I motivate my players with love," said coach Johnnie Vernon. "We are a family; we play; we pray; and we win and lose as a family."
Springfield Longhorns Coach Johnnie Vernon is surrounded by members of his team. The team became the 2012 Central Massachusetts Super Bowl champions, the team's third consecutive title.
By KIM MUHAMMAD
SPRINGFIELD - You can hear it in their voices, watch it in their faces, feel it in their spirits, but most of all witness it on the football field.
The love, respect and a genuine admiration for Johnnie Vernon, coach of the Springfield Longhorns for the past four years, is magnetic and overwhelming.
It comes in waves and droves, but not just from the young men, ages 12 to 15, who come from the urban areas of Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee, to play in the Pop Warner league, but also from their parents, community members, supporters and friends.
Vernon, along with assistant coaches Duane Davis and Harry Hill Jr., motivated and inspired 24 players to become the 2012 Central Massachusetts Super Bowl champions, beating the Worcester Vikings in overtime 26-20 and winning their third consecutive championship.
This was no fluke, but a careful, deliberative act of athletic maneuvering, with long, strenuous, four day-a-week practices and once-a-week Sunday games over a 12-week season.
"I motivate my players with love," says Vernon, also known as Brother Johnnie Muhammad, the study group coordinator of Muhammad Mosque No. 13. "We are a family; we play; we pray; and we win and lose as a family."
Asked if he did anything different this year to maintain the team's winning streak, the coach, a former high-school standout and football star at American International College, replied, "I coached with the same intensity and passion I always have because I love the game and the children I am entrusted to develop."
The season culminated in the achievement of "glory," as this year's keynote speaker, Judge Charles Groce III, put it at the team's football banquet in February. Quoting a scriptural verse, he said, "Broken bones will mend but glory lasts forever. This is your glory."
It represented the third consecutive year the Longhorns were named Central Massachusetts champions, having earned the coveted title in 2010 and 2011, and they deservedly basked in the limelight.
The judge, who said he considers himself first and foremost "a man of God and a man of faith," addressed a 200-member audience at Melha Shrine Temple where the awards banquet was held. His message focused on being "raised right" by loving, hard-working parents, like the players in the crowd.
Groce shared his family's history, starting with his great grandfather, Charles Groce, a wise farmer and no-nonsense native of Guntown, Miss., population 600. He also talked about the legacy of his father Charles Groce Jr., a member of the U.S. Air Force who instilled pride, discipline and values in his children.
Groce paid homage to a close-knit family, including his mother and grandmother, who, he said, laid the foundation for him and his sister to achieve their lofty educational goals and live their dreams. Most of all he expressed learning the important lesson of "respecting his elders," clearly drawing a connection between the lessons formulated by sports and good coaching and morals imparted by steadfast parents to their children.
"Because I was raised right," he said, "I achieved the things I did."
Justin Perez, 15, a ninth-grader at Sabis International Charter School who plays middle linebacker and slot receiver for the Longhorns, could relate to Groce's vignette about being raised right. Proud of the 18 tackles he achieved in the championship game, he discussed being a role model for his younger brother Damien, 11.
"I'm always told I'm too small, not big enough or fast enough, but it's not true," he said he's learned. Football has helped him gain confidence, improve his self-esteem, stay out of trouble and be a better big brother. "I wouldn't be as good of a kid as I am now," he said.