How Philly’s best Pop Warner football team helped give its coach a new outlook on life

D.J. McFadden stood on a railroad bridge in Mount Airy, readying to jump headfirst onto the street below. He posted a farewell on social media to family and friends, turned off his phone, and stood on the tracks above Upsal Street. His football career was over, his college degree felt useless, his job was terrible, and a relationship with his girlfriend had soured.

Four years ago, it was impossible for McFadden to feel the impact a group of 12-year-olds would one day have on his life. He spent hours delivering packages for Amazon, thinking about how his long-shot football dream was ripped from him just before he got his chance. The game, McFadden said, was all he knew. And he felt like he had nothing as he looked down on Upsal Street.

On Saturday, McFadden will take 27 youngsters to Orlando as the Enon Eagles prepare to play in the Pop Warner Super Bowl tournament. He has coached the boys for two seasons, spending his weeknights at practice in Mount Airy and his mornings texting the kids to stay focused in school. A year ago, they returned from Florida as the national runners-up. This time, they’re hoping for more.

» READ MORE: There’s a Philly bar in Portland where Eagles fans gather to watch the game and feel like they’re back home

The guy who once felt worthless is now a successful football coach. But he’s more than that to his players. And the kids are more than just football players to McFadden.

“Coaching has been a breath of fresh air,” said McFadden, 31. “It takes a lot of stress off my plate. Every time I see these kids and see them smiling and see them do things that I used to do, it’s a great thing to see. I can’t play, but the excitement and the privilege of coaching kids, bonding with them and learning different personalities and helping young men, keeps me going.”

McFadden found his place. Everything seemed to be spiraling that night when he turned his phone off. He wanted out. And then he turned his phone back on.

“My cousin called me,” McFadden said. “As I was standing up there, she talked me down. I know it was God. She called at the right time because I know for sure if she didn’t call, I would have jumped.”

It takes about 30 minutes for Tony Dyches to drive his son Tristan to Enon’s field near Cheltenham Avenue. There are youth programs closer to home in West Philly, but there’s something about Enon that makes the drive worth it.

“We wanted an environment where my son could grow and learn the game but also be a kid,” Dyches said. “We came up here to a practice last year and never left.”

McFadden and his assistants — all of whom are volunteers — create a place a few nights a week where kids can learn football but still be kids. Listen, Curtis Bronson said as his son John practiced under the lights, and you’ll rarely hear a raised voice. Just teaching.

“Influence is very key at the stage they’re at,” Dyches said. “They’re very impressionable. So having them around men who carry themselves a certain way and are family-oriented and church-oriented and give them constant guidance, they get to see that from D.J. He’s a young man. They get to see that from someone they look up to and not just a parent.”

The Eagles play on the site of the old Temple University football stadium, which Enon Tabernacle Church purchased in 2001 after outgrowing its church in Germantown. It built a 5,000-seat church and a $2 million turf field. A lot that was vacant for years is now an oasis.

“This is a different place,” Bronson said. “You don’t hear cars screeching. Nobody is shooting. You have kids who have a little bit of talent and want to try it out and then you have kids who have a lot of talent but live in neighborhoods where it’s not safe to showcase that talent. Then they come here. You don’t mind driving 30 minutes if you can sit in your car or run errands and then come back, knowing your kid is safe.”

The church helps pay registration fees and paid for a large percentage of the team’s trip to Florida, ensuring that every player could make it to the Super Bowl. The Eagles don’t cut kids nor require them to be members of the church. The team attends a weekly Bible study, prays together before and after games, and is sometimes honored at Sunday service as an example of what the church can provide.

The church’s football program is a city powerhouse where some future NFL players learned the game. But Greg Burris, Enon’s athletic director, said the program has never prioritized winning. The priority, Burris said, remains the same as it did 20 years ago, when the church hatched the idea to start a team.

“Everything here is a ministry,” Burris said. “Our motto is that we teach Christianity through the sport of football, cheerleading, track, martial arts, baseball, soccer, basketball, all of it. But it’s not a bait and switch. You know that coming in. That’s what we do. And we’ve always had good coaches.”

McFadden, a year after that night above Upsal Street, was selling athletic apparel when he called Cheltenham football coach Troy Gore. He knew Gore from Enon, where Gore is a minister and McFadden grew up going to church. Gore wasn’t buying anything. But he told McFadden that he could use an assistant coach.

“I never saw myself doing that,” McFadden said. “He kept talking me into it. He said, ‘I think you’d be a good coach.’ I said I’d think about it and he kept calling me and calling me and calling me.”

McFadden grew up in Mount Airy and said he attended 12 schools, bouncing across the city before finishing in Montgomery County and graduating from Abington High.

“I was a class clown,” he said.

He played basketball and football in high school but did not have the grades to play at major colleges. McFadden went to Valley Forge Christian, a Division III program, and spent a year on the basketball team before deciding to give football another try.

A wide receiver, he parlayed his one football season at Orange Coast College — a junior college in California — into a scholarship to Bloomsburg University. But McFadden failed out of Bloomsburg after one year. Two years later, McFadden received another chance when Lincoln University offered him a full ride. The coaching staff was fired a day later, stalling his career again.

McFadden grabbed the attention of New Mexico Highlands, a Division II program that had a spot for him. He played two seasons there and then attended a pro day at the University of Delaware to see if he could impress any NFL scouts.

“First 40-yard dash,” McFadden said. “Hamstring ripped right off the bone.”

He thought he was finished with football. But Gore wouldn’t stop calling.

“I said, ‘OK. I’ll give it a chance,’” McFadden said.

McFadden spent the afternoons this season at Cheltenham High, where he was the offensive coordinator for his third season on Gore’s staff. A year ago, Enon needed a coach. Gore recommended McFadden. Why not, McFadden said. So after Cheltenham’s practice, McFadden drove to Enon for Pop Warner practice and coached two football teams in one day.

“I like to stay busy, keep myself busy, and stay around things that I love,” McFadden said. “Football is one of those main things.”

The team’s offense (31.4 points per game) is a juggernaut and the defense (3.4 points allowed per game) is a force. McFadden credits the success to his assistant coaches and the talented players who could soon be starring on Friday nights for the area’s top high school programs. Three wins in Florida will make the Eagles Super Bowl champs. Their first game is on Sunday.

“We’re like a family outside of this,” said Tristan Dyches, a running back. “It’s like a brotherhood.”

But McFadden knows that his players need more than sacks and touchdowns to keep playing. He’ll often text his players in the morning, warning them not to draw an offsides or false-start penalty. It’s how a football coach reminds his players to stay focused in the classroom.

“I speak from experience. I can’t speak from anything else,” McFadden said. “That’s what I want them to understand. I say, ‘Hey, I don’t want you to go the route that I went.’ I had to go the junior college route, kicked out of Bloomsburg, all that. I had to tell them these things. Like, ‘You don’t want to do this.’ You have to keep your grades up.”

Last month, McFadden’s squad became the first Enon team to win the 12-and-under regional title. He huddled his players together as Burris waited to give them their trophy and banner. But the coach wasn’t celebrating. He asked the players what was most important. School, they said.

“They care about all the kids,” Bronson said. “They’ll show up to the school if the kid is having trouble in school. They care. It’s not a front. They genuinely care about the children.”

McFadden made them raise their hands if they still had work to finish before Monday. Finally, they could celebrate.

» READ MORE: https://www.inquirer.com/sports/philly-run-tribe-kelly-drive-schuylkill-river-community-20241017.html

“This is different,” said Brian Ovalles, whose son Ian is a lineman. “They go all-in for the kids. The coaches take their time with the kids. They concentrate. They pull the kids to the side. ‘You need to work on this.’ Then they put them back in. They really care.”

McFadden finished his psychology degree while recovering from the injury that ended his football career. But he could not find a job in his field as it seemed like no one was hiring during the pandemic. So he delivered packages for Amazon, driving every day from Philadelphia to a warehouse in Harleysville, where his route took him as far as Reading and Allentown.

“It was so stressful,” McFadden said. “One day, I would have like 250 packages with 139 stops. Every day I was just deep in my thoughts. I should be playing football. I should be doing this. I should be doing that. I couldn’t get the thought of me not playing football anymore out of my head. It was all I knew. I’ve been playing since I was 5. It was all I could think about.”

Those thoughts led him in October 2020 to that railroad bridge. Then he turned his phone on, receiving a phone call that kept him going. Everything didn’t instantly become easier, but coaching youth football provided a spark he needed. He runs a youth foundation, works for a nonprofit, and is opening a roller skating rink in Montgomery County.

The kids at Enon gave McFadden life and he’s giving them all he can.

“During the national championship game last year, I teared up during the national anthem,” McFadden said. “I was like, ‘Who would have ever thought?’ I remember being on that plane to Florida with my 27 players and I looked behind me and we’re all sitting together on a flight because of Enon. Enon has played a big part in my life. On that flight, I was like, ‘Wow. I can’t believe I’m here.’”

And now McFadden gets to do it again. He found his place.