ABOUT US
Keith Johnson is the heart and soul behind the Youth Football Coalition. For decades Keith has been a pillar in the Los Angeles community pouring his energy into the youth as a coach, community organizer and pastor. In 2005 Keith and his wife Karen created the Southern California Falcons Youth Football and Cheerleading program dedicated to raising up the underserved youth in LA through hunger relief, academic enrichment and character development.
In 2016 Keith connected with nationally renowned youth and high school football coach Butch Goncharoff. The two realized that they shared a deep passion for using football as a tool to help shape and enrich the lives of kids for the better. Keith and Butch began hosting football clinics and barbecues for kids and coaches in LA. While these camps were inspiring and impactful, they had visions for something bigger. They began expanding and creating a coalition of youth football programs that had special, like-minded leaders who were involved in youth football in underserved communities for the right reasons. The coalition of programs expanded organically through trusted relationships beyond Southern California to Northern California, Nevada, Texas and Tennessee.
The funding for the coalition is provided by the Connors Family Foundation. The Connors had three boys that played for Butch and were part of his high school program.
The mission of The Youth Coalition of Football is to support, empower and grow youth football programs across the country that are dedicated to developing boys into young men of integrity and character, primarily in underserved communities.
While each program that we partner with is unique and has its own distinct values and culture, every organization that is part of the coalition will be fully committed to the core principles of quality football, character development and academic engagement.
Our Mission
Our Foundational Principles
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Above all else, the primary focus of the coalition is to utilize the unique nature of the player-coach relationship to help boys develop into honorable and responsible young men that positively influence their community. The most critical component in this process is to identify coaches and programs that prioritize character development above all else.
Once we’ve identified programs that are aligned with our mission, we work to ensure that there is a clear, established set of values that are instilled into each kid. There is no top-down, universally mandated curriculum by the coalition, however, there is a baseline expectation that each program documents and implements a fully functioning program philosophy.
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Youth football coaches can shift paradigms in multiple areas of a child’s life - including academics. While we realize that a youth football coach can only effectively focus on a certain number of topics, some level of engagement and influence in a child’s academics is critical.
At a minimum, the coalition recommends appointing a team mom in each program who is willing to serve as an Academic Coordinator. The coalition will provide training, examples of progress report templates and rewards to create a culture where academic improvement and success is recognized and celebrated by the team.
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We firmly believe that football is unique among all sports in its ability to instill values, develop character and change the trajectory of young boys’ lives. Unfortunately, many youth football programs neglect the fundamentals, build systems around a single player or don’t have the organizational structure to support youth football programs over the long-term.
Our coalition is dedicated to equipping youth coaches with practical training from a network of coaches that have experience at every level of football. We utilize both in-person clinics and flexible, remote working sessions to most effectively meet the individual needs of each program.
Program Philosophy
Each program must have a documented philosophy that is generally aligned with the mission of the coalition. Each program philosophy will be unique and will essentially answer the question, “what do you stand for?” This is the most important starting point for all youth football programs.
Coalition Benefits
Provide equipment and uniforms
Ongoing coaching mentoring and assistance with program development
Annual Coaches Clinic bringing coalition programs leadership and coaches together for a weekend
Facilitating impactful events and experiences for players
Grant writing training to secure additional program funding
Knowledge sharing with other coalition programs
No financial costs to the programs
