Welcome to our family; a family I have been a member of since I was six years old. If you are a first year player or sixth year player, a youth player or a high school player you are part of the Bellevue Football family. The roots of our program were in place long before I started playing in the junior program and certainly before I became the head coach.. The Wolverine Junior Football program has always been and will be a prevalent part of the West Bellevue Community. Everybody involved is an important member to our family.

Before I became the head coach at Bellevue I had the privilage of playing for some great coaching through the Bellevue system and finishing with Coach Peterson at the University of Washington. I will bring the same humility and work ethic every coach before me as shown.understand the passion of our youth program. The passion and pride at the junior level is equal to that of our high school teams. I would not want it any other way. We want football to matter at all levels. We want to support the junior program and have the junior program support the high school. Our success, like the junior program will not only be measured on the field but what we do off the field. This same year our JV and C team went undefeated all the while our Jr program set league bests in Champions (3 of 5 levels), all teams in the playoffs, most overall wins for the league. At all levels Bellevue football continues to set the standard others strive to be.

With your sons involvement in the football program he is on the path of creating some great work habits, creating some lifelong friends and memories. We ask a lot from the kids involved in our program; we ask them to participate and give 100% to the task on hand. Not only on the field but also in the weight room and most important in the classroom. The habits your son is learning right now at the junior level will help him with the transition to the high school program on to college and throughout life. Our players learn life skills long before they ever play a game on a Friday night.

I would love to make a promise that every player who puts in the time and effort will get to play for State Championships. Although I cannot guarantee state championships, I can say the players that go through our programs will be prepared with a set of principals and strong understanding of a work ethic. They not only get better grades in high school, but are also better prepared to enter college.

It all starts here at the youth level. And we have the best leadership unmatched with Greg Pardee and Hugh Gladner continuing to run our program. I know the system will be run with the highest level of integrity and work ethic and our junior coaches will continue to be the best trained and prepared coaches in the league.  All of us work hand in hand to make sure there is as much cohesion as possible from our youth teams through the high school varsity team.  We want all the kids in the youth program to know and understand the principals of playing football in Bellevue.  The basic fundamentals your son is learning now; the tackling, blocking, terminology will go a long way into his transition from youth player to high school player.

We are family and we are all in this together. Please come out on Friday night and support the high school players and our coaches and players will continue to come watch the Jr players on Saturdays.  Play hard, learn and have fun. I look forward to seeing all of you in the high school program in year to come.

Michael Kneip
Head Coach Bellevue Football