Chargers History

For 39 years The North Dekalb Youth Association has been enriching the lives of boys and girls. Our children learn the value of teamwork, of course, but they get something even more important: Self-esteem and values. The late Georgia Youth Football Conference Commissioner Forest Fleming was proud of the strides made since 1961. In an interview, Forest talked about the history of our organization.

The North Dekalb Youth Association was a charter member of the Georgia Youth Football Conference. In the time when Kennedy was President and even color TV was something of a novelty, we were called the North Dekalb Bullpups. We played football behind Chamblee High School. We moved to Honeysuckle Park in 1968 and the Bullpups name was changed to the North Dekalb Chargers. "When we took this park over in 1968, we only had three football teams at that time. "At that time," he said, "We decided that to build this program, we needed to build a football complex. We went from a team that had problems even winning a ball game to one of the strongest Georgia Youth Conferences in the country.

Asked about some of his favorite memories, Forest said, "The most gratifying thing I saw happened about eight years ago with the 90-pound cheerleaders who were probably the worst group I'd ever seen. I didn't feel they could walk and chew gum at the same time. I told my wife, just before the competition, 'these girls will embarrass us--they don't have their act together.' Well, these little girls got out on the field and were absolutely flawless! They won first place Grand Champion. The only time in their lives they ever put it together, they put it together on Cheerleader Competition day!"

"Usually," he said, "once a child leaves the Youth Association, he goes on with his life and this is just a part of his life. But at North Dekalb, we have many kids who came back to coach, to give back to the program what they got from it." A lot of good athletes came out of this and went on to college. Forest offered several examples: "Juan Daniels, wide receiver at the University of Georgia, scored a touchdown in the Tennessee game. He will probably go to the pros. He played for us all his adolescent life. We had DeKirk Roach who started kicking field goals for us at 9 years old. He went through the program, went on to high school, went on to college, and was a three-time All-American in college. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills. Of course, the life of kickers is very short. Because of the kicking change in the pros, he got out of football, but he is one of the renowned kickers in college football, having made All-American three years in a row. We also have a quarterback at Marshall University who played in our program. We've had athletes like Stanley Truett who won a scholarship to Arkansas. Lots of young men have advanced with this program."