Fullerton Junior All American Bears

The Fullerton Junior All American Bears are members of the Orange County Junior All American Football Conference (OCJAAF). Comprised of twenty-nine (29) chapter (city) members throughout the Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, OCJAAF is the largest youth football and cheerleading organization in the nation. The Fullerton Junior All American Bears are honored to contribute to OCJAAF's diversity, which makes the Orange County Junior All American Football Conference number one in competition. The Fullerton Junior All American Bears are proud to sponsor OCJAAF's core values of "family" and of "community" - the standards that keep OCJAAF and the Fullerton Junior All American Bears a leading youth football and cheerleading organization. Families come in many combinations and we celebrate the word of "family" as meaning: team, the Fullerton Junior All American Bears, community and the OCJAAF Conference. There is nothing stronger than the spirit in the word of family and you will see it and feel it within the Fullerton Junior All American Bears organization and our OCJAAF Conference.

The objective of the Fullerton Junior All American Bears program is to inspire youth, regardless of race, color, creed, or national origin; to practice the ideals of health, citizenship and character; to bring our youth closer together through the means of a common interest in sportsmanship, fair play and fellowship; to impart to the game elements of safety, sanity and intelligent supervision; and to keep the welfare of the player and/or cheerleader first, foremost and entirely free of adult lust for glory.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Junior All American Sister Chapter Irvine Chargers in the News

Irvine Chargers shine in classroom, too
League president Mike Filia stresses academics.

By TIM BURT / The Orange County Register


Irvine Charger football players are not only doing well on the field, but in the classroom.

League president Mike Filia went to visit two of the teams, the Clinic Blue and Future League squads last week, presenting patches for jerseys and stickers for helmets to those players who are scholar athletes.



Irvine Chargers president Mike Filia talks to the 9-10 Clinic Blue team about the importance of grades.



Filia planned to meet with all the teams, one week before the start of the season before practices at Heritage Park.

Most of the Irvine Chargers teams open up on Saturday at Irvine Stadium with the first game starting at 8 a.m. and the last one at 7 p.m.

"This is a great program that Junior All-American has because it gets the kids used to what they're going to have to go up against in high school," Filia said. "Right now, you are given an opportunity to play Irvine Charger football because your mom and dad paid for it."

But if athletes don't keep up their grades in high school, they don't get to continue to play sports, he pointed out.

Filia said he has challenged former players, some who are in high school, to improve their grades, and it paid off.

"I know this program works and there is a benefit to the kids," Filia said.

Filia keeps track of players on the seventh-eighth grade level through progress reports.

Coaches in the league also talk of the importance of grades.

"I have seen kids improve their grades because of the influence of a coach and we have a lot of coaches who went to college," Filia said.

Filia said he reads almost 300 report cards every year.

"I want to know them not only as a player but as a citizen in the classroom," said Filia, now in his ninth year as president.

About 90 to 95 percent of the players qualified for the stickers.

"We like them to have at least a 2.0 GPA," Filia said. "Kids in this football program always have better grades in the fall vs. any other time because with football, the kids have a program. The kids go home from school, do their homework, attend practice, go home to eat and go to bed. "
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