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By Courtney Ratkowiak ! Daily Sports Editor
Photos by Ariel Bond I Daily StaffPhotographer
DAYTON, OHIO -
We're a movin'on up,
To the east side.
To a de - luxe apartment
In the sky -
Movin'on up
To the east side,
Wefinally got apiece of the pie.
oach Daryl McCleskey leans out of the
driver's-side window of his white con-
version van, casually referencing "The
Jeffersons" theme song as hetalks about
his Pee-Wee football team. He is parked on the
Hickorydale Elementary School field, which has
looked the same for years even though the school
itself was torn down long ago. The Pee-Wee Day-
ton Flames play in ragtag practice jerseys, the
eight- and nine-year-old kids hollering as they hit
each other. A tinny song blares from the speak-
ers of a nearby beat-up ice cream truck, and an
orange water cooler rests on the hood of a rusted
pickup truck parked next to the team.
Movin' on up in Dayton actually means mov-
ing about 15 minutes northwest. Turn left on
Shiloh Springs Road and you suddenly find your-
self driving through the middle-to-lower class,
predominantly black suburb of Trotwood, Ohio,
with cornfields and tall grass hugging both sides
of the street. Speed down another little two-lane
country road and there's nothing more to see
until a sprawling high school comes into view,
complete with a brand-new football stadium that
would makea small college team envious.
That highschool and that city are a step up the
ladder, a place you can go to sleep at night with
peace of mind, McCleskey says. But he almost
resents that.
"A lot of blacks moved to Trotwood when they
were successful in their lives," he says. "They
were more well off than the kids right here in
Dayton, and they acted like it out there. A little
more uppity."
His bitterness stems fromthe way people treat-
ed the Dayton Flames. He's quick to praise the
accomplishments of his underdog team, boasting
about its last Pee-Wee Super Bowl championship
like a proud parent. But he says that much of the
city's best athletes left to go play in the suburbs,
and Trotwood stole the glory after Dayton coach-
es developed the kids' talent.
The fact is, Roy Roundtree and Mike Shaw
wouldn't be playing for Michigan today if they
hadn't experienced the best of both cities. They
played for the Flames from the first grade to
junior high. Soon after, both moved to Trotwood
in order to play at Trotwood-Madison High
School, a known college football factory led by
a coach whose charismatic mentoring charmed
nearly everyone in - and who wished they were
in - the Trotwood-Madison family.
"Family" is a word they use liberally in both
Dayton and Trotwood, a common thread that
stretches through the entire area's tight-knit
football community. The Dayton Flames coach-
es were like Roundtree and Shaw's fathers, and
Trotwood-Madison coach Maurice Douglass
might as well have been the boys' big brother.
Candidness and closeness were the norm - the
players were "all in" without ever needing to coin
it as a team slogan.
Roundtree and Shaw may have kept movin' on
up all the way to Ann Arbor, but they still remem-
bered exactly where they came from.
Mike Shaw still watches the videotape almost
every time he comes back home. It's of a seven-
or eight-year-old Roy Roundtree, running a go
route during a Flames football practice. Round-
tree is so intent on trying to catch the ball that he
doesn't notice the coach's burgundy van in front
of him, and he runs into the back of it, falling to
the ground. After a second, he jumps up, the foot-
ball still in his hand after a perfect catch. "I got it!
I got it!" he squeals.
Brian Carter, Roundtree's former Pee-Wee
coach, has a basement full of old trophies and
photos. In one of those photos is Roundtree on the
day he showed up to a game with his face covered
in bright white face powder, his eyes blacked out
and paint covering his arms. It was Halloween,
and he played football that day wearing full skull
makeup and his orange Flames uniform.
As a freshman in high school, when Roundtree
was named the Dayton Daily News' Athlete of
the Week, the wide receiver talked in an inter-
view about how his on- and off-the-field Pee-Wee
experience had shaped him more than his experi-
ence in junior high or high school ever could.
"I had to pull over and get myself together
when I read that article," Carter said, shaking
his head. "Because it really touched me. When
you run an organization like this, you get kind of
burned out. And that article put about 10 more
See TWO TOWNS, Page 6B
TOP: Dayton Flames Pee-Wee players run to
the water cooler to get a break during a sum-
mer practice. NEAR LEFT: Trotwood-Madison
High School coach Maurice Douglass talks to his
players. MIDDLE LEFT: Dayton Flames players
walk past the Hickorydale Elementary School
practice field. FAR LEFT: Sophomore running
back Michael Shaw, redshirt freshman tight end
Brandon Moore and redshirt freshman wide
receiver Roy Roundtree grew up in the Dayton
area, graduated from Trotwood-Madison High
School and now live together in Ann Arbor.