Local coach inspires kids through football academy - East Idaho News
Idaho Falls

Local coach inspires kids through football academy

  Published at  | Updated at

SUGAR CITY — Mike Jensen loves coaching youth football.

He has been involved in the sport for more than half his life. He started playing in the youth programs in Idaho Falls and continued through high school and then for the Idaho Mustangs, the Gem State’s semi-pro team, for more than 20 years. During that time, he has coached numerous youth teams and recently started the East Idaho Elite Football Academy.

Jensen and Jay Fullmer put together a team last year after the Grid Kid season with boys from Madison, Sugar-Salem, West Jefferson and Teton schools. They went to a tournament in Utah just to see how they would compete. After winning first place in their age group, Jensen and the boys wanted to keep playing.

He contacted Elite Idaho, a program in Boise that has the same kind of program Jensen wanted for these boys, and teamed up with them and started East Idaho Elite Football Academy.

“We will never turn a kid down for financial reasons or skill set.”

They practice once a week working on skills and technique. The coaches are volunteers, and anyone can join.

“We will never turn a kid down for financial reasons or skill set. If we get a kid that’s not at the elite level we are happy to develop them until they get to that level. It’s all free except for uniforms, insurance, and tournament fees,” Jensen said.

jensen elite 3

Volunteering his time to help kids learn to play football is something Jensen loves. After high school, he said, he made a few mistakes and didn’t play college ball.

“Hopefully I can make a difference and help them not make the same mistakes I did. You see kids from California, Texas, and down south and those kids are getting all the footwork and all of the training from personal trainers, and that’s not available in our area right now,” he said.

East Idaho Elite is giving these boys opportunities that they might not otherwise get as they compete with teams from other states.

jensen elite 4

“We are working with four different teams from out of the area right now trying to set up dates that work for both teams,” Jensen said. “That’s the problem with a team like this. There are just not local teams to play.”

When he first started coaching, he got a lot of advice not to become friends with the parents and not to get close to the kids because it made it a lot harder to coach.

“I love getting to know these kids. And I have made great friends with the parents,” Jensen said.

Besides teaching the fundamental skills of a great football player, Jensen also hopes to teach his players a few life lessons along the way.

“To be able to be a good young man, that’s the most important thing. That’s what I want to teach these kids.”

jensen elite 1

“To be able to be a good young man, that’s the most important thing. That’s what I want to teach these kids. We don’t want to bunch of punks running around, so we try to teach the discipline part of football and then teach life lessons through it,” he said. “I personally would rather see a kid graduate from high school. That’s a win to me.”

Taylor Benson, who coaches with the Elite program, says Jensen goes out of his way every practice to make sure that his son feels important.

“It doesn’t matter that (Josh) is the smallest kid out there on the field. He treats him just the same way that he does these kids that look like they’re ready to go into the NFL right now,” Benson said. “He’s a genuine dude. He treats my 80-pound kid just like everyone else and expect the same out of him. It’s done a lot for Josh’s confidence.”

Jensen said kids can go a long way if they have just a little bit of belief in themselves.

The group has 54 young athletes practicing right now. If you’d like information on how to join, check out its Facebook page.

SUBMIT A CORRECTION