WORCESTER - As a handful of snowflakes fell during Sunday's practice at O'Connell Field, Worcester Cowboys lineman Camden Kline had thoughts of warm, sunny skies and palm trees on his mind.
Playing more football is also on his mind of course, but the nice weather doesn't hurt.
"I'm looking forward to playing football in hot weather and just having fun with my teammates," added fellow lineman Kaiden Eke.
"Warm weather," Kline said on what he is looking forward to most on his team's trip down to Naples, Florida next week for the American Youth Football (AYF) National Championship. "It's cold (up) here."
The AYF National Championship will be played in Naples, FL from Dec. 7-13 at the Paradise Sports Complex. The Cowboys' 12U team is enjoying a 12-0 season that included a win at the Connecticut Youth Football Conference state tournament. The Cowboys defeated the Central Mass. representative, Merrimack Valley in a semifinal and took down Dorchester in the AYF New England Regional Championship to advance to Nationals.
"We represent one of 10 regions at Nationals in Naples," Cowboys head coach Tom Sivert said.
Sivert has been coaching the same group of kids for the last five years, so to see them get this far has been a proud moment for the coach.
"Since they were in flex/flag football," Sivert said. "All these kids work hard, they really do."
Sivert's son, Ben, is the team's quarterback.
"The cliche is that the quarterback is always the coach's son," Sivert said. "But I didn't make him a quarterback. I always thought he should be a lineman like I was, but he ended up being a quarterback and he's got quarterback coaches; he puts a lot into it."
"Everybody has been putting in hard work, showing up to practice," Ben Sivert said. "If we continue to do that, we should be alright."
One of the challenges will be playing teams from all over the country who the Cowboys haven't seen before - not that that phases any of the players.
"We're prepared for anything," Ben Sivert said. "We have a lot of different formations that we've studied so we should be ready."
"We've got to step up our game and play the way that we know how," tight end Ethan Rose added.
The coaches have had the kids focused on what has got them to this point as they prepare for games next week as opposed to preparing for specific unknown opponents.
"These kids, we asked them to buy into a system this year early on and they've bought into it," Coach Sivert said. "They've gone through the whole season buying what we've been selling. They're ready. There is not a kid here that likes to fool around on the football field and they've bought into everything. They've worked hard and became brothers; so that's how we are going to go down and win."
Their quarterback is focused on the task at hand.
"We are there for football," Ben Sivert said. "It's not a vacation; it's a business trip."
The Cowboys will head to Florida for Nationals on Dec. 6th, and the players, parents and coaches have been hard at work since the win over Dorchester working on fundraising to make sure that everyone on the team will be able to make it down to Florida to compete for a National Championship.
"We were at 2Chefs (for a fundraiser), we have a scratch ticket fundraiser and we are taking donations,' Coach Sivert said during practice on Nov. 30th. "We have this thing called a SnapFundraiser. If you go on Instagram or Facebook our SnapFundraiser is on there and people can donate checks to the Worcester Cowboys organization. All the money goes directly to these kids."
Whatever is thrown at them, as long as they play together as a team, the Cowboys should be successful.
"I think it will be somewhat hard," lineman Kaiden Eke said."But if we play together as a team and all do our responsibilities, then I think we can do something special."