Profiled as a Packers-loving youth, Saints OL Ryan Ramczyk returns to face Green Bay
Editor's note: Stevens Point native Ryan Ramczyk will face the Green Bay Packers on Sunday as an offensive lineman for the New Orleans Saints. From 2002 to 2007, the Stevens Point Journal profiled four local youth football players, including Ramczyk, as they embarked on their football careers. This is the first article of a three-part series leading up to the Packers-Saints game with excerpts from the original series highlighting Ramczyk's progress.
'Ryan Ramczyk introduced to tackle football'
By Scott A. Williams | Stevens Point Journal
Originally published Oct. 11, 2002 and Oct. 23, 2003
STEVENS POINT - Approximately 80 third- and fourth-graders throughout the Stevens Point area are getting their first tastes of tackle football — the latest addition to the Youth Area Tackle Football League.
Reality suggests a small percentage of youth football players will ever see playing time in high school. That hasn’t discouraged local third- and fourth-graders in their first season of tackle football.
One of four aspiring youth players the Stevens Point Journal plans to follow during their youth football days is Ryan Ramczyk, who said he has a choice to make in his athletic career. Football or soccer.
The choice may come down to which sport he has a better chance of playing at the junior high and high school levels.
Ramczyk soon realized football, not soccer, was in his blood. It doesn't matter if he's carrying the ball, passing the ball or blocking for someone else, the choice was easy for him.
"I like to get to run with the ball and sometimes score touchdowns," said Ramczyk, who patterns his running style after Green Bay halfback Ahman Green. "We're getting better and better each year."
Football became a staple of his diet. The pigskin and gridiron are as much a part of his adolescence as macaroni and cheese.
Youth coaches do their best to get every player a couple snaps at each position, although a league rule requires players who weigh 100 or more pounds to play in the trenches.
The early start in football will give the players a foundation for on-field success when they get older. League football coaches say they’re putting an emphasis on fun.
“The league has never promoted a win-win philosophy. It’s strictly all about the basics. Teaching them a three-point and four-point stance. The plays are sweep left. Sweep right. Run up the middle,” said coach Tim Merrill, who helped organize the league.
It’s a long time between third and ninth grade, and many young players eventually opt for other sports, to concentrate on academics or lose their love of the game.
Those youth football players who stay are at a definite advantage.
Stevens Point Area Senior High football coach Pete McAdams echoed those sentiments.
SPASH’s senior class in 2002 is the first to have come through the ranks of youth football, starting in sixth grade, and he often hears them refer to their “glory days.”
“I think it does an incredible amount for high school football,” McAdams said. “Getting more kids involved piques their interest in the sport at an earlier age. The goal of the program is to keep the kids enjoying the sport so they want to come back next year.”
Ryan Ramczyk graduated from SPASH in 2012 and played for UW-Stevens Point before he became a starting left tackle for the University of Wisconsin in 2016. Ramczyk was the last pick — No. 32 overall — of the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints. Ramczyk made his NFL debut as the starting left tackle for the Saints against the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 11.