Magic's in air for Pop Warner teams

Dozens of Triangle kids are in Florida all week competing in a Super Bowl for youngsters

Officially, Bailey Moss is in Orlando, Fla., this week to get the job done: Win on the football field. But Sunday afternoon, the 12-year-old right tackle had other things on his mind.

Sitting poolside in the Florida warmth, Bailey was awaiting the arrival of the rest of the Wake Forest Titans pee-wee team for the first of several pre- and post-game visits to the venue that at least rivals the field for importance: Disney World.

Yet even at 12, Bailey understood the gravity of the moment and how to sum up his team's chances at winning a national title in the Pop Warner Super Bowl.

"I think we have a pretty good chance at winning," the Franklin Academy seventh-grader said. "Everybody on our team gives 100 percent."

To be sure, winning is nice. But there are no losers when you get to miss a week of school to compete in theme-park heaven.

The Titans are one of two local Pop Warner teams that traveled to Orlando in the past couple of days for an event that combines football, cheerleading and dance under the Pop Warner banner. Nine local cheerleading squads and three dance teams are also competing in national championships. All 14 groups qualified by winning in regional contests.

"How much better does it get?" asked Bobby Poisella, commissioner of Raleigh's Capital City Steelers, whose junior pee-wee will play a team from Hawaii on Tuesday in the first of its two games. "You get to miss a week of school, go to the greatest place on Earth and play football."

The Steelers have two previous national titles to their credit. The Raleigh organization's team in the midget division won in 2005; its team in the junior midget division won in 2003. Two champions are named in each of four different age divisions that run from 9 years old to 15.

The Titans' Bailey Moss is one of five players from the Wake Forest organization's junior pee-wee team that earned a national title in Orlando last year by defeating teams from Nevada and Michigan.

Running back Taylor Bagley also has returned to help his team in its second bid. The sixth-grader from Heritage Middle School in Wake Forest said it's going to take "a lot of hard work and a lot of heart" for his team to do it again.

But the Super Bowl veteran also speaks from experience.

"It's fun to miss school to play football," said Taylor, 12. Off the field, he likes the visits to the Magic Kingdom.

Sorry, Taylor, but there's also that little matter with homework and study hall. Yes, study hall.

"We're required to have study halls for the kids," Titans coach Andy Garrity said. "All the kids have their homework. They do get their time at Disney. But no park [on] Monday because we have study hall and practice, and the same thing Thursday."

Got that, kids?