Canton welcomes world for junior football tourney

June 25, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

NORTH CANTON (AP) — The exhausting 37-hour trip from home was down to its final seconds when New Zealand’s team bus pulled off a road in America’s football heartland, where summer means picnics, pool parties and two-a-day practices aren’t far away.

After the travel-weary Iron Blacks staggered off the charter on Tuesday, they walked toward a sun-splashed football field where the U.S. junior national team — comprised of prized college recruits from every corner of the country — was sweating through an afternoon of drills.

Sleep no longer mattered to the Kiwis. They pepped up quickly.

This was why they came.

“Welcome to the United States,” said U.S. coach Chuck Kyle, who stopped his team’s workout to have his players serve as ambassadors in shoulder pads.

One by one, players and coaches from opposite sides of the planet shook hands, shared smiles and wished each other well.

Football, American-style football, has gone global.

This weekend, the International Federation of American Football is holding its inaugural Junior World Championship, an eight-team tournament for players age 19 and under that could spread the game beyond anything Pop Warner or Pete Rozelle ever envisioned.

Top-seeded Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Japan, Germany, Sweden, France and New Zealand will compete at Fawcett Stadium, just a Joe Montana-to-Jerry Rice pass away from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a shrine that’s more familiar to foreign football players than one might think.

“Some of the guys don’t understand why we’re in Canton,” said Swedish offensive lineman Sebastian Johansson, one of several international players who has played high school football in the U.S. “And some of the guys see it as the most important place in the world.”

For the hosts, this is a chance to expand a made-in-America game that kids around the world discovered using TV remotes and video-game joysticks. Though the U.S. team is favored to win the title, the Americans are a No. 2 seed because this is their first foray into junior international football.

Kyle, the highly respected coach from Cleveland-area powerhouse St. Ignatius High School, wasn’t sure what he was getting into when he was first approached about heading the national team about a year ago. This was a first, so it was going to take some hard work.

“They didn’t hand me any manual,” Kyle said. “This was the first time, it was like, write the manual. I haven’t written that much down.”

Kyle’s initial concern was talent. He figured it would be tough to convince players — many of them bound for elite Division I programs — and their coaches, who might be too worried about injuries to give up part of their summer to play in an unknown event.

But after Kyle, who has guided Ignatius to 10 state championships, spoke with Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer and other top coaches, the U.S. had a star-spangled American roster for the event, which will conclude with a gold-medal game on July 5.

“Tressel said, ‘You can have [future Buckeye linebacker] Storm Klein and [center] Jack Mewhort,”’ Kyle recalled at landing two first team All-Ohioans. “I said, ‘Thank you, I will take them right away.’ That started it and that’s how we ended up with so many talented kids. Now we have to make them a team.”

Before its first kickoff, the tournament has already succeeded in bonding the teams.

All eight are being housed on Walsh University’s quaint campus, and during down time between practices and after meetings, the teens are competing in ping pong, pool and miniature golf. They talk about movies, girls and social network by sharing e-mail addresses.

“It’s a good thing,” Kyle said. “I think we’re learning what international really means.”