Seven months ago, the Jamestown Chiefs began as merely an idea. Without a team name or sponsors and just eight members, the plan to bring semi-professional football to Chautauqua County wasn’t much more than a dream.

Now, though, the team is quickly beginning to take shape. The name Chiefs was selected by community members, an orange and navy blue color scheme designed, membership into the Northeastern Football Alliance league granted, and most importantly- a full staff of players and coaches have come on board. While there’s still much work to be done before the team’s first game scheduled for June 20, team president and general manager Joe Scapelitte can appreciate the growth the Chiefs have experienced in a short period of time.

            “We started with eight guys in September, no money, no team name, no team colors, no anything,” Scapelitte said. “Now we have about 55 football players, we have cheerleaders, we have our field. Everything is in place. There’s still some things that need developing yet practice-wise, but the shell is put together.”

The Chiefs, which sport a roster comprised nearly entirely of Chautauqua County and Warren-area players, began practicing at Bergman Park during the winter months. As the NFA season approaches, the team now practices twice per week at the Jamestown Fireman’s Training Grounds.

With players and coaches in place, the work of putting a competitive team in place by June is now priority one for Scapelitte’s staff, led by head coach Brendan Carter. Carter, who originally moved to the area from Florida in 1995, coached at Frewsburg High School for the past seven years on coach Terry Gray’s staff. Carter first signed on to be the Chiefs defensive coordinator two months ago, then replaced Scapelitte as head coach, allowing Scapelitte to concentrate on his role as GM. Carter said the Chiefs players and staff have faced an uphill road starting from scratch in order to compete with the established teams of the NFA.

"It’s taken a lot of commitment from the players and the coaching staff to take the time needed to learn all this stuff, to study the playbook at home,” Carter said. “We’re installing everything from zero. All of the other teams in our league have been in existence for years. The defending national champion and second place team nationally are in our league. It’s a real league.”

The NFA, founded in 1997, has 13 member teams, all from New York state. Jamestown will play in the Western Division, along with teams from Buffalo, Lyndonville and Olean. NFA teams typically consist of high school and college players. Teams play a 10-game schedule between mid-June and early September with playoffs stretching into the first week of October. For the inaugural season, the Chiefs will host games at Strider Field. While the league-wide start time for games is at 7:30 p.m at all other league sites, Jamestown’s home games this summer will kick off at 6 p.m. following last week’s ruling by the Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education to deny the use of the Strider Field lighting system for Chiefs games in 2009. The ruling forced Scapelitte to receive permission from the NFA to change the team’s home start times.

“They explained fully what was going on,” Scapelitte said of the board’s decision. “I have no objections to what the board was saying about using the lights, but we’re hoping that next year we can.”

The team has provided the opportunity to many ex-players to put the pads back on after time away from playing, such as Shawn Fink, the team’s quarterback as well as offensive coordinator. After a four-year career at Oil City High School, the Mercyhurst graduate became a coach at Washington Middle School and is the defensive coordinator for the Jamestown High freshman team. One of the Chiefs’ original members, Fink now serves a dual role as player/coach.

"It’s wonderful to get a chance to go back and get the pads on,” Fink said. “I just wanted to get the chance to play again. I was rusty at first, and for the first three-to-four months, we were doing this with two feet of snow on the ground. It’s nice now to be throwing with a ball that’s not snow or ice covered.”

Defensive player Brian McEntire, a member of the first Jamestown High state championship team in 1994, and played for Franklin (Ind.) College, said he hopes the team is able to draw former area residents and players back into the community.

“I was skeptical at first, but seeing the people they’re putting in place and the things they’re trying to accomplish, I figured this was something I wanted to attempt,” he said, jokingly describing himself as the “old man” of the team at age 33. “We’re showing guys that if you’re not done playing football yet, bring your college education, bring back your skill set; maybe you have four or five years left (of football) in you. Come back and play for the Jamestown Chiefs, contribute back to the community.”

While building a playbook has been daunting, Carter said putting plays in place and working practices has not been the only goal of the start-up team.

“Putting together the actual playbook is hours and hours worth of work, but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the players to execute,” he said. “That’s the key; to be able to teach these young men the physical skills of football and use that as a tool to teach character. That’s the whole point of the team. The goal is the win games, but if you take care of the character, the wins come.”