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PMYC FOOTBALL 2010 DATES FOR REGISTRATION/WEIGH IN
1ST REGISTRATION JULY 24, 10:00 TO 1:00
2ND REGISTRATION JULY 31, 10:00 TO 1:00
3RD REGISTRATION AUGUST 2, 6:30 TO 8:00
1ST TRYOUT/ 4TH REGISTRATION AUGUST 4, 6:30 TO 8:00
5TH REGISTRATION AUGUST 7, 10:00 TO 1:00
2ND TRYOUT/6TH REGISTRATION AUGUST 10, 6:30 TO 8:00
3RD TRYOUT/7TH REGISTRATION AUGUST 12, 6:30 TO 8:00
8TH AND FINAL REGISTRATION AUGUST 16, 6:30 TO 8:00
AUGUST 18, LITTLE BROS. DRAFT/PLAYERS ARRIVE AT 7:00 PM
AUGUST 19, BIG BROS. DRAFT/PLAYERS ARRIVE AT 7:00 PM
AUGUST 23, PRACTICE BEGINS/MUST HAVE PHYSICAL CARD IN!!
SEPTEMBER 11 CLEANUP DAY 9:00 TO 12:00/ NO PRACTICE
SEPTEMBER 12 OPENING DAY - 2 LITTLE BROTHERS GAMES
Picture Day-All teams have their pictures taken.
All new and returning players moving up to Big Brothers,
must make one of the tryout dates or that player will go into a sub-draft.
Don't forget to visit our web site up-to-date information
http://www.pmycsports.com |
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Phoenixville Marian Youth Club
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Van Horn a fixture on the sidelines
By BARRY SANKEY
bsankey@phoenixvillenews.com
CHARLESTOWN — The first time Ron Van Horn ventured out to try his hand at coaching in the Phoenixville Marian Youth Club (PMYC) program he received a rude awakening.
There was extensive hollering and strict, intense — but fair — discipline involved between some of the adults and youngsters. Van Horn was unsure if he could take it.
"I went home and told my wife (Barbara) I don't know if I will last the year," Van Horn recalled recently.
Some 46 years later, Van Horn has never left the sidelines coaching for PMYC at different sites. He has been an assistant coach with the Little Brothers Giants for all except one of those years. He concentrates on working with the offensive and defensive linemen as well as the defensive coordinator calling signals on the field.
There have been personnel changes galore in the all-volunteer organization that began operating in 1956. Coaches have come and gone along with the kids. So have many of the workers. However, Van Horn has remained true and actively involved at PMYC. Besides coaching, he helps with numerous other duties that are part of maintaining a smooth operation, including field maintenance.
The Giants edged the previously undefeated Redskins, 20-19, Sunday afternoon at Charlestown Park to earn the 2009 championship. It marked the 16th title Van Horn has been a part of. He currently works under head coach Rick Gyuris Jr., whom Van Horn coached as a player at PMYC.
Van Horn remembered his start
with the organization.
"I was working at Goodrich," he said. "Kenny Leber told me they needed a coach. I didn't know that much about football. I worked with coach Bob Bickel for 15 years. I enjoy it. It is fun."
For one year, Van Horn moved up to work with the Big Brothers Steelers, but he did not like it and returned to the Little Brothers Giants.
"I like the line," he said. "I firmly believe it all starts up front, and over the years we have been successful."
Van Horn, who is now 68 years old, played one year of junior high football at the New Street field in Spring City during the first year of the Spring-Ford Area School District jointure back in 1955. After that, he gave up football to join the work force.
Ron and Barbara's son, Todd Van Horn, later starred at Phoenixville Area High School as an All-Ches-Mont League two-way tackle and also as a star heavyweight wrestler who advanced to the PIAA Championships in Hershey. Todd also was a standout lineman in college at Millersville University in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). He became a teacher and has coached at several schools in the area.
Todd played one season of PMYC football at age 8 when he already weighed 113 pounds. He quickly became too heavy to compete in the youth level. The league operates by weight and age constraints.
"He (Todd) learned line play from me," Ron Van Horn said. "But I never coached him. I didn't want to holler and scream at him. I didn't want to discipline him because people would say I was too hard or too soft on him."
Ron has also served on the PMYC Board of Directors for 20 years. He cuts the grass at the football field and the surrounding area during the summer months. Before Charlestown Township moved in to help at the Valley Forge Christian College (VFCC) area in 1991-92, Van Horn and the late PMYC president Harry Dawson mowed grass in the entire area at the site.
Van Horn is now a retiree. But when he was working some long, late, hard hours, it was difficult to try to do it and also juggle his coaching and work schedule at PMYC. He keeps busy helping out with all the chores that need to be done besides the football games on the field. However, he never wanted to take on all the extra responsibilities that is involved with becoming a head coach. He had his own fulltime work schedule as well as the desire to follow the athletic career of Todd through middle school, high school and at college.
"The league is a good league," said Van Horn. "The hardest part is that it is all volunteers. You can't fault people (for leaving). There are so many things going on today. I enjoy the kids and I enjoy coaching."
Rich Gyuris Sr. has been a mainstay at PMYC since 1968 and has worked with Van Horn on many endeavors since that time. He still serves as a football commissioner with Karen Taphorn.
"It's been pretty great," said Gyuris Sr. "I used to coach with him on the Giants when Bickel had the team. I took Ricky (Jr.) out there. He (Van Horn) coached all four of my sons (Rick, Mike, Dave, Scott) and now a fifth with my grandson, Ryan. He looks forward to it."
Gyuris Sr. and his late wife, Kathy, were extremely active with the organization. Kathy passed away three years ago from cancer. Barbara Van Horn has assumed some of the duties that Kathy Gyuris had with ticket fundraisers.
"He (Van Horn) is a pretty great guy," said Gyuris Sr. "After the game Sunday, he put his arm around the (Redskins' star running back/defensive back Tyrell) Barr boy and told him you are going to have a great career. This is all over now. That was a nice gesture. It is the little things that he does. Anything we do, he is right there. He always helps. He and his wife have been a big help to me since I lost Kathy."
Since many years have elapsed during his stay at PMYC, Van Horn is now coaching second-generation sons of some of his former players. He said there definitely are changes in kids today with the way society has changed in general.
For one thing, Van Horn said older players would do anything you asked them right away during the 1970s. Today's youths ask more questions and want more explanations as to why certain things are done a particular way. Also, he said, older players were more physical and tolerant of the pain involved with football than today's youngsters are willing to deal and cope with as far as bumps and bruises.
He said too many questions at practice time delay what can get done at that time. So at times he delays answers to questions until after the session is over.
"It was easier to coach in the 70s," he said. "There was less dealing with distractions.
"I thought I would never last. But I never did anything wrong. I go home and feel that I have been fair with everybody. I never favored anybody."
He said there are variables involved with coaching techniques. Coaches have to understand how much certain players can tolerate in terms of criticism and how much material to put on certain individuals. That varies with each kid based on the different backgrounds they come from.
He said the first two weeks at PMYC are the hardest. Then kids adapt to the strict rules of coming and going at specific times with adjustments. After the first year, coaches expect more from more experienced players.
"The biggest thing is with the shy ones," said Van Horn. "We don't push them hard the first year."
PMYC served as a feeder program for some youngsters who seek to go on and play at the middle school and senior high school levels. With some of the older, Big Brothers boys, there is double work involved playing at PMYC and then at school ball at the same time, and that can be difficult.
There is more transportation involved today with the field location at VFCC in Charlestown. Formerly, PMYC was located on the North Side and then at Second Avenue in town so kids could even walk to practice and games. Today, that is mostly out of the question, and kids require transportation to and from the site.
"I am not as vigorous as I used to be," said Van Horn. "I don't holler as much, but I still look forward to it."
To view the story from The Phoenix click here.