“I used to play semi-pro football. I was working out and there was this kid that would always follow me around, so I ended up working out with him. It gave me the clue that I think that I should coach. I took him to team that I started coaching. I wasn’t the head coach but a position coach. So, they let me on the team to coach as the position. Year after year, I went to different teams, so I could learn from different coaches. I wanted to be a head coach. I was on four different teams. In my mind, I’m learning from different coaches, to help me be a better coach. On everyone else’s mind, I was just jumping from team to team and winning championships. I wasn’t championship hopping but just wanted to learn. Now, I’m a head coach and I wanna put all of that together.

I learned about how to discipline the kids. I was never really big on discipline, so I didn’t think that it would matter. I was thinking that it needed to start at home and it does but I needed to do it here, too. Without that discipline, they won’t listen. I also learned the skills and drills of the modern stuff. Some teams do new stuff and some stick with the old. I do a mixture of both because I experienced both.

I try to keep it all together. I even try to keep up with the kids outside of football. Like on Fridays, when we don’t nothing to do, we all get together and go watch another football game. Sometimes, we’ll get together and get a hotel and they just have fun and vibe together and become a team. Defense is pulling together but offense still needs work.

I played for the Jets. My last year with the them, I got MVP. I used to walk to practice everyday. Even if there was bad stuff going on, I would still walk to practice with all of my equipment. People would always tell me that I needed to coach for the team that I played for. I had coached four teams and the Jets called me and asked me if I wanted to be the head coach and that was perfect.

When I went semi-pro, football wasn’t fun anymore but when I came back here, I found the fun back in football. As you get older, you have to stop playing football but you don’t have to leave the game. You gotta teach the game and that’s fun.

Our challenges are that we don’t have any bleachers. Sometimes parents will sit in their car because we don’t have the seating. I go to other parks and they got bleachers. It will help us have more parent support. I go another team’s game and they have the best parent support. These kids need support. Some parents will just drop their kid off and leave. We need all parents to support because that’s what keeps these kids going.

It’s important to me to be a role model in this community. People don’t understand why I do it. I wanna keep them off the streets. They could be out here doing anything but they’re out here doing something positive. I turned out good by coming to football practice everyday. When I’m with them, it makes me think about how I’m going to be with my son when he gets of age. My son is one. I have a little bitty Camaro and I pack as many kids in it, just to make sure they get to practice because some of them don’t have a way to get here. We should be a championship contender. Remember what I said. The California Jets will be a championship contender. The program is now looking like it did when I played.

Catch us playing at Southern High School for our home games!” - Coach Tone (back row, center) pictured with the California Jets team & coaches in California