SPECIAL REPORT: Semi-pro football

Tony Overman/The Olympian

Chris Potts (foreground) is a team captain for the Washington Cavaliers, a semi-pro football team in a leage that brings together young and old a for a chance to hang on to the game that they love.

OLYMPIA - The bandana-wearing, bloody-knuckled, 225-pound linebacker is Chris Potts, a nice guy, really.

As a case manager for Washington Adult and Family Services, Potts, 32, works with kids, parents, police and judges to ensure a quality homelife for children.

At home in Olympia with his wife, April, he croons his 5-month-old daughter, Eliana, to sleep with soft lullabyes.

But on Saturday night, Potts ties a bandana on his head, throws on football shoulder pads and a helmet, and roams the defensive backfield, relishing the rush that football has been giving him since his first pee-wee game in Lacey more that 20 years ago.

Potts plays for the Washington Cavaliers, one of 12 semi-pro teams in a Northwest Football League spread Bellingham to Portland. The summer league, which began in 1961, brings together hundreds of players - veterans and rookies, teen-agers and adults - who play their games in high school stadiums.

The players are not paid and the game-day crowds are sparse.

Tony Overman/The Olympian

Chris Potts wears his daytime uniform-that of a social services case manager who helps ensure stable homes for children.

Many players just want a chance to play more football either in college or at some professional level. Others, well, they just love to play the game.

"To me, it's the ultimate game. You can always get better," said Potts, who grew up playing football in Lacey and had varsity stints at Timberline and Yelm, where he graduated in 1986.

"In baseball, if you don't have the arm, you won't ever have it. But in football, pretty much any size guy can learn to play."

Guys like 19-year-old Brian Price, a welder from St. Helens, Ore., who had never played a down of organized football before joining the Cavaliers this spring.

Self-described at a generous 5-feet-6 and 155 pounds, Price is far and away the smallest player on the team.

"I drive two hours just for practice, so you know I've got to be liking it," Price said.

"These guys are athletes, but they're also nice guy," team owner and coach Bill Booth said. "They'll knock a guy on his butt, then offer him a hand up."