Dwayne Tyson, coach of a Dixmoor middle school football team, said he stood on a Florida football field Wednesday with his team, just weeks after winning a national tournament in Las Vegas, with two minutes to go in the final Florida game. The team, Grand Champions Elite, was attempting to become th e first team to win both East and West Coast national champions during their final season together, which they called the last ride because the players are going to high school next year, and Tyson may retire. Tyson said he coached a lot of the players since they were 8. At that final Florida game, he said the team had just recovered the ball but had 99 yards to go in two minutes. He said the passes, dives and runs felt like watching an NFL team on TV. The team was 5 yards from making a touchdown that would tie up the game when they lost the ball at the last second, he said. The team placed second at that tournament out of 29 elite teams and first at the Las Vegas tournament out of 84 teams. More importantly, he said, the players had fun and made memories. His previous players, now 26, still recall and take similar pride in their accomplishments. Tyson said many players were just excited to be traveling out of state or flying on a plane for the first time. “The kids are just constantly saying thank you, and they get emotional about certain things like this because they say they just can’t believe we’re living the dream and actually doing this,” Tyson said. “A lot of the kids come from teams that say if you don’t have the money, then you don’t go, but I believe in no kid left behind.” Tyson said they could not have done it without the donations they received. He said a lot of players come from low-income families and could not afford the travel costs, and the team made a plea for donations in early November. The team qualified for national tournaments for the past five years and also asked for funding in 2023, when the team placed second in Division 1 of the 11-U championship, a national title. “When you look at the kids being able to be down here, you know, for people to donate and they’re not even their kids, it’s doing a good deed and it goes a long way,” Tyson said. “These memories, these kids won’t forget this.” Tyson said a few players had to stay home because their families did not want to send them without a parent but couldn’t afford to send multiple people. He also said several families saved money by driving to the Las Vegas and Florida tournaments. Deon Stewart competes at a national tournament in Florida with his middle school Dixmoor football team Grand Champions Elite. (Dwayne Tyson) Tyson said the team become a family, having meals together after every practice and spending a lot of time with each other outside of practices. He said this is important because he has lost 16 players to gun violence or sickness over the years. “All type of stuff happens, it’s a real life thing and we are really close,” Tyson said. “And that doesn’t just stop now. When we come home, they usually still come to my house, and it’s a family, but that doesn’t mean every day is good. There is so much adversity.” Tyson said the team members are not only successful on the field, but all the players also have 3.0 GPAs. Tyson said he wants to focus more on mentorship as he retires from this program and said Thornton High School asked him to create a youth football program there next year. Calumet City team Another south suburban youth football team, the Midwest Knights, made it to a national tournament for the first time, and also sought financial assistance with the travel costs. The team, based out of Calumet City and operating under Tomorrows Youth Foundation, went undefeated this season and qualified in late November for the 5 Star National Championship this past weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. The team placed sixth in the tournament, just ahead of another Chicago area team, the 290 Elite. Chance Peggs, the team’s new coach, said it is the first time the team qualified for a national championship and most of the players had never left the state to play football. “It was kind of an unreal feeling for a lot of the boys, you know, the smiles on their faces, and I’m just trying to follow through with my promise to put them on a different platform,” Peggs said. The Midwest Knights, a middle school football team in Calumet City, qualified for a national championship for the first time. (Chance Peggs) He said several parents told him they would not be able to afford the travel costs. Peggs estimated it would cost $8,000 to cover the hotel, two van rentals, gas and food for the 25 players and their families. The team raised $790 out of the $8,000 goal, through an online GoFundMe, as of Thursday. He said the van rental costs were covered via Double Good, a fundraising company teams and other organizations use to raise money by selling gourmet popcorn online. Coaches and other families planned to cover the families who need help with the travel costs because they want every player to be able to attend, he said. Peggs said he has seen how important attending national tournaments can be for young players, given his experience attending similar tournaments. It not only give players the chance to be noticed by successful high school programs, but can inspire the players to see their own potential while also giving them a weekend away from hard things in their life. Peggs planned to take the team to see an amusement park, along with the Georgia Bulldogs stadium to give them the chance to walk around, see where college teams play and hopefully see a vision of them being in a similar stadium some day. The Midwest Knights, a middle school football team in Calumet City, during its fall 2025 season, in which it qualified for a national championship for the first time. (Chance Peggs) “I’m really just trying to take the kids on a different adventure, save a lot of these kids’ lives, get them away from, sometimes, some of them, the setting they come from, where they have to battle going to school, just trying to get them away from all that for a weekend and just do different stuff,” Peggs said. Peggs said he had the team focus on mental preparation because their plays were already pretty much down, but the tournament would be a new environment. “It’s just mental preparation, what not to fall for, how to respond in certain situations, how to fight adversity if we’re down, something that we haven’t dealt with all year,” Peggs said. [email protected] ...read more read less