegos’ commitment to coaching is what he calls “payback.” As he looks back on his life, he thinks of the coaches who influenced his life.

“I’m also giving back to coaches who helped me out as a youngster,” Gallegos said. “I appreciate the time they spent to help me become the man I am today. If one of the kids I’m coaching today becomes a volunteer youth coach as an adult, then I’ve done my job.”

Smith felt the same indebtedness. He still appreciates what his high school coach, Dan Clark, did for him. He said the influence of a coach is huge in shaping a life.

“I’d still run through a wall for Coach Clark,” Smith said. “I still call him Coach.”

 

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