Here Come the Colts

Book excerpt: "Here Come the Colts!" . . . .That was the slogan that was written on the side of the team buses, and this is the story of a decade of championship football, the Atlanta Colts of the 1970's, who won 17 of a possible 30 championships in the three age/weight classifications of the Georgia Youth Football Conference from 1970-1979, dominating that league in that decade. This book is about the players and coaches in the decade of the 1970's for this Atlanta Colt youth football program, the ACYA, based in north Atlanta, Georgia who participated in the three age and weight classifications of the varsity program. It also includes information and recounts about some of the opposing teams and their coaches and layers that made up metropolitan Atlanta's most competitive big league youth football organization of the era of the 1970's, the Georgia Youth Football Conference. It is the author's tribute to the ACYA founder and leader, the late Bob Johnson, who is mentioned frequently throughout the book. The Atlanta Colt Youth Association program, aka "ACYA" was often referred to as the number one "Pop Warner" sanctioned youth football program in the entire US in the 1970's. The book is written in narrative from the perspective of the author, who participated as one of the Varsity Colt head coaches in the last eight years of that decade (1972-1979) and observed the 1970 and 1971 seasons from an Interleague coaching position within that same famous Pop Warner program. The chapters detail the author's recollections and opinions and most of the detail centers mainly around his own players' and teams' experiences. The author provides season by season summaries of each of the varsity Colt teams, highlighting some of the most important games in which his own team participated, with capsules of many others. He also reveals some of the strategies employed in detail and the actual on the field rationale and logic behind many of the significant plays and events in some of those games. The author is Doug Bennett, who was a head coach for the "varsity" Colts for nine years, and participated in the ACYA program a total of 12 years from 1969-1980. In the subject decade of this book, the 1970's, Bennett was a varsity Colt Head Coach for the years 1972-1979. His teams won six consecutive GYFC championships from 1972 to 1977, finishing second in 1978 and third in 1979. Using a combination of research from written historical material, actual game films and the author's memory, as much detail as possible is written, including the author's recollection of specific game circumstances, situations and plays, with emphasis on individual player and team performances, etc. There are chapters describing the program's and author's philosophies and strategies on Offense, Defense, Special Teams, Practice and Game Preparation providing written description and analysis of how these championship teams were built from the first day of practice through the end of a season as it was learned from the legendary Coach Bob Johnson. The ACYA program was not only a football program for the children, it was almost a society within the society of the Dunwoody area and surrounding neighborhoods in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, particularly in the decade of the '70's. It was run totally by adult volunteers, whose dedication allowed the program to prosper and flourish from its inception in 1965. The ACYA program was the annual focal point in the lives of these families from the start of football tryouts in early August until the last bowl games in December, for all of the years they were involved. Lifelong friendships were formed there, among the children football players and the adult parents and volunteers in those families. The program still serves the community today and many of the volunteers who have been involved in recent years are former players from the era discussed in this book.