Clenching a nearly worn-out, seriously old-school silver whistle in his front teeth, Mike Stout barks out instructions for his group of twelve-year-olds. His voice is sharp and his commands are unequivocating.
“To an outsider, I’m sure it looks like we’re pretty hard on these kids. But to those of us who have grown up in this neighborhood, we see it differently.”
“These kids aren’t going to have a lot of options when they get older–the most important thing we can do for them is to try and toughen em’ up so that they will be prepared for what’s coming their way.”
“Believe me–you won’t find any pot of gold at the end of some rainbow in this neighborhood. Three-quarters of these kids are going to go to work in some factory or they’ll be carrying a gun in Iraq. The others? Well, they’ll be scattered to the four winds.”
“If we don’t let these kids know now what’s in store for them–they’ll just get chewed up and spit out. Sad truth is, that will probably happen anyway–but at least it won’t come as a surprise.
In the shadows of the power plant on the wrong side of the tracks, young boys all over America grow up playing Pop Warner football. Undeterred by the harsh realities of the world, many still have dreams of making it to that better place that lies somewhere over the rainbow.
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