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(Enlarge) Hereford 9-11 players and coaches celebrate an early-season 32-0 triumph over Owings Mills. (Staff photo by Matt Roth)

Let's give Tommy Purdie credit for being honest about why he loves football so much.

"I like being able to hit people and not get in trouble for it," the 11-year-old Hereford Gold defensive lineman said.

There's another reason why Tommy and the rest of the 2008 Harford Baltimore County Youth Football League champions are enamored with the sport. They are heading to Daytona Beach, Fla., for the 2009 National Youth Football Championship games that run from Nov. 25 to 28.

There isn't anyone who wouldn't like a little surf, sand and signal-calling over the Thanksgiving holidays.

Hereford earned the trip last year in the 8-10 age-bracket by being the only one of Hereford's 13 youth football teams to celebrate a championship after a miraculous run through the Harford/ Baltimore County Youth Football playoffs garnered the team a 2008 Super Bowl title.

What the youngsters didn't know at the time, was that the championship also qualified them for a berth in the 2009 National Youth Football Championships.

Hereford will compete in the Eastern Division championship at the same time the Western Division championships will be held in Las Vegas.

Coach Mark Sassler's Hereford squad, which moved up to the 9-11 age group this season and defeated Lutherville-Timonium, 16-6, Nov. 14 in a playoff semifinal, is one of 80 teams competing in the Eastern Division.

"For 100 percent of the kids, this is probably the biggest thing they will ever do in football," Sassler said. "Realistically, probably none of these kids is ever going to play in the show (National Football League)."

The enthusiastic response of the players has been overwhelming since learning they would be playing in the largest youth football tournament in the world.

"I was so excited," said Jason Kopp, 11, who has no problem missing his aunt's big feast on Thanksgiving. "I'm more excited for the games because we'll be playing football, but the trip will be awesome, too."

Jason's dream play is recovering a fumble and returning it for a touchdown.

Hereford will leave on a bus stocked with food donated by Wegmans late Nov. 24 and arrive the next morning.

"I'm a little nervous because the teams are going to be really good," said tight end/defensive end Cody Hess, 11.

"It's going to be really hard, but it's a great opportunity," said the coach's son, Brock Sassler, 10, a fifth-grader at Our Lady of Grace School and the only member of the squad who does not attend Hereford Middle School.

Getting in position to earn the championship trip was even more difficult.

After going 9-0 during the regular season and 10-1 overall in the 7-9 division in 2007, almost all of the boys bumped up to the 8-10 league the following year.

Producing just a 5-4 mark during the 2008 regular season, the team caught fire and reeled off three straight playoff victories and won the youth league version of the Super Bowl.

Fullback Sam Paradiso, 12, was a key to the playoff run.

" 'Sammy the Bull' we call him," Sassler said. "He's our enforcer. In the playoffs last year, we rode his back. He was running like a son of a gun."

Sammy is back carrying the ball, playing safety on defense and gearing up for the trip.

"We are really fortunate to be able to go and I feel like it's going to be a great experience," he said.

In addition to an abundance of skills, intangibles are a major portion of Hereford's success story.

"I think the strong part is that we are disciplined," Mark Sassler said, noting the players collected donations at Graul's Market and Dick's Sporting Goods to help offset the cost of the trip.

Meanwhile, local restaurants donated 10 to 20 percent of their profits on designated nights toward the endeavor.

"We are working together as a team and we are sticking together," said wide receiver Matt Butz, 12.

The coach said the team gelled after the midway point last season.

"I kept telling them if we made it to the playoffs, nobody was going to want to play them because they were playing so well," Sassler said. "When we made it to the playoffs, I knew we had as good a chance to win as anybody."

"We just played harder and we didn't goof around at practice as much," said linebacker/center Brentson Thompson, 12.

Although they will be near Disney World, the players, families and coaches know that football is their primary focus.

"When the opportunity came up, I told the parents this is not like going to Edgewood or Dundalk to play in a tournament," Sassler said. "I said, 'This is serious. This is the biggest tournament in the world and it has been around for 37 years.' "

Before the tournament last year, the hosts of CBS' NFL Today offered their thoughts during a segment on the event. James Brown, Bill Cowher, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason and Shannon Sharpe all spoke of their experiences in and virtues of youth football.

For Gabe Cerebelli, Ben Hoffner, Parker Lenivy, Dominic Maggio, Thomas Macon, Warren Dresser, Tim Popowski, Bennett Ensor, Joe Patti, Mike Mozelak, Craig Worpell, Zach Wisner, Shawn Gmurek, Max Keefe, Luke Hickey and the aforementioned Cody Hess, Sammy Paradiso, Brock Sassler, Brentson Thompson, Tommy Purdie, Matthew Butz and Jason Kopp, it's time to make their dreams come true.

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