Background of Coach Masters

Coach Mike Masters is the son of Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame High School Football, Coach Gene Masters. Gene's record of 240 wins (1st in public school victories in Section VI), 19 Champions and Nine sectional championship appearances and 4 championships earned him the distinction as the Dean of Coaches.

Mike was an assistant coach on two of those Grand Island High School championship teams. Coach Mike Masters has coached at every level of high school football. His four years as a varsity head football coach at Cheektowaga Central High School saw him record the first two playoff appearances and first divisional championship in the school's history. He has also quarterbacked on or coached on a team that has had a championship season at every high school level.

After coaching and teaching in the public school system, Mike served for twelve years of youth ministry in the following venues: Program Director for Buffalo Western New York Youth for Christ, Point Person for mission's trips aboard, Co Director of the Jerry Butler Athletes in Action Football Camp, and Co host of a teen-talk radio show “The Power Session”. In those twelve years Mike founded the Ultimate Football League, which is now in its tenth season. Ultimate Football has had over 20 schools and 800 athletes Compete and be challenged to be the COMPLETE~ Player.. The league's emphasis is training the total athlete; physical, mentally, socially and spiritually. Cross Training Football’s

Leadership I.M.P.A.C.T. Camp. for quarterbacks and receivers will be going into it’s third year.

Through his father's legacy, and his own career coaching and working with youth, Mike Masters has been building relationships with coaches, teams, schools and has positioned himself to serve the sport community of coaches and athletes by bringing character attributes, spiritual relevancy, knowledge of the game and life skills to that arena.

At the passing of his dad, Gene Masters, Mike saw and heard first hand the tremendous impact a coach's life had on hundreds of athletes as they shared their stories of how Coach Masters had touched their lives. This was one of the events which lead to Mike's decision to launch the ministry of Cross Training Football, "Training the Heart of a Champion from the inside out," in the summer of 2005. The main focus of the organization is character development through sport. Cross Training Football has had the opportunity to serve, encourage, and train over 16 schools and 40 teams in Section VI these past three years. We are committed to help build young men of character by serving, encouraging and training High School Coaches.

John Wooden former UCLA Basketball coach states: "You should care more about your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are; your reputation is only what people think about you."