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Since its inception as a Pop Warner youth football program, the Silver Spring-based White Oak Warriors have had some of the best football teams in the country.

In its seven-year existence, seven White Oak teams have national championships to their names, with two — Pee Wees (9-11-year-olds) and Junior Pee Wees (8-10) — winning last year.

Its older kids are also pretty good.

On Dec. 19, the Maryland Crab Bowl — a statewide football all-star game — will host a youth game consisting of the best eighth-graders in the state. Between 54 and 70 players are slated to play, selected from a pool of 116 participants at the game's official combine in September.

Of those, 12 White Oak players have already been invited. No other program has more than four.

"They get the best kids from the area playing there," said Crab Bowl co-founder Chuck Harmon. "We had high school coaches, rec league coaches, [NFL kicker] Nick Novak working out with the kids, the whole DeMatha staff. ... They were out there doing the drills just like the high school kids, and the White Oak kids just did the best at the combine. I could take a whole team from White Oak."

In fact, he already has. At the inaugural Youth Crab Bowl last year, Harmon and co-founder Sean O'Connor matched up White Oak's eighth-grade team against the Tustin Cobras, a historic California-based program with several national titles. White Oak won, 12-8.

"They've taken it to another level," Harmon said. "There are a lot of good ones in the state, but White Oak's in a class by itself right now."

This year's game will be played at Johnny Unitas Stadium at Towson University. According to O'Connor, the official names of the White Oak players, along with the others chosen, will be released Sunday at a mandatory Crab Bowl information meeting.

The players will be split into Red and White teams, regardless of team or geography, with an official practice determining the final roster. Landon assistant coach Aaron Brady will coach one side, while Calvert Hall head coach Donald Davis will man the other.

"Instead of just selecting the teams from a combine with no contact, this is how we will make sure we get the best players," O'Connor said. "Because maybe the guy who was the sixth-best running back at the combine might be the best linebacker."

White Oak has been well-represented at the high school level in recent years. Its alumni include former Sherwood great Deontay Twyman, 2006 and '07 Gazette Player of the Year Melvin Harris, current Rutgers free safety and '07 Northwest graduate Joe Lefeged, and Georgetown Prep running back Jenkins Monzey, who was featured in a national Under Armour commercial several years ago.