BOARDMAN — When DaJuan Dukes Jr. watched the Super Bowl last week, it was the first professional game he attended.

For Super Bowl LIV, which was played Feb. 2, Dukes and his mother, Jaclyn Crissman, future stepfather Zach Myers and sister, Niya, made their way to Miami to watch the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs.

“It was very fun,” DaJuan said after his return.

The family cheered for the 49ers, the whole family’s favorite team, Crissman said. Unfortunately for them, the Chiefs beat the 49ers 31-20.

The 9-year-old got the opportunity of a lifetime after Crissman submitted videos of DaJuan playing football for the Next 100 Super Bowl contest, she said.

“A friend sent a message one morning” after seeing an announcement on ESPN about a contest that would send youths from around the country to the big game, Crissman said. “(The friend) encouraged me to enter DaJuan.”

When Crissman found out that DaJuan was going for the Cleveland Brown’s selection, she decided to tell him in a fun way.

“She kind of pranked me,” DaJuan said, smiling.

Holding a get-together with friends and family at home, Crissman told DaJuan the party was for Myers.

During the party, Crissman played a video from Jarvis Landry, wide receiver for DaJuan’s favorite football team, the Cleveland Browns.

“He said I was going to the Super Bowl,” DaJuan said.

The third-grade student from West Boulevard Elementary was one of 18,000 kids to be submitted in the contest, eventually making it through several rounds of judging, Crissman said. He was one of 32 kids from across the country to go, one for each football team with the NFL.

In submitted home videos, Crissman said that each entry was judged on athletic ability and passion while playing.

DaJuan plays tackle and flag football, rotating three positions as running back, wide receiver and quarterback.

Although he didn’t get to meet any football players, DaJuan did get to meet Maxwell “Bunchie” Young, a 13-year-old football standout who is popular on YouTube, starring in his own Super Bowl commercial.

DaJuan did get to go on the field as part of the contest, where he said he noticed something about the players.

“They were so big. I didn’t think they were actually that big,” he said.

DaJuan wants said he wants to be a professional football player. To start training so he can get to the professionals’ size, DaJuan said will gladly eat his favorite food: wings.

Along with a hoodie as a personal souvenir, DaJuan also received some impressive swag from the NFL, including a hat, a number 13 Browns jersey (just like DaJuan’s favorite player, Odell Beckham Jr.) with his own name on the back, sweatbands, a pair of Nike turf shoes, and $1,000 for the family for spending money during their trip.

DaJuan also received a 100th anniversary football and a signed Landry jersey from the Browns.

“I got all the signatures of all the 32 kids that were there” on the ball, DaJuan said.

Myers, Niya and other family members who were in Miami celebrated at a hotel party as DaJuan and Crissman cheered from the game at the Hard Rock Stadium.

“This was not only DaJuan’s first NFL game, but it was also my first NFL game,” Crissman said.

Never even attending a college game, Crissman said “it was really special that my 9-year-old son provided” her the opportunity to see the sport played in real-time.

Leah Mohl, DaJuan’s teacher, said that she has been proud of not only DaJuan, but also the rest of her class.

“(Classmates) have been excited and pumped, and he’s just been humbled about the entire experience,” Mohl said.

While DaJuan was gone, Mohl and her class stayed updated on his travels.

When he returned, his peers were excited to ask questions of DaJuan’s trip, Mohl said.

“They were asking a lot of questions about the trip,” DaJuan said of his classmates.

While he did collect signatures from others in the contest, DaJuan has found a level of celebrity once he returned home.

Starting with his uncle, his classmates have been “asking for my autograph,” he said.

Teachers and other students at school have been talking non-stop about DaJuan’s adventure, Mohl said. “I still can’t get over it,” she added.

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