Northwest Football League - Where dreams die hard

`They do this for the love of the game,' it's said of the semipro Puget Sound Jets, who put their 8-0 football record on the line against Portland tonight in Auburn. For some, this team is their last thread of pro-football hope.

SEATAC - The sun is starting to slant behind the hillside that buffers Tyee High School. And Ken Austin, NFL-certified player agent by trade and rescuer of wandering football souls by calling, is running out of time.

His Puget Sound Jets, the No. 2-ranked semipro team in the nation, have just this practice and another before putting their 8-0 Northwest Football League record on the line against the Oregon Thunderbolts. Today's 6 p.m. game is at Auburn Memorial Stadium.

In a larger sense, the sun is setting steadily on the potential pro-football careers of some of the Jets. Austin, owner and head coach, has a team that's closing in on a sixth league championship since starting out as the Federal Way Jets in 1990, but he scrambles constantly to find paying football jobs for those players who want them.

Running back DeShaun Fauntleroy, lineman Leland Johnson and cornerback Joe Lewis, all current Jets, have played in the Indoor Professional Football League. Defensive lineman Mikal Bailey played in the Arena League. Linebacker Ryan Skinner, who played for the Jets last year, graduated to the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Sherriden May, a Spanaway Lake High graduate, played in the NFL with the New York Jets before playing last season with the Puget Sound Jets.

These Jets, ages 21-37, play for free. The bruises and morning-after aches feel the same as in pro football. The thrill of winning is equally euphoric. Any abuse they take is their donation to a sport and a team they love.

"Their commitment is incredible," Jet defensive coordinator Stan Wrubluski said. "They get beat up out there. And when we hit people, they get thumped. They do this for the love of the game, and sometimes it's hard to let that feeling die."

The Jets converge on the grass field after eight-hour work days at the construction site, car dealership, insurance company, business office, mail room and jail. They're an array of sizes, from lineman Ron Livingston at 6 feet 8, 310 pounds, to wide receivers Art Ballard and Rico Brown at 5-6, 180.

Not every player makes every workout.

Linebacker Shannon McKenzie and strong safety Terrell Walker won't show at this one - they fly in from Alaska every weekend at their own expense, but they're physically fit and experienced enough to slide into the lineup seamlessly.

So the Jets, with nicknames of Sugar Bear, Papa Smurf and Bumpy, are a crazy-quilt of backgrounds, talents and aspirations. But the common thread is their focus on winning. Said outside linebacker Dion Alexander, "Nobody wants to do it for free and lose."

The Jets' victories include 55-6, 27-0, 76-6 and 48-0 blowouts. So far, they've outscored opponents 336 to 63. That's an average of 42 points a game.

But assistant coach Eddie McMillan, like Austin, concentrates more on "making them productive in society and helping them get across life's hurdles."

McMillan, one of the original Seahawks who also played for the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills, knows what gets the NFL's attention and that some of the Puget Sound Jets have those tools and some don't.

"In football, you have all races, creeds, types of people," McMillan said. "Same as in the rest of life. Sometimes you might not like some of your teammates or the referee's decisions. But you have to have discipline and be a team player. Football is a good foundation for learning those things."

McMillan and Austin use the same approach. Under Austin, the Jets win, one way or another.

"I'm building young men, building character," he said. "If they turn out to become football players, that's great. But I'm teaching them about the values of life through football."

Austin grew up with strict rules at home. Years ago, his Marine-drill-instructor, growling, epithet-laced orders sure to scare any recruit, caught Austin smiling. Explained Private Austin, "Sir, after being around my mother, this is noooo problem. This is easy."

Mama Austin might have predicted Ken would be inducted, as he was June 24, into the Minor League Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, for his coaching accomplishments. She didn't warn him, though, that he'd have so many financial and personal responsibilities in giving back to the game he has loved since his boyhood in Louisiana.

With limited sponsorship, Austin pays from his personal bank account the $1,040 cost for staging each home game. He depends on donations and the gate, not an optimistic picture when tickets are just $7 for adults and $5 for students, with children 12 and under admitted free. He doesn't make money on concessions; the Auburn Little League operates the stand for its own profit.

While he would love to have increased sponsorship investment, fundraising isn't his main message. It's quality football.

"We're not a bunch of beer-bellied guys getting together on the weekends to bump heads," Austin said. "We're guys you can identify with."

Like Manuia Sami Alo. He drives a forklift and works the chain at a lumber mill in Fife. The 23-year-old spent his formative years in American Samoa but played for a Clover Park High football team that barely won a game during his tenure as a two-way tackle. Still, he dreams of playing college ball.

He came close. His parents sacrificed much of their life savings to enroll him at Walla Walla Community College because the school assured he'd get a football scholarship once he joined the team. The program was eliminated before the 1998 season.

A helmet-to-knee injury a couple seasons ago derailed this man Austin calls D-Train. The doctor told him football was over, that he'd be lucky if he even walked again. But Alo's dream still smoldered deep inside his 6-6, 320-pound frame, and Austin fanned it to life.

"If it wasn't for him, I'd probably be bigger than I am and completely out of shape," Alo said. "He takes me places and I trust him. If you have a good heart, I don't think anyone can stop you but yourself."

The Jets are made up of men like Alexander. Austin swears the two-time All-American from Eastern Washington, who attracted attention from Dallas Cowboy and Kansas City Chief scouts before a knee injury, could be a linebacker for the Seahawks. But Alexander, 25, a former assistant coach at Kennedy High, said he would rather keep his machine-operator's job at a hardware store, continue counseling teens for the city of Kent and watch his two daughters grow up.

Men like Lewis. He played basketball at Seattle University and football at Kansas Wesleyan. Now, at 26, he juggles his second Jet season and his accounting job.

"It's a flame that you've always had inside you, something you were born with," he said of his desire to play. "But I know there's life after football."

Men like Corey Sampson. He's more than Corey Dillon's former quarterback at Franklin High. He went on to become sixth in the nation in interceptions while playing for Northeast Louisiana.

Like former Huskies Sean O'Laughlin (kicker), Omar Frost (cornerback) and Bryan Pittman (tight end) and former Washington State lineman Von Jackson.

Like Damon Dickey, who played for UW Coach Rick Neuheisel at Colorado. The cornerback lost his scholarship after an off-field incident but would like another chance, and has the speed and skills to earn it.

Once, at Fort Dent, Austin couldn't prevent darkness from setting in. But he refused to let it halt practice. He directed the players to line up their cars, door to door, on the sideline and turn on their headlights. And the work went on. Until the Jets understood Austin's Xs and Os.

"Sometimes it's like that prayer meeting that goes on and on, after you've already said `Amen' at least five times," Austin said. "It's like they say in the Marines: `You will not die until I say you can die!' "

And the Puget Sound Jets can't let up now. Not with the Oregon Thunderbolts eager to come into town and leave Austin with the Jets' first defeat in addition to the usual $1,040 tab.

A chorus of rumbling dog barks sets the cadence. Then these men - somehow still energized after sprinting, stretching, squatting, sweating - broke into song:

"We . . . are . . . the . . . Jets!"

Just those four words. Over and over.

The refrain swells from down in the Tyee High School bowl to the houses that keep watch from the hillside above. And in the rhythm, you can hear the echoes of Austin and the hearts of these players.

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Hut, hut, hike

The Northwest Football League was formed in 1971. A total of 46 teams have played in the league. There are currently 12 teams in the league, although the West Sound Orcas did not play a league schedule this season.

Team W-L PF PA Home stadium

Puget Sound Jets 8-0 336 63 Auburn Memorial Stadium

Oregon Thunderbolts 7-1 283 132 Hare Field, Hillsboro, Ore.

Multnomah County Bucs 6-3 202 104 Jefferson High School, Portland

Vancouver Cougars 5-3 209 169 McKenzie Field, Vancouver, Wash.

Bellingham Eagles 5-3 148 123 Civic Field, Bellingham

King County Jaguars 4-4 138 146 Federal Way Memorial Stadium

Snohomish County Vikings 3-5 110 188 Edmonds District Stadium

Eastside Chiefs 3-5 117 157 Lake Washington High School, Kirkland

Pierce County Bengals 2-6 136 145 Lakewood Stadium, Sparks Stadium

Washington Cavaliers 1-7 74 262 Highlander Stadium, Kelso

Oregon Panthers 0-7 34 298 Milwaukie (Ore.) High School

West Sound Orcas 0-0 -- -- Bremerton High School

League web site: www.nwfootball.net