Grizzlies coach Chris Santopietro talks with his team at practice.

Photo Credit: Tom Renner

Samuel Branch runs with the ball during practice.

Photo Credit: Tom Renner

Quarterback Greg Goldstein barks out signals to start a play.

Photo Credit: Tom Renner

Quarterback Tyler McMillian calls signals to start a play.

Photo Credit: Tom Renner

Chris Santopietro can't wait for Saturday night, when his Norwalk Grizzlies seventh-grade football team takes the field. "I get butterflies just as if I was playing,'' the coach said at practice this week. "Sometimes worse."

Santopietro's team kicks off its season Saturday in New Canaan at 6:30 p.m. at the Watertower Field. The seventh-graders are one of three teams for the Grizzlies. The sixth-graders, under coach Rob Greef, tackle Ridgefield at East Ridge Middle School on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The eighth-grade squad, coached by Jeff Fuller, challenges Darien Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Darien High School.

Santopietro and Matt Hefferan started the Grizzlies last year with two teams. They are sponsored by the Norwalk Police Athletic League. There are over 80 players in the program. The team plays in the Fairfield County Football League with teams from Darien, New Canaan, Westport, Wilton, Ridgefield and Fairfield.

"Our goals are to teach the kids how to play properly without an emphasis on winning,'' said Chris, who played at the University of Rhode Island. "My thought is, you do the little things, the winning comes behind it. Our ultimate goal is to have many of these kids playing on the high school level."

The Grizzlies will play home games at Norwalk High School. The squad did not have any home games last year. The seventh graders host Ridgefield next Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Santopietro strives to teach his players to live balanced lives, too. He placed a table by the practice field last year so boys could do homework. Santopietro does not have a boy on the team. "This is a labor of love,'' he says.

He's a firm believer that the boys benefit in other aspects of life by playing football. "Football, more than any other sport, teaches you life skills,'' Chris says. "If a guy misses an assignment, it can mess up the whole play. It teaches you how to work as a team."