Before football players can play under the Friday night lights in high school, most get their start in youth leagues. The Southwest Youth Football Conference, which features teams from Columbia, Dupo and Waterloo, held its championship weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

The conference is made up of four divisions: freshman (ages 6-7), sophomore (ages 8-9), junior varsity (ages 10-11) and varsity (ages 12-14).

The Waterloo Freshman-1 team lost to Nashville, 20-7, in the championship. In the regular season standings, they did finish with the best record in the division. Morrow said the team had a great year for having 13 first-year players.

Overall, Waterloo had a team in three of the four division championships. In the varsity level, Waterloo doesn’t compete as Waterloo Junior High School has its own team in another league.

“We’re trying to build excitement in town for the sport,” Morrow said. “We want to get kids to play and then go out for the high school program coached by Dan Rose.”

Columbia’s teams are supplied by the Blue Jays football program. They had one team competing for a championship in the varsity level. Columbia-2 defeated Nashville, 42-28, to win the championship. The team finished the season 10-0, outscoring opponents 395-79.

Columbia-1 also had a good season in varsity, finishing at 7-2. Both losses came to Nashville, the team Columbia-2 beat in the championship.

Dupo football had two teams competing for championships this weekend. Their teams come from the Dupo Quarterback Club. The Sophomore-1 team won the Class B championship against Chester, 7-2. They finished the season 5-5.

“The boys were great most of the season. We had a few hiccups there, we lost three in a row,” coach Rob Hearty said.  “The kids then started picking it up. We weren’t making so many small mistakes like ball control and missed tackles.”

Dupo worked the ground game. Jet Ray rushed for 202 yards and Deegan Prater ran for 146 yards behind an offensive line that included Ashton Stein, Carter McMannis, Jacob Constantine, Keegan Newman and Cole Putnam.

The defense was led by Cole Hearty, who had 14 tackles.

Dupo’s Freshman-1 team finished the year 3-7.

“In nine years of coaching, they are one of the best group of boys I’ve ever coached,” coach Don Ford said.

In no time at all, fans of local high school football will more than likely see a few of these players suiting up on Friday nights.