Name: Lucas Pellechi
Position: RB /DE
Favorite NFL Team: Houston Texans
Favorite College Team: Notre Dame, Fighting Irish
Favorite Food & Snack: Pizza & Nutrition Bars
Desired Superpower: Super speed
Meet our newest YFO All-Star selection Lucas Pellechi. Lucas plays running back and defensive end in Long Island, NY. At the start of our interview, Lucas was clearly eager to start talking about football.
YFO: Why should kids play tackle football?
Lucas: Football is fun. It will keep you busy. It teaches you teamwork and you become like a family.
YFO: How would you feel if tackle youth football was banned?
Lucas: I would cry myself to sleep. I don’t want to play flag football.
YFO: What have you learned from Football?
Lucas: I wasn’t that good in the beginning, but it gave me confidence. As I play more I get better and better. I learned teamwork and how to run and tackle.
YFO: What is your best football memory?
Lucas: In my last game of the season it was the 3rd quarter and it was 4th down and I ran a sweep to the left, I ran up the sidelines and outran their best player.
YFO: What makes a good running back?
Lucas: Staying strong and always giving 100%. It takes a lot of practice and you have to learn how to take a handoff.
YFO: What does it take to be a good defender?
Lucas: Speed, you must be able to rush the QB. You must be smart and disciplined as well, especially since I play defensive end.
YFO: What do you love about football?
Lucas: It’s fun, I love to run the football. I love to outrun the defense and celebrate with my teammates. It’s just fun in general.
YFO: What are you doing in the off-season to to prepare for the football season next July?
Lucas: Wrestling, basketball, and some baseball. My training regimen for football includes sprints, bearcrawls, and linebacker drills.
YFO: How important is school to you? Has playing youth tackle football helped you in school?
Lucas: School is very important. If you do not do your homework then you are not following all of the directions, you can not play football. Football has helps me in school because the sport teaches you to think!
YFO: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Lucas: An NFL player.
Lucas’ mother Amanda talked to us about how Lucas has grown leaps and bounds since he started playing tackle youth football-
YFO: How has Lucas changed since he started playing youth tackle football?
Amanda: I have seen great growth in Lucas. Discipline. Improvement in confidence- he lacked believing in himself, the mix of coaches, teammates, and the sport helped him. He walked off the football field a different person. People would ask- what did you feed him? It was football! Another thing I noticed is that he has done better in school since playing tackle football.
YFO: Amanda, what would you tell another mother that was reluctant to sign their child up for tackle youth football?
Amanda: To a scared parent- I would say, I felt the same way. He wasn’t doing well academically or socially, football gave Lucas family as they made him feel so included and so special. His confidence overall has increased, the sport did so much for my kid, I can’t see anyone wouldn’t give it a shot! I saw more injuries in other sports that he played than I have seen in football. A scrape, a bruise, these are the injuries that I have seen. I would recommend giving football a try and seeing how it goes.