Hope comes to fallen football league's families

Oct. 23—National Youth Sports families were blindsided this month when its director of tackle football suddenly announced he was shutting down operations to focus on his health.

That left families searching for answers on how the season would continue. That's when Diron Tappin and his partners stepped in.

"The big thing is looking at the scope of what we're talking about. When I say it's the largest league, we're talking about 90% of tackle football players in Arizona," Tappin said. "We thought about the league. We want to make sure no team is left behind."

Tappin is the owner of the Scottsdale Outlaws, a youth football organization that has been around for several decades. Like most youth organizations, the Outlaws have teams for multiple age groups. That means over 100 kids that were left wondering whether they would be able to finish their season after the NYS shut down.

On Oct. 13 the director and owner of NYS' Phoenix tackle football division, James Vieth announced schedules — which are typically released the Tuesday before games — would be delayed as he battled health problems. The next day, he stepped down to focus on his health.

"I will have someone else reach out to everyone to help move things forward," Vieth wrote in his statement to families. "I will send a more detailed statement later today to elaborate more on things."

That was the last NYS families heard from Vieth. He died Sunday, Oct. 22.

His wife, Summerr Reyna, took to Facebook to announce her husband's death. She said the stress from NYS and harassment from parents following his sudden departure played a role.

"NYS tackle football and the stress and harassment killed my husband," she wrote. "I feel like we are in a nightmare and some [of] them continue to make it worse. Sick, sick people in this world."

Reyna said Vieth died of a heart attack. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's report confirmed the cause of death.

NYS headquarters said in a statement Oct. 16 that it would attempt to still host a tackle football season.

Before his death and after departing NYS, Vieth filed for personal and business bankruptcy. Chris Dutkiewicz, an attorney with DM Bankruptcy Law Group, issued a statement from his personal Facebook account announcing he was representing Vieth in his bankruptcy case.

Chris Dutkiewicz, an attorney with DM Bankruptcy Law Group, issued a statement from his personal Facebook account announcing he was representing Vieth in his bankruptcy case.

"While I don't generally use Facebook (or in particular my personal Facebook account) to announce a bankruptcy or potential bankruptcy, I felt for my client that I would elect to use this page to announce it for him in an effort to resolve some confusion and resolve some dispute about what is going on," Dutkiewicz wrote.

"Of course, therefore, it is true the NYS faction Mr. Vieth owned and operated is, unfortunately shutting down."

In a phone interview, Dutkiewicz said he has yet to review all the documents for Vieth's case.

But he anticipates they will show a lack of payments to schools, officials and medical personnel who offer athletic training services on Saturdays for the youth games.

According to multiple individuals on social media, that is indeed the case.

Nick Hansen said he is owed $500 for medical services offered for games on Sept. 23. Others said officials were owed a large sum of money for the countless hours they spent officiating games.

Kristin Dixon, a Mesa Public Schools teacher who owns the Phoenix Dragons, a feeder program for Camelback High School, said the program typically charges parents $225 for the season.

About $110 of that goes toward uniforms and the rest to Vieth for insurance, fields, officials and medical personnel.

Despite the payments, she said her home field wasn't secured.

"I reached out to [Phoenix Union High School District] to see if he had secured our rental for our home field, Camelback High School as we were told," Dixon said in a direct message.

"I was told no payment had been made and we would need to pay in full to continue to use their facilities," Dixon added.

According to Tappin, NYS serves roughly 5,000 kids and each one is responsible for a registration fee ranging from $100-$150.

Before the season, NYS merged with two other youth football organizations in the state to expand its schedule and have cross-play between the leagues.

However, the other leagues did not receive funds to help secure fields and officials to also support NYS football teams.

Katherine Wilken, a Gilbert resident whose husband is a coach of the AZ Sol, a youth football program that was a part of NYS, said she and others are now pooling together roughly $400 a week to field games for their teams.

But that isn't the case for others.

Danielle Ulm, a parent of a player for the 12U Junior Padres, the feeder team for Marcos de Niza High School, said coaches of the program are working diligently to try to field games. However, they do not feel comfortable asking the parents for more money to assist with that.

JoAnna Strother, whose son plays for the Chandler Lobos football program, said coaches have been able to find games for the next four weeks with the help from parents.

The 14U East Valley Bulls, a feeder program for Mountain View High School, is also taking the necessary steps to find games. Aimee Allen said parents have agreed to come out of pocket to support their kids.

"Everyone is going to come up with the extra $10 or $15 per kid per game to get the season finished," said Aimee Allen, a mother of a player on the team. "Sports teams are like family so everyone will get together and support the kids who can't afford it."

Tara Caspersen moved from Georgia to Queen Creek and quickly discovered the Queen Creek Knights, a youth organization that was a part of NYS.

Football helped her 10-year-old son blossom and escape from the shell he had when he was younger. Now, they're still waiting to see when, and if, they will play again.

"Why weren't these organizations questioning the league?" Caspersen said. "Why didn't we have a schedule? Why didn't we have fields pre-rented? Coming from a different state and falling into all of this. This should not be the standard."

Recognizing the need for football in the community, Tappin banned together with Shannon Eastin and JC and Nikki Lunt to form the Arizona Youth Football League. A meeting was held Sunday with team leaders to discuss next steps to play league games every weekend.

By Oct. 17, Tappin and his partners managed to secure enough fields and officials to host 116 games this past Saturday under the new league.

It does, however, come with a hefty price tag.

Some families were able to come out of pocket to assist.

Some money was donated and Tappin is currently in talks with major organizations for assistance.

Schools around the Valley have also started to step up after Jason Jewell, the head football coach at Brophy and president of the Arizona Football Coaches Association, sent an email asking if they could make their facilities available.

Tappin said he and his partners still have more work to do to provide a whole season. He estimates it will cost somewhere near $300,000 to do so. A GoFundMe has been set up by him to help raise the funds.

He admits it's a lot of work, but worth it to help the youth of Arizona. He and his partners plan to keep the league intact moving forward so teams don't undergo the same heartbreak they did when NYS shut down.

"We just started calling each other and essentially scheduled pick-up games," Tappin said.

"We want to honor the hard work of those guys and we raised our hand of being the central spot here. Some teams are well organized and are booked out until Thanksgiving. Some teams are waiting on us. We had no games written down Sunday night. We're getting ahead of it and making it better."

To donate to the Arizona Youth Football League: gofund.me/e14e596f.

Have an interesting story? Contact Zach Alvira at (480)898-5630 or zalvira@timespublications.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZachAlvira.