Dwaine Radden into The AAA Minor League Football Hall of Fame
The AAA Minor League Football Hall of Fame held an induction ceremony on January 10, 2014 at Desert Princess Golf Resort at 6pm in Cathedral City, CA. The ceremony honored fifty-six coaches and players who coach at the Minor League level and have shown exemplary coaching and player abilities. The ceremony opened with a dinner where the coaches got the chance to interact with one another and network. Darrel “Mouse” Davis was the guest speaker at the induction ceremony. Davis is an American football coach who coached at the collegiate and professional level. Davis, who coached various football teams including Portland State, the Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Falcons, was the pioneer of the “Run ‘n’ Shoot” offense. At the ceremony, Davis reminisced on his career and provided humor and words of encouragement to the coaches and players who were being inducted.
Amongst the eighteen coaches who were inducted was Dwaine Radden Sr., Head coach of the California Raiders, a team based out of San Bernardino, California. Radden has been serving the community, coaching and mentoring athletes for over 25 years throughout the Inland Empire. He began coaching youth football in 1990, engraving his code throughout generations of work. His work can still be shown today through San Bernardino Pop Warner, which he revived after being defunct several years before 1997.
He created a competitive energy in the city with several players coming out of the Youth Football League such as Chris Polk University of Washington (Philadelphia Eagles), Rodney Harris University of Kansas (Speed Coach), Gary Walker University of Idaho (2013 NFL Draft Prospect), Dewayne Booker Wayland Baptist (Track and Field) just to name a few.
Dick Suess, the Founder of the AAA Hall of Fame and former NFL player, called Radden a legend. He has been revolutionary in elevating this level of football and has impacted thousand of players and young men’s lives throughout the Inland Empire.
Dwaine has coached Minor football since 2005 and has led the Raiders to three championships, two back-to-back undefeated seasons, one national title appearance and six division championships. The Raiders have accumulated a record of 104-20-1 over the past nine years. The Raiders hold the record for points scored in a single season (579 points). He and the Raiders have been to the Playoffs every year since their conception in 2005. The Raiders finished the 2013 season ranked #1 in the Western Region and #5 in the nation and hold the UFAL record for points scored in a single season.
He has received countless accolades for coaching such as Semi Pro Talk’s “2013 Coach of the Year” and “2006 National Football Foundation Coach and Team of the Year”
, “UFAL League Coach of the Year” 2009-2011. Radden said, “A lot of coaches like to hang their hat on players that made it to the next level NFL or Arena football.” He went on to say, “My pleasure comes from seeing young men elevate to the next level in life.”
Coach Radden was the first to accept his induction award and told a story from his childhood to the crowd on how his uncle influenced him to start playing football. The crowd got to know the coach more with the speech he shared.
Radden and his all-star players teamed up with coaches and players from as far as England to play in the Hall of Fame game held at the College of Desert, where they defeated the So. Cal Coyotes 32-30.
