Junior High School students clad in blue helmets and jerseys mill around North Creek Sportsfield No. 4 in Bothell on a Wednesday night. Footballs tumble through the air, lit up by powerful stadium lights illuminating the field and brilliantly contrasting it against the darkening autumn sky.

An SUV pulls up and a man in a stylized orange construction hoodie hops out and begins tossing tackle dummies over the short chain link fence onto the field.

Walking onto the turf, players mill around him, cracking jokes and asking questions as he starts preparing for practice. By 7 p.m., they’re jogging across the field and warming up.

This is how 26-year-old head coach Kevin Quackenbush, and five other former Bothell High School graduates spend three of their nights every week during the season, volunteering as football coaches for the Bothell Cougar Junior Football team comprised of 7th and 8th grade athletes.

With three practices a week during the school year, five a week during preseason and a game every Saturday, coaching is a big commitment.

“It’s busy. It’s a lot of time getting out here, but it’s not too bad out here a couple nights a week,” said assistant coach Nick Cornell. “Obviously we love the sport. It’s nice to help these guys get better.”

All six coaches are in their mid-20s and graduated Bothell High School in 2007, where they tossed around the idea of returning after college to coach in their hometown.

After graduating from Washington State University with a criminal justice degree, Kevin circled back to that idea in 2011, and after proposing it to the other guys, managed to get them together for the 2011-12 season.

They made it to the playoffs that year, playing against another Bothell team, then coached by the System Director for Bothell Junior Football Patrick Haberkamp.

“The one thing that I always see both at practices and at games is they’re very high spirited, a very rambunctious group, which I think really transfers over to their players,” Haberkamp said.

A love of football unites the coaches, who hope to move on to coaching high school in the next few years, ideally as a team.

“It’d be nice to stay as a group,” Quackenbush said. “We work well together.”

And all that work may be paying off this year. The Cougars are 6-1, with their eyes on post-season games beginning on Oct. 31.

“This is probably the best team we’ve had all four years,” said Quackenbush.

Both Quackenbush and Cornell have been playing football since they were kids, and said they’re happy to be back on the green.

The six work various jobs ranging from construction to staff at Harborview during the day, and coaching affords them a way to keep in touch with each other and their home town.

Quackenbush has a few reasons why he keeps coming back to coach.

“Being around with a great group of kids and just the coaching staff,” he said. “Throwing the balls around and being with my friends five days a week.”

But coaching isn’t only drills and practice, Haberkamp said. It involves scheduling, organizing, dealing with and managing people and bureaucracies.

“I think they do a really good job of balancing those responsibilities,” he said.

Haberkamp also believes football is also more than just a game to the junior athletes.

“It’s also the fact that you have to learn to work with 11 people on the field simultaneously, and everyone has to do their little job to get the big job done,” he said.

As the Cougars head into this year’s post season, both coaches and players seem optimistic for what the future holds, and soon both the players and coaches may be moving up to higher turf.

Coaches: Kevin Quackenbush, Nick Cornell, Marc Mulholland, Taylor Jag Hudson, Alan Gilje and Bryce Heath.