3 DuPage Pop Warner teams come home with hardware

It was a game the young football players, and their parents, aren't likely to forget.

Scoreless until the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, when the Bensenville Bandits got a touchdown. With just 17 seconds left on the clock, the Kearny Bulldogs tied the score.

The game went into sudden death overtime. Bensenville's 12-year-old quarterback, Willie Wassman, completed a pass in the end zone to linebacker Andrew Lake.

The final score was 14-8, and the Bandits Pee Wee team won the Pop Warner Division 3 Regional Championship in Michigan.

"It was euphoria," said head coach Bud Heim.

The Bandits also won the Junior Midgets regional championship 12-9 in another nail biter of a game, capping off an undefeated season.

And the Roselle Vikings - in their very first season in the Pop Warner league - brought home the Junior Pee Wee championship, winning 20-14.

"(Winning the championship) was a big thing for Roselle, especially being our first year in the program and trying to get the league up and running," head coach Ron Carlson said.

Rivals during the regular season, the Roselle and Bensenville teams and parents cheered wildly for each other during the championship games at Eastern Michigan University.

"For there being only 1,000 parents in the stands (of the 40,000-seat stadium), it sounded like it was packed, it was so loud," Carlson said.

This is the second year in the Pop Warner league for the Bandits, which has players from Bensenville and Wood Dale. But Bensenville has had a youth football program since the 1980s.

The Roselle Vikings formed just one year ago, drawing students from Roselle, Medinah and surrounding communities.

Pop Warner is a national organization established in 1929 that puts an equal emphasis on academics and athletics. The league has an everybody-plays rule with a minimum playing time for every child.

The secret to bringing home the hardware? "Teamwork, great parents and obviously some community spirit," Heim said. "The kids came together toward the end of the season and played some great football."