MANKATO — For the past 14 years, Dennis Hood has spent Saturday’s in the fall amongst hundreds of fledgling football talent on the fields at South Central College.

“Game day is probably the most fun because you’re the first one there and the last one to leave,” Hood said of his Saturday morning routine. “You get your hot coffee and you have the camaraderie with the board members, the officiating director and the officials that are typically past players from the program.”

Hood, one of the main cogs in the Mankato Area Youth Athletic Football Association, is stepping down after watching the organization develop into a tremendous feeder program for Mankato’s three high school football teams. Hood took over as executive director in 1997 after getting involved on the Board of Directors a year earlier.

“I think the time is right,” he said. “When I started I had a lot more time on my hands. While I feel we took the program to a high level, there’s still things that can be done to improve the program. I am going to help (incoming executive director) Neal (Kaus) when he wants help but he’s a very determined and capable person for the job.”

Hood started coaching back in 1994 when his oldest son, Nate, began participating at the fifth-grade level. After a short stint coaching, Hood began helping guide the program through a rash of changes, including expanding to the fourth grade level as well as opening up the game for the sixth and seventh graders.

“One of our goals was to make football fun and safe for everyone,” Hood said. “We had clinics for the coaches so they knew the basics. The board really dictated that this was going to be a blocking and tackling league. We wanted to make sure the kids learned to block and tackle.

“We tried to minimize the trick plays and made them run plays from a playbook without deviating from it. We just wanted to teach the basics and let the high school coaches worry about winning and losing. We just wanted to make sure everyone had a good time and the pop was cold after the game.”

There were a mere eight teams in the inaugural season back in 1978 and the start up cost was $10,000. This past season there were 30 teams in the four different age brackets, including teams from Lake Crystal, Blue Earth and Fairmont. The cost of suiting up a player doubled from $110 to $220 over that time.

“The equipment aspect is the most challenging thing,” Hood said. “When you’re dealing with between five and six hundred kids it’s tough to find proper sizes for everyone. I am still checking in gear from this past season and putting it in storage.”

Hood’s son, Drew, got his start in fifth grade and he went on to help Mankato West win a state title as an outside linebacker and running back. His other son, Matt, also played football at West.

“It’s a lot of fun as a parent to watch your kids grow up and play on the varsity after going through this program,” Dennis Hood said. “We still have some videos at home we watch and when we refer to “The Play” we’re not talking about a high school game but when they were in fifth and sixth grades.”

Hood knows the numbers game is important and the board always stresses that a positive experience is the key to success down the road.

“I feel if we do a good job on the fundamentals and making sure the kids have an enjoyable experience that they will continue to play football,” Hood said. “Football is a numbers game and if they don’t have an enjoyable experience you’re going to lose them.

“The data is out there that if kids aren’t having a good time they’ll drop the sport and your numbers are going to falter; your chances for success are going to diminish. You see these kids grow up and, whether they turn into a good football player or not, is secondary.

“The kids that have a positive experience will come up to you and say ‘remember me Mr. Hood I was on the Falcons or I was on the Broncos. ... That’s the rewarding part of it.”