Undefeated Pee Wee team competing in state championship

While Parkers Chapel's varsity football team made history in hosting their first home playoff game last night, the PC fifth- and sixth-grade Pee Wee Football team is in Maumelle today hoping to make a little history of their own.

The Trojans, coached by Rob Waggoner, went undefeated this year with victories over Strong, Gurdon, Fordyce, Hermitage, Bearden, Hampton and Harmony Grove en route to a perfect 10-0 season. They defeated Hermitage, Fordyce and Strong again in the playoffs to secure a league championship victory and their spot in the Arkansas State Youth Football Championship.

The PC Pee Wee program has been around for about 15 years, Waggoner said, and the goal is to make sure the kids are having fun, learning football and life skills, and potentially moving on to the school football program to create a pipeline for the Trojans.

"We have seen these 34 young men develop a relationship with Christ," Waggoner, who has been involved with the team for eight years, said. "We tried to show them every step of the way through all these years that whether they were successful or fell to defeat, that all the glory is in Christ alone. They have developed skills in the game, self-confidence and leadership skills. We will continue to pray for every one of them that they continue to grow into outstanding men and achieve success and happiness throughout their life. They know to work hard, to never give up, to finish."

PC will play two games Saturday — against Salem at 11:30 a.m. and against Cabot at 1:30 p.m. — and, if the Trojans win, they'll enter an eight-team tournament, with the championship game Sunday afternoon.

Waggoner reflected back to 2015 to discuss the progress of the students over the years, when many of the students were in second grade and attended their first Pee Wee practice. Twelve of the sixth graders have played together since second grade, a bond that Waggoner said has helped them find success this year.

"We instituted an offense and defense that they could easily learn while we worked on the fundamentals of each position," he said. "They had to learn how to make 11 play as one. Our plan was to teach these boys about the game of football while also teaching them about God. We practiced them hard and we prayed every practice and before/after every game. They even received a few quick sermons in those inspirational talks that made practices run way over."

In 2016, the team went 6-2 and made it to the second round of the playoffs. In 2017, they went undefeated in the regular season and made it to the league title game, but lost. Waggoner, whose day job is as associate vice president of investments for Benjamin F. Edwards in El Dorado, said the 2018 team went 3-7 as several players had moved up and they faced strong competition.

"We kept giving them lessons on perseverance and how sometimes life is going to be tough, but to keep looking to God and letting him drive your life," he said.

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