The Delray Beach Rocks 9-under team is flirting with perfection once again.
The Rocks (10-0) are about to begin the American Youth Football League playoffs with the league’s longest active winning streak dating back to the second round of the 2021 playoffs when they fell to the Miramar Wolverines. They avenged that loss in last year’s Super Bowl with a 19-0 win.
Delray Beach is the two-time Super Bowl champion and has run off 39 straight wins following its 46-0 victory over the visiting Tamarac Cougars to close out the regular season.
“Every game is a battle, we respect every opponent, and we take one game at a time,” said Delray Rocks coach Eric Davis, who grew up and played in the Rocks program. “We make sure we keep the kids motivated and not take anything for granted. We try not to let the fans and the parents get into their heads that everything is automatic.
“We have to practice and execute,” he said. “You must come to practice. We must prepare and let the parents know there is no easy way. You just don’t show up for practice and think you’ll do well in games. You don’t practice, you don’t play.”
Davis said he noticed during the offseason that many of the 13-Under coaches throughout the 15-team, tri-county league went back to coach in the younger divisions — especially the 9-Unders.
“Those other programs had their coaches dropping down to challenge Coach Davis,” Davis said. “I welcome the challenge and have been successful so far.”
The Rocks have outscored the opposition 372-14, with the only points against coming at the hands of the Lauderhill Broncos in a 29-14 win in week 5.
Dearil McCellion, who turned 10 after the cutoff date, lives in Delray Beach.
“We get challenged,” said the Banyan Creek Elementary School fifth-grader. He is one of the original players who started on the team as a 6-year-old. “We keep getting new players every year and at every practice, we make it better.”
As a 6-under team, the Rocks finished 14-0; in their first year as a 7-under team, they wound up 11-2 and lost in the second round of the playoffs to Miramar. The Rocks, who are back-to-back Super Bowl champs, are 52-2 during that span.
Cameron Gauff, 10, of Delray Beach, has played on the team for three years. He is the younger brother of tennis star Coco Gauff and a fifth-grader at Sunset Palms Elementary.
“I love playing on this team,” he said. “Every other game, I come with more confidence. There is no pressure to win. It would be amazing to win a third Super Bowl because that would mean another ring.
“Playing football means a lot because my brother, my uncle, my dad and my granddad played on this team,” said Gauff, who plays quarterback and linebacker. “And my grandad coached in this program.”
Delray Rocks running back Javaris Collins, 10, also lives in Delray Beach and is a fifth-grader at Orchard View Elementary School.
“I think playing football is good,” said Collins, who also plays linebacker and is an original member of the squad. “You get to hit people and run by them. I think making a lot of tackles in a game is the best.”
Delray Beach resident Jordayn Estime, 10, a fifth-grader at Plumosa Elementary School, is also a four-year member.
“It’s joyful to have all of these guys around,” he said. “They are like my brothers.”
Jeffrey Blanchard, who turned 10 after the cutoff date, is a Delray Beach resident and is one of the key players on offense for the Rocks. He’s been a three-year member of the team.
“I want to go to the Super Bowl just like last year,” said Blanchard, a fifth-grader at Banyan Creek Elementary. “It would be great and awesome if we could do that again. We have a great team with a great team unity.
“I think it is great when someone blocks for me and I get into the endzone,” he said. “It’s great that he cared enough for me to do that.”
Other Rocks teams headed to the postseason include the 6-Under team (7-3), the 12-Under team (7-2) and the 13-Under squad (8-1). The 13-Under team won the 12-Under Super Bowl last year and went on to win the national championship.
The Rocks featured eight teams this past season ranging from the 6-U to 13-U divisions. Rocks President Bernard Wright, who has held the position for the past eight years, said there were over 280 players and over 100 cheerleaders in the program.
The Tri-County league has 15 teams – Boynton Beach Bulldogs and Delray Rocks from Palm Beach: Kendall Kolts, Miami PAL Chiefs from Miami and Broward squads Hallandale Beach Chargers, Hollywood PAL Eagles, Lauderhill Broncos, Miramar Wolverines, Pembroke Pines Optimist Bengals, Plantation Eagles, Sunrise Hurricanes, Tamarac Cougars and the West Pines Panthers.
“We are ecstatic that we had four teams make the playoffs,” said Wright, who has been a part of the Rocks most of his life. “We wish all of them could have gone, but that’s football. We just keep pushing ahead. We expect all four teams that made the playoffs to get to the Super Bowl.”
