Madeline Patterson has held just about every leadership role imaginable in a youth sports organization: president of the executive board, coach, president of a franchise, cheer coordinator, league secretary and now commissioner.

In her nearly 20 years with the Delta Youth Football League (DYFL) in Stockton, Calif., Patterson has seen the incredible positive impact football can have in a community with a damaged reputation.

According to Forbes, Stockton, Calif. is the eighth most dangerous city in the country. The city filed for bankruptcy in 2012, and the lack of resources to fund the police force has led to increases in crime.

For Patterson and the DYFL, football is a way for these young athletes to forget the stressful environments they are growing up in.

“Football takes on a huge role in the community. It can be a life-saving mechanism,” Patterson said. “Our coaches are like parents for some of these kids. We are trying to build confident young men and women who will be better kids, better neighbors, better workers, parents, spouses, all of that.”

Patterson points to one club in her league, the Ceres Cowboys, a team that was almost disbanded because of budgetary concerns. The players who stayed with the program persevered, and school administrators saw improvement in their behavior, and the program grew as younger siblings began to play as well.

Those young men have since graduated high school and moved on, but at their graduation parties, Patterson said the football coach is often the guest of honor.

“I have often heard the words, ‘Thank you, Coach, you saved my life. ... Thank you for caring and helping me believe all things are possible. ... Thank you for believing even when I didn't,” Patterson said.

The DYFL represents an opportunity for the league to mold its players and cheerleaders into responsible young people who will one day shape their community.

“As a league, we have to know what type of influence we are gonna be,” Patterson said. “Great coaches will teach more than just the game, and that’s the goal.”

Following those words with actions, the DYFL has adopted USA Football’s Heads Up Football program, teaching the game the right way by putting itself ahead of the curve when it comes to player safety. While 2014 was the league’s first year with Heads Up Football, the DYFL has been running safety clinics for coaches on its own since before Patterson started in 1996.

Using presentations from league board members and local guest speakers who are experts in medicine and officiating, the DYFL now runs their clinics in conjunction with league Player Safety Coaches (PSCs).

“The PSC has played a big role,” Patterson said. “Their hands-on training at the clinics is a lot more fun and gets everybody involved. It makes people feel like a part of the program, and most importantly gets everybody talking in the same way about the game.”

The DYFL is one of more than 5,500 youth organizations and 750 high schools that took part in Heads Up Football in 2014, representing more than 150,000 coaches and nearly 1 million players. Heads Up Football leagues offer education and certification courses that coaches take before the season, covering heat and hydration, equipment fitting, concussion awareness and proper tackling techniques.

At the clinics, PSCs lead a large group instruction then work one-on-one with coaches, which has increased their confidence levels.

“This is everything we’ve been implementing already, the coaching clinics, concussion awareness. It’s been a great avenue of support for us,” Patterson said. “We’re all working better together and for the same goals. USA Football got us all speaking the same language, especially with the parents. It helped them better understand the basics and really increased their learning.”

Having parents in the community understand the importance of football to a young athlete is vital to the program’s success.

“No one ever starts at the top. These kids learn discipline and teamwork, to persevere and sacrifice because hard work does pay off,” Patterson said.

While there are undeniable issues in Stockton, the DYFL is a bright spot in the community teaching its young athletes how to succeed on and off the field.  

“Football is like life: There’s teamwork and hard work and all that but you learn more than just a game,” Patterson said. “In life, you get tackled all the time, and you need to get up and keep pushing forward. You develop character in losing with your teammates. You learn to be a gracious winner and a graceful loser.”