Coach Snoop's world    

Page 2 columnist Mary Buckheit spent some time with Snoop Dogg last month while he coached the Pomona Steelers of the Snoop Youth Football League Pee Wee division. "My ultimate message is making these boys classy young gentlemen," he says. "As hard as I am on them, as much as I yell at them, I always bring sensibility. I always bring class. We scold them and then we mold them. … You hear some things and you'll say 'Wow, how could they say that to the boys?' Then you hear all the good things in the end. We put 'em down, then we pick 'em up. We yell at them.Yeah, we get their little hearts beatin' through their shoulder pads, but they listen. And we're a real good team because of it. Whoopin' ass with class!" Click through the photo gallery and read more about Snoop's thoughts on football, coaching, marriage and more.

Coach Snoop talks to his Pomona Steelers, who went 11-0 in the regular season, then defeated the Compton Vikings 35-0 on Saturday for the SYFL crown. Snoop's Steelers are the dynastic jewel of the SYFL; his boys haven't lost a game in three seasons, and their most recent win in the championship game makes them back-to-back-to-back champs. "In the beginning, it was all Compton, but we don't know nothin' about them now," Snoop says proudly. "Who, Compton? Yeah, I think I remember them. But it's all Pomona now." Snoop's coaching squad says he gets most fired up for tilts with the Compton Vikings and the Long Beach Browns.

Snoop founded the league in 2004 and began coaching his oldest son, Corde (who Snoop calls "Spank"), and the other 8- to 10-year-olds of the Rowland Heights Raiders. Snoop led Spank's squad to a title before taking the reins of the Pomona Steelers, which includes his younger son Cordell (nicknamed Rook, center). Like his dad, Rook stands tall among teammates.

D-O-double-G is passionate and hands-on at the practice field. He is constantly calling out analysis of each play, encouragement for his offensive line and witty trash to whoever deserves it. He glides around the field, supportively putting hands on shoulders, pulling tackled little bodies up off the ground, bowing down to whisper tips at ear-level and dismissing his pack from huddles with fatherly smacks on the helmet. Even with the release of a new album this month, Snoop makes it to every game and nearly every Thursday night practice. "He takes this team very seriously," says Kisha Madrid of EMI Records. "Last week Larry King wanted him, and he was like, 'On a Thursday? That's football night.' We didn't do the spot."

For Snoop, the coaching doesn't stop when practice ends. He frequents the coaches' corner with his staff and is known to pore over game-tape DVDs. Kevin Barkey, Snoop's manager at Stampede Management, confirms: "When he's on the road, he'll call me all excited about something, I'm wondering what it could possibly be, but if it's football season, it's usually just game tape. He takes the DVDs with him everywhere he goes, and if I'm not with him I have to e-mail him the footage in a YouSendIt file or something." Says Coach Snoop of his copious coaching habits: "Oh, yes. We don't play."

Snoop's players sport nicknames on their jerseys decided on by the players and coaches. "There's so many different characters on this team," Snoop says. "I love 'em. Some of them lead by their play, some lead by their voice, or by example but they've all got something. These kids come from all kinds of stuff, they have been with us for a few years now and we've groomed 'em. They all come together. They didn't start off winners. They built up the mentality to want to win; now all they know is winning. That's why they practice so hard."

Snoop's life at home with his wife, Shante, and their three children was featured on the E! reality show "Father Hood." Three years before the show debuted in December 2007, Snoop had filed for divorce from his high school sweetheart. The couple was struggling, but within the year, Snoop refocused on family life, reconciled with Shante and halted divorce proceedings. In 2008, the two renewed their vows, and today, Snoop shows off his wedding ring. "Still good," he smiles. As for marital advice, D-O-dubb explains: "Look, everybody can't be Snoop Dogg. I can't show you how to play your game. Me and my wife, we friends, you know what I'm sayin'? So when you friends you argue, you fight, and you come back together again. I believe that's what the problem is: People don't take time to become friends."

Snoop's eighth solo album, "Tha Blue Carpet Treatment," was released in November 2006 and features the track "Beat Up on Yo Pads." Its focus is the SYFL and a message to his young homies, featuring the lines: "They bang every Saturday and Sunday loc / SYFL, man, it ain't no joke / Helmets and shoulder pads, ain't no bulletproof vests / See ain't too many options on the wild, wild West / See I've been blessed, so I guess that I can give back / Football in the hood, dog, you dig that / I brought the demos back and that's just one / I'm in Pomona with the Steelers, come and get some."

Snoop is alarmingly funny and creatively sharp-tongued even in casual conversation, on and off the field. He is focused and disciplined at practice time but hardly misses an opportunity to make anyone laugh. "When you're dealing with them kids, it's a different kind of love," Snoop says. "It's a love that lets you go back to being a kid again. That's the beautiful part about it. When the kids watch the guys in the NFL, they want to be like them, but I tell them, the NFL players want to be just like you guys; they remember what it was like to be young and out runnin' around havin' fun. That's what makes me happy, to see these kids here, because they have so much fun playing football."

Snoop came out to practice wearing black Stan Smiths, a pair of crisply creased black jeans, a black hooded windbreaker, Steelers gloves and a Lakers lanyard. As he strode toward the field on an unseasonably cold November night, he stretched a black ski mask over his face. Hours later, he joked, knowing what his critics would say of his stealth, "I knew I was gonna hear that. Everybody's going to be saying, 'He wears that to practice?!' Heh heh. I know. But that was gangster of me to give you that, though."

"Football has really helped me get close to my kids and spend time with them," Snoop says. "I love coaching all these kids. I don't even mess with my son. I don't mess with Rook. I like to coach the other kids. It becomes daddy ball if I focus on my son. Nobody wants that. I coach around him, you know what I'm saying? I learned that from coaching my older son first. I was all about Spank, but now I'm all about the team. And we kick ass."