Bethel to host WNC youth football championships as Blue Demons play for titles
Nov. 5—This was already a special year for the Bethel youth football Blue Demons as they were selected to host this year's Western North Carolina Youth Super Bowl at the end of the season.
It became even more special when Bethel teams from each of the four age groups advanced to play for the championships on their home field.
"To be down here Saturday and have all four of our teams and our community come out and support them, there ain't nothing better," said Scott Moore, longtime Bethel youth coach.
On Saturday, the 5- and 6-year-old Mighty Mites kick-off the action at 1 p.m. with Bethel taking on East Buncombe.
The Termites, ages 7 to 8, are next and will feature the Blue Demons against Polk County.
The 9- and 10-year-old Mites championship will be between Bethel and East Buncombe before Saturday's slate wraps up with Bethel taking on Brevard in the Midgets championship for ages 11-13.
The games will be played at the Bethel Middle School football field. Along with the football teams, Bethel youth also has cheer squads for each age level.
"To start the year, we never imagined that all four teams would be in the Super Bowl," said Mark Henson, Bethel Youth Football vice president.
For a community that's as passionate about football as Bethel, all levels of the sport receive overwhelming support, including the youth leagues on up to the middle and high schools.
While some players come from outside of the Bethel area to play in the league because of its strong reputation and history, many of the local kids will go on to play for Bethel Middle and then Pisgah High, all of which have strong football traditions that date back several generations.
That passion and love for the game starts when they're kids in the youth leagues.
"These kids, when they're my age, I'm 51, they'll remember it. I can remember my Super Bowls when I played down here," Moore said. "It's just a memory that's going to last and that's what you want."
With last year's season being called off due to the pandemic, Henson said the community and kids were excited just to be able to play at all this year.
The excitement grew when they found out they were hosting the Super Bowl and is even higher now that all four teams are set to compete for the championship.
"It'll be a big deal. I think the stands will be packed on the home side at least," Henson said.
Since flooding damaged Pisgah High School's home field, the JV Bears played their home games at the Bethel Middle field, including hosting the Tuscola Mountaineers in the Haywood County rivalry.
The stands were completely packed for that game with cars and trucks parked anywhere they could find room, and no one would be surprised to see that sort of turnout for the youth Super Bowl.
Passion spans years
"Something we try to tell everybody at the first parent meeting we have, we describe our organization as family," Henson said.
That sentiment was especially evident in the community's response to the devastating floods caused by Tropical Storm Fred in August. Organizations from across Haywood and beyond came together to help out those in need.
Bethel Youth Football and Cheer was no exception. Henson said many players and families were impacted by the floods and that the organization pitched in to help as much as it could, collecting supply donations and also preparing and delivering meals for several days in the aftermath of the floods.
"Some of them lost everything," Henson said. "It's given those kids something to look forward to, and considering so many people and family members were affected by it too, it's given them something to look forward to on Saturdays."
Pisgah High School's football team just wrapped up the regular season as conference champions for the fourth year in a row and heads into the 3A state playoffs as the western region's No. 1 seed.
Many of the current Bears started their football careers with the Bethel Youth Organization. With such a strong tradition of success at all levels, having a youth league as strong as Bethel's is key to sustaining that high level.
Moore, currently the head coach of Bethel's Mighty Mite team, has been a coach with the organization for over 30 years and is a product of Bethel Youth Organization football himself.
"Football, a lot of places, is dwindling down, but there's no tradition there," Moore said. "But here, it's just a machine, it's going to keep going. When I'm gone, he's gone, you're gone, there's still going to be people down here playing because that's how it works."
Jacob Hannah, Pisgah JV head coach and varsity assistant, came up through Bethel youth, went onto Pisgah and from there earned a scholarship to continue his career and education at Western Carolina University.
Hannah said the development kids get in their youth leagues "pays dividends" by the time they reach the high school level, especially helping teach players the toughness and physicality that Pisgah takes pride in.
"I think that is instilled in you out there on the fields at Bethel at a young age, I know it was for me growing up," Hannah said.
Wide support
Sponsors for the Bethel Youth Organization span the entire county and include: American Legion Post 47, Mount Zion Baptist Church, Reflections at the Pond, Silver Bluff Village, Greene Brothers Well & Pump, Truck Alterations/Budget Truck Rental, Ryno's Garage, Sav-Mor Canton, Ken Wilson, Rickman's Paint & Body, Scott Browning, Waynesville Tire, Canton Insurance, Patton Morgan and Clark, Richard Berlage (Ingles), James Hollifield Waynesville Dodge, Champion Credit Union, Henson Electric, Teaster Electric, James Browning, WNC Chimney Solutions, The Rock Man, Henson Tree Services, Telco Community Credit Union, Cheyenne's Corner, KB Photos, Jukebox Junction Restaurant and Soda Shoppe, Haywood Renovations, A to Z Signs and Engraving, Local Auto Sales and Consignment LLC, Big Ivy Guns, Bethel Elementary School Staff, Hatton Investments, Black Bear Cafe, Single Stop, Hometown Hardware, Smathers Law, Lancaster Excavating and Demolition and Tom's at the Strand.
