LYNN — Don’t tell Orlando Concepcion or his West Lynn Outlaws that football isn’t a spring sport. The youth football team kicked off its third season Monday, hosting conditioning practices at Barry Park with just over 100 kids hitting the field.
“You look around, it’s March 9 and look how many kids are here,” Concepcion, who owns the team, said. “We have six and seven and eight-year-olds here. They would be here even if it was freezing too. These kids love this game.”
The season turnout has been strong, with four teams — one for six through eight years olds, one for nine to 10, one for 11 to 12 and a 13 to 14 team hitting the field for the first time.
“(Monday) is the first practice,” Concepcion said. “We started in November putting the teams together. It’s every week. One kid at a time, two kids at a time. Now we’re here at the 103-kid maximum.”
The Outlaws, who share their name with Concepcion’s second team in Lawrence, compete in the New England Youth Tackle League. The League currently has 12 teams, including an East Lynn squad named the Silverbacks. The Outlaws are made up of a majority of Lynn athletes, but some players will come from as far as Arlington to play.
“Nobody is going to tell me that football is dying,” Concepcion said. “I think it’s all about the strategy of how you’re coming into a year. I try to make these kids feel like superstars.”
Concepcion doesn’t mince words when talking about the team’s goals. The Outlaws and their group of 19 volunteer coaches show up every spring ready to work hard and win games.
“These kids are hand picked,” Concepcion said. “I had a tryout for the (13 and 14-year-olds) and 54 kids showed up. I can only take 20 that day. And there’s no mandatory plays here. I tell the parents that we’re here to win. I know it can sound a little harsh, but I’m trying to protect the kids who really want to play. As a parent, if your kid plays quarterback you appreciate that we’re putting a lineman in front of him that is going to protect him. All these kids want to play football. That’s why they’re here in the spring.”
And the winning has come, with at least a few teams competing in the league’s Super Bowl in Providence, R.I. each year.
And it doesn’t stop there. Concepcion also has ties to West Lynn Pop Warner, serving as the league’s Vice President.
“It’s a lot of kids from West Lynn Pop Warner,” Concepcion said. “A lot of them will be back in August for that season. They’re basically playing all year around.
“When our Pop Warner teams go to the Super Bowls in Florida, we’re playing teams that played in spring,” Concepcion said. “You’ve got kids who played 20 games this year against kids who played 12. You get better by the game. I’m giving them now another six games and a jamboree and scrimmages, getting July off and then starting Pop Warner in August.”
A Lynn native, Concepcion says one of the best parts of running his teams is seeing his athletes grow up over the years.
“What’s most rewarding is walking in the mall and kids from all over see me and call me Coach,” Concepcion said. “It gets hard when they’re older. Now they’re in college and they don’t look like they did when they were eight or nine. I don’t even know who they are, I ask them the year, their name and then it comes back. There have been so many kids.”
Next week the Outlaws will put the pads on and gear up for their first official games of the season on April 25 against the Boston Titans at Manning Field.
