To the surprise and delight of all fans of Milken football, this year’s middle school flag football team has grown into a very substantial program. Led by coaches Justin Kuhn, Richard Buchalter, and Aaron Caver, the program consists of not one or two but three full teams
According to Coach Kuhn, the increase in team size reflects a mix of factors, from expanding student enrollment to a growing reputation of the program.
“I think the student body’s growing a little bit every year, that might be part of it,” Kuhn said. “Hopefully the interest in football is just word of mouth and previous seasons have been positive. The brothers of kids who previously played heard it’s fun and a good experience and wanted to join as well.”
With 14 players on middle school varsity, 13 on JV, and another 12 on the sixth-grade team, the program now supports more than 35 players across three levels. While the large size presents new challenges, the coaches agree that the benefits outweigh the difficulties.
“Just having more talent to choose from is huge,” Kuhn explained. “There have been years where we needed players just to fill the roster. Now, we have real competition for spots, which raises everyone’s level.”
Despite limited practices and a delayed start to games, the coaches have been impressed by the team’s attitude and improvement.
“We’ve had one scrimmage,” Kuhn said. “My expectations weren’t high because of the limited practice, but we did well considering that. The players fought through tough moments, and our defense really held us together.”
Coach Elliott Turner oversees the entire football program and emphasizes how important the middle school teams are to building future success.
“For middle school, we’re really teaching fundamental things like pass routes, coverage types, and defensive communication,” Turner said. “By eighth grade, we want players to start taking ownership and making calls on their own. That’s how they’ll succeed when they reach the high school team.”
The connection between the middle school and high school programs is central to Milken’s long term vision. Turner noted that while the middle school has high participation, the challenge has been retaining those players through high school.
“Even if we can get half of these kids to stay with the program, it would fundamentally change how well we play,” Turner said. “We have talented, committed kids, but our numbers are still lower than other schools.”
Turner added that the program’s goal is to establish a consistent JV team at the high school level, giving younger players more playing time and confidence before moving up to varsity.
“It would be huge for development,” he said. “They’d get real experience and be ready to contribute faster.”
Beyond the athletics, the coaches emphasized that the football program aims to teach leadership and teamwork.
“We want them to learn to be good leaders and find their own leadership style,” Turner said. “When they get to us at the high school, they’ll already understand what leadership looks like. And hopefully when they go off into life, they’ll become leaders wherever they are, that’s our main goal.”