More Other Sports

• David Moulton: Urban Meyer is obvious answer to Notre Dame's problems
• Local racing: Stavrinos, Trotta win titles at Immokalee Regional Raceway
• Local tennis: Chickee Classic at Cambier Park starts next week

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Share and Enjoy [?]

NAPLES — There will be no pop quiz at the end.

Still, when members of the Naples Gators hold class Saturday at Fleischmann Park in Naples, it will be a history lesson that will retrace 50 years of local youth football highlights and memories.

Organizers are calling it the 50th Anniversary Homecoming when the five Gators teams play host to Miami Lakes in action that will begin at 10 a.m. and run until about 7:30 p.m.

“It’s something special for us,” said Steve Quinn, who has served as president of the Naples Gators organization for four years. “We’ll have a lot of the older guys back. It should be interesting.”

Quinn’s opposite in the group is Van Weeks, now 61 and one of the program’s most colorful, devoted graduates. A member of the original Naples Hawks team — games were played at Cambier Park — in 1958, Weeks still serves as the organization’s athletic director and coaches the 125-pound Senior Gators.

“The helmets weren’t made of leather,” Weeks laughs as he playfully recalls the early days of his football career. “They were actually plastic.”

For the record, the Gators were created in 1965 by Barrie Kee, who ran the program for 21 years and saw it grow to the point that sometimes even he couldn’t believe how many youngsters his labor of love could touch. The Gators program more or less absorbed the Hawks team that played 50 years ago.

Kee is one of the special guests asked to take part in the homecoming festivities Saturday. Among the other invitees are Bill Spencer, Jack Poole and David Weeks — all men who possessed a passion for helping kids.

“I think one of the best things about it is seeing young kids play ball, move up and come back having made something of their lives,” said Kee, who still lives in Naples. “I have grown men come up to me now say, ‘Hey, Coach, I remember playing for you.’ ”

So many names ring true to Kee’s claim: Bo Longshore, Steve Johnson, Dino and Ricco Longo, Lee Alford, Mark DeVoe, Freddie McCrary, Tad DeBusman, Lewis Gilbert … and on and on. Yes, the name of one Missy Longshore also appears on the modest Police Athletic League Hall of Fame plaque in the fieldhouse office at Fleischmann Park.

Early on, Kee worked the program in an era when Naples and its youth were not as splintered as they are now. There was one youth football program: the Naples Gators. And the rivalries were regional.

“The Fort Myers Rebels were our biggest rival and we beat them more than they beat us, I’ll tell you that,” Kee said.

One of Kee’s other big games each season was when his Gators played against the Tice Tigers. His brother, James, was the Tigers coach.

“We never lost to them, but we had some good games,” Barrie Kee says.

Weeks still vividly remembers the feeling he had whenever he put on his uniform, whether it was with the Naples Hawks or the Naples High School Golden Eagles. He graduated from NHS in 1965.

“I played quarterback and I was not a very good one,” Weeks says. “But I always got a big charge out of representing Naples. I’m a big Naples guy, always have been.”

The tradition lives on. Quinn said 19 of the current Golden Eagles varsity players are former Gators.

The Naples Gators program today involves 350 kids — including cheerleaders. It is part of the Orange Bowl Youth Football League, which it joined in 2001 after many years in the Pop Warner organization. There are five tackle teams and eight flag teams with players ranging in age from 5 years old to the early teens.

“We have some kids who come to us who sometimes can’t look you in the eye,” Quinn said. “Many of them become leaders. Not all of them, but many of them. I would say the greater percentage of them do well. The value of this is endless, probably.”

The Gators’ Web site boasts of national championship teams in 1971, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1996.

Quinn and Weeks said that while all the players and coaches strive to be successful in the win column, there is more to it than that.

“Family, school, then football,” Weeks said emphatically.

On every Gators team, rules demand that each youngster be in each game for at least six plays.

“For me, the mark of a successful season is when you can take a six-play player and help him become a 12- to 15-play player,” Quinn said.

In addition to the on-the-field action, Saturday’s festivities will include a dunk tank, carnival games, basket raffles, face painting for the kids, a bake sale, a 50/50 raffle, free “noise sticks” for fans and more.

One of the highlights will be the traditional presentation of the Gators jackets to the members of the 125-pound Senior Gators squad.

At 3 p.m. the 50th annual Homecoming King and Queen will be crowned.

“It’s been a great thing for the community,” Kee says. “Like everything else, you have your ups and downs. You always have times when you might slide a little bit, but you always get back up.”

Weeks agreed, saying, “It gets in your blood and you just keep coming back.”

E-mail Tom Rife at heart22@comcast.net