How To Startup A Youth Football Program Book

Starting a Youth Football Program or Team Step-by-Step
Presented by www.winningyouthfootball.com and Dave Cisar
Learn From a Youth Coach
Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. The reproduction, or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, and recording, digital transfer, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.
Author: Dave Cisar
Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved
Starting a Youth Football Program or Team Step-by-Step
By: winningyouthfootball.com
Dave Cisar
Warranties
The information in this document is provided for informational purposes only and are not intended to be construed as legal advice. Please contact an attorney to help you and review your processes and forms as well as advise you on matters pertaining to risk management, organizational structure, reporting, financials and insurance. Winning Youth Football and the author assume no responsibility for claims resulting by using the sample forms and processes presented in this document. All information in this document is offered free of charge and without any expressed or implied warranties or non-infringement of intellectual property rights. All readers have been advised to consult an attorney and assume the responsibility for any damages due to use of the sample forms, content or advice given in this book. Winning Youth Football is located in Nebraska and we make no claim as to the suitability or legality of the content of this book in any state.
Table of Contents
Warranties: 4 Table of Contents: 5-6 Acknowledgments: 7 Chapter 1: So You Want to Start a Youth Football Program? Getting Started- Why: 8-10 Surveying the Landscape: 10-11 Mission Statement: 11-12 Gaining Support: 13-15 League-Choices: 15-21 Practice Fields: 21-23 Chapter 2: Organizational Structure Incorporating: 24 Org Structure: 24-25 How 501c3: 26-27 Board of Directors: 27-29 Bylaws: 30 Leadership Needs: 30-31 Conducting a Board Meeting: 31-32 Chapter 3- Setting Your Program Apart Academic Program: 33-41 Community Service: 41 Character Development: 42-43 Teams and Numbers: 43-44 Dividing Up Teams: 45-47 Working With Schools: 48-52 Chapter 4: Communication Web Site: 53-54 Communicating Logistics: 55-56 RainedOut: 56 Public Relations: 56-58 Chapter 5- Volunteers Managing Volunteers: 59-60 Volunteer Job Descriptions: 60-64 Chapter 6- Recruiting and Retaining Players Player Recruiting Methods: 65-69 Player Signups: 69-71 Player Retention: 72-73 Chapter 7- Managing Risk Injuries and Managing Risk: 74-76 Insurance: 77-78 Sample Forms: 80-81
Safety: 82-84 Emergency Action Plan: 85-87 Chapter 8- Coaching the Ultimate Critical Success Factor Importance of Coaching: 88-89 Coaches Profile: 89 Recruiting Coaches: 89-90 Background Checks: 90-91 Coach Selection: 92-93 Coaching Application: 93 Coaching Test: 94-99 Job Descriptions: 100 Coach Interview Questions: 101-102 Coach Training: 103-104 Coaching Contract: 105-107 Working With Officials: 108 Coaching Reviews: 109-111 Removing Coaches: 112-113 Coach Training: 113-116 Chapter 9- Managing Players and Parents Getting and Keeping Attention: 117 Player Contract: 119 Managing Parents: 120-122 Parent Contract: 122 Parent Meeting: 123-128 Parent Letter: 129 Chapter 10- Managing Teams Choosing Players for Positions: 130-132 Team Building: 132 Chapter 11- Financial Management and Safeguards Setting Up Your Financial System: 133-135 Fundraising: 135-137 Chapter 12- Equipment Base Equipment Needs: 137-139 Managing Equipment: 140-143 Chapter 13- Video Video: 144-145 Chapter 13- Banquet and Awards Banquet: 146-147 Awards: 148-149 Chapter 14- Taking it Forward : 150 Author Page: 151-153 Sample Articles of Incorporation: 154-157 Sample By-Laws: 157-174
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Youth Football Dear Coach, I congratulate you on either starting a new youth football program or team or even considering to start one. When youth football is done right it can be a catalyst to change the lives of young men and can even help transform and bring communities together. You will find this is a very easy to read book and an excellent resource for not only administrators and coaches new to the youth football game, but even to the salty veteran thats been around the block a few times. The book will take you step-by-step on how to start and even manage an effective youth football program or team. Everything from putting together your mission statement to insurance, setting up your 501c3 and recruiting players will be covered. This book is dedicated to the all players whose lives we touch by coaching. It is dedicated to all the coaches that coach for the right reasons, to train our youth in the ways they should go. I dedicate it to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, all glory to Him alone. Special thanks to my wife and family for indulging my vice of youth football coaching. Special thanks to all the good coaches that have shared their knowledge of the game with me including Jay Smith, Stacy Bell, Tim Peterson, John Manna, Dave Potter, Craig Millius, Mike Mahoney and Konnie Robertson Photography to name just a few. Our prayer is that you will use this information to form a truly great youth football program that will stand the test of time and be instrumental in helping develop your players into productive adults.
Dave Cisar
Chapter 1 So You Want to Start a New Youth Football Program Introduction and Background
So you think you want to start a youth football program or team? Alternatively, maybe you have already started a program and you feel there is room for improvement. If you are starting a program for the first time, if you are like most of us, it will be the first and last time you start something like this from scratch. Like anything you do for the very first time, you are going to make some mistakes or forget to do some very important tasks that may permanently sabotage your chance for success. This book will help you avoid many of the pitfalls many youth football organizers have fallen into by learning from the mistakes and successes of others that have taken the very same path you are taking. Starting a new youth football program is like building a fence for the very first time. Most of us have seen fences; we may even own one or have seen one being built. However, if you try to build a fence for the very first time by just buying some lumber and setting up on your task, your fence is probably going to be uneven and crooked. However, that second fence you build is going to look much better than the first and by the time you have built that tenth fence, you are probably going to be a half way decent fence builder. Then there is the time factor, it is going to take you 5-6 times as long to build that first fence as the person who has built fences for a living for the past 25 years. The same is true for starting up a youth football team or program for the first time. Once you have gained the knowledge of how to start a program from scratch, what to do and not to do, learning from the school of Hard Knocks, you will not need the expertise again. Very few of you are going to start multiple programs, you just want to get this one right the first time. Why Start Over There are many reasons why youth coaches consider starting a new organization. The typical reasons are: no youth football program in the area, poor leadership and management in existing program, poor league-existing programs refuse to move out of the league, cheating in existing organization or league, nepotism and favoritism in existing organization, poor coaching or maybe even financial mismanagement. The reasons you want to start a new
program arent important. What is important is that if you decide to go forward you will have one chance to put your best foot forward, one chance to determine who your organization is ,how it will be structured and how it will move forward. You will not get a second chance, especially if you have competitors breathing down your neck or you are breaking off from an existing organization. After reading this book, you may realize you did not know how much time and effort was going to be involved in putting together a program from scratch. Yes, it takes time and hard work, but in the end, it can be very satisfying seeing your vision take life and positively affect the lives of your players and even your community. Many lifelong friendships are built around the common cause of improving the lives of young men through youth football. This book should be used as a template and sounding board to help you navigate this path so it has fewer roadblocks and help you avoid the ambushes that unfortunately plague most youth sports today. Often times salvaging a dying or dysfunctional program makes little sense. When you have an entrenched leadership group that is set in its ways, change is difficult if not impossible. In other cases significant change could fracture an existing organization so much that there would be too many factions working against each other that any chance at success would be impossible. In other cases if the reputation of the existing organization in the community is so negative, the amount of work needed to turn that situation around might better be applied at just starting over. Even the under new management moniker is rarely going to turn around the communitys impression of the old organization. First impressions and reputations last a very long time in youth sports and if you have to fight that battle, it often times is more trouble than it is worth. The reason Im so passionate about this subject and offering this book free is I know how important competitive team youth sports can be as a catalyst in the lives of young men. Ive also seen many poorly conceived and poorly managed youth sports organizations that have failed miserably when they didnt have to. Most were doomed from the very start by not following a few basic management and organizational principals. Why Listen to Me? Why listen to me? Ive started two different very successful youth football organizations from scratch and coached in two others. Ive consulted for hundreds of youth football organizations all over the country through private hands on coaching clinics and organizational consulting. Ive been hired by a number of High Schools to help them manage their programs and teams more effectively. My background includes a Business Degree from Texas A&M University and a career in Business Consulting and Management with an International Consulting Company, Cap Gemini Consulting as well as a founding partner in SCR Consulting, which we sold to Renaissance Worldwide.
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I founded what became the largest youth football organization in the city of Omaha in 1997, starting with just 1 team, 1 coach and 36 players. Located in inner-city Omaha, Nebraska a metroplex of nearly 900,000 people we grew the organization to nearly 400 kids and expanded from one location to four. Many years we filled our teams up a year in advance and had over 200 kids on the waiting list to play, while other organizations were scrambling to find kids to play. After moving to the Lincoln, Nebraska area in 2004 I started up another program in a rural/suburban area with a much different demographic. Lincoln has a population of about 225,000 and our bedroom rural community town has just 1,200 residents. While we are in a much smaller area now, we now serve 100 kids and always fill up our teams a year in advance, with waiting lists. In the last 15 seasons, my player retention rates have exceeded 95% and my teams have won over 90% of our games. Ive also coached in two other leagues before starting my own organization, both in suburban areas. The net is, Ive coached, started and run very successful programs in a variety of demographics. Im not writing this book from fluffy theory; Ive been right where you are and made some mistakes Im going to show you how to avoid. The reason we are offering it for free is we want to help programs to be successful and grow so they in turn can help more kids play the great game of football. Getting Started Surveying the Area The first step is to survey the area, where you think you want to build a youth football program may not be the best spot, there may be more fertile grounds nearby. Once you select a geographic area to serve that becomes part of your identity, starting over in another location hurts your brand and your credibility. Many of your stakeholders are going to be tied to the area you choose to serve, if you move you will have to cultivate an entirely new group of people. How Well is the Area Served Today? What is the need in the area? How well is it being served today? You can do this in a number of ways, some more scientific than others. What are the retention rates of the existing organization? That means how many players who start the season end up not only staying with the organization the current season, but how many sign up to play the following season with the same organization. Well run programs are consistently in the 90% or more area, organizations that are in the 70% or below range are very vulnerable. Another way is to take the number of kids in a geographic area and see what percentage of them are playing youth football for the local organization. In Omaha, the Omaha Public
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Schools has a free book that shows the school boundaries and the number of students in each school by grade and sex. The Parochial Schools in Omaha do the same, so all you have to do is add up the number of males in the geographic area you are considering serving who are playing football and divide that by the number of boys attending schools in that are, that will give you your reach rate. Compare that to what other reach rates in the area. Reach rates vary a bit by region, there are areas of the country where football is very important, a reach rate of 55% would not be uncommon in these areas, however in other areas of the country a reach rate of 15% might be considered quite good. Where I live the reach rate for very well run organizations is about 30%. For areas that have no existing program or people have to say drive 40 minutes to the nearest place to play, reach rates of 3-5% arent uncommon. Obviously, those would be very fertile grounds for establishing a program. Are there practice space and game space opportunities? Not all areas have reasonable access to practice or game fields, you are going to need both to be a long-term success. If your practice area does not have reasonable access or isnt safe, you are going to have a rough time of it, more on that later. What is the reputation of any organization that is serving the local area? Ask open-ended questions of local leaders, business people, youth sports people and organizations that compete against the local organization. Ask in a very non-threatening open-minded way, you need accurate feedback. I always started with the local High School Head Football coach and then the Athletic Director. Just let them know you are gathering information to help you make an informed decision on the possibility of establishing a new youth football program in the area. Let them know you are ONLY gathering information at this point. Make sure you share with them your Mission Statement, more on that later. Ask them if they feel there is a need for a well-run youth football program based on your vision stated in the mission statement and how they view the programs serving the existing area. Ask them what they would like to see out of a youth program in the area, what may be missing from the existing offering. Ask them why they think there arent more kids playing football in the area. You dont want to turn this short meeting into a referendum on the existing program but if you feel the conversation is turning friendly you might ask what they like and dislike about the existing program. Of course, if there is no program in place at all, you still want to have this meeting to help you cultivate stakeholders and have their input before you make your final decision. First Things First- The Mission Statement Develop your mission statement first, it is what you want your end result to be. What should your organization look like to those viewing you from the outside? If your organization somehow ceased to exist, what would the public say about your o rganization? What would
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you like them to say? The mission statement should be no longer than a paragraph and the best ones are just a long sentence in length. Your mission statement should be the driving force for everything you do in your program. When you are figuring out what to do with scarce resources or solving a problem, you always need to ask yourself, how is this helping us accomplish our mission? For more detailed information on developing a mission statement read Steven Coveys, First Things First. For my Organization our mission statement is: To help develop a love and appreciation of the game in our players so they may gain the life lessons football teaches like no other. Without a mission statement, your Organization is like a boat with no rudder. How would you know if you reached your target if the target is not defined? The organizations mission statement needs to be communicated and held out in front in anything you do. If your officers or coaches have cards, put the mission statement on the back. Make the mission statement the focal point of your web site. On your e-mail signature, put the mission statement under it. You cant over communicate your mission; it should be committed to memory and be easily quoted by every member of your coaching staff and even your parents. Of course, there is more to what you do than a mission statement; the elevator speech is how you would describe your program to someone in the 45-100 seconds you would be on an elevator with. After leading with your mission statement, the rest might be your major points of emphasis. Again, this is very short and concise and should be practiced so it becomes second nature to communicate it at the drop of a hat. For an example, my programs elevator speech would go something like this: The Screaming Eagle youth football programs mission is to help develop a love and appreciation in the game in our players so they continue to play the game that teaches life lessons like no other. We do this by focusing on having well trained coaches and leadership that are sold out to following a well thought out and proven template of developing our players and our teams. Creating a positive encouraging environment while maintaining accountability and discipline is our approach. By stressing perfect fundamentals and bringing our teams together in a systematic way that bonds them with each other and the coaching staff, competitive teams are the end result. Our goals are to play to the teams potential, play everyone, have the best sportsmanship reputation in the League and have fun. We use a Character Development Program to help bring our teams closer together and to develop each player in lessons he can use on and away from the football field. We have an Academic Accountability and Rewards Program that helps the boys develop in school. Teaching great fundamentals, teaching character lessons, getting everyone playing time, having fun and winning are not mutually exclusive. Winning is just the byproduct of doing all the rest of it right (More on that in the coaching section). Dont be afraid of winning, it is not a four letter word. My personal teams have gone 132-18 over the last 15 seasons in 4 different leagues and in 2 different cities 90 miles apart.
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If your coaches are well trained and the organization is managed well, there is no reason why your teams cant be competitive. There is no special magic pixie dust that makes the water in an area produce better football players than others, you can win anywhere with a good plan and good coaching. Look at my web site www.winningyouthfootball.com on the testimonials page, there were over 400 worst to first reports there from coaches that took teams from worst to first place in just one season, most of the time with the very same players. While you dont have to win every game to be a great organization, you will need to be reasonably competitive to be a long-term viable program in most areas of the country. Gaining Support In order for your vision to take flight, even if you do most of the work yourself, you are going to need to gain the support of key people in your community. Early on, you will have to make due with a clear vision, your visible passion and the appearance of competence. That means you are on time for every meeting, well groomed, with notebook in hand and smile on your face. Whatever shows to that person must emote competence and organization skills. First impressions mean a lot - they are hard to overcome. That means you need to go out and buy yourself a nice notebook and pen. Dont wear jeans, appear business like, that means business casual and a sports jacket if you have one. People that have reputations to protect arent going to support some halfcocked adventure that is destined to fail. Many of them will however hitch their wagon to someone that looks like they have a chance at succeeding. In the first round of meetings, you are soliciting input to shape your program. You are gathering information from possible stakeholders, asking them for information to help you make better decisions. Your call to set up the meeting might go something like this Mr. Jones, my name is Dave Cisar. I represent the Screaming Eagles Youth Development program in South Omaha. We are looking at putting together a program that reaches at-risk kids in your area using football as the drawing card. We are trying to shape our offering or even decide if we should be doing this at all. We need good information to make sure we make the right decisions. You know the area well, I would like to visit with you for 15 minutes to ask you a few questions. Your input is very valuable; as I know you know the area and care so deeply for area youth. Can we get together this Thursday or Friday? After you take a few meetings, dont be afraid to name drop, most people dont want to be out on a ledge by themselves, they feel there is safety in numbers. If you spoke to the local High School football coach on Monday, dont be afraid to mention that to prospective stakeholders. People you should visit on this first round: local high school head football coaches, athletic directors, neighborhood association Presidents, YMCA manager, Presidents of youth sports programs that do not have football (basketball, baseball programs), city council representative and mid-level prominent business leaders.
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Make sure that when you take these meetings that you do some research on the person you are meeting with. If you know a little bit about them and can focus some of the meeting on them, you have a much better chance of being heard. Share with them your vision and ask them about the need for something like your vision being a reality in their area. Let them know again that you are just gathering information to help you make decisions and put the best offering available. Let them know their input is important, that you dont want to make decisions in a vacuum. Ask them what is important to them; what an organization like you envision could be a benefit to them. Ask them what they would like to see a youth football program doing that maybe other programs arent doing. Ask them what they would do if they were in your shoes. Ask them who else you should be asking these questions of. Ask them that if you decide to move forward, do they have any suggestions for Board members or coaches. Always be networking to build support. Your best advertising medium for the organization is always going to be personal relationships and contacts. Some of the people you meet arent going to be enthusiastically supportive; others may even go out of their way to make introductions for you. Dont get discouraged, like anything else it is a numbers game, the more people you solicit input from, the better information you are going to get. Eventually you will run into a person or two who will take you under their wing and offer some help. Remember to get their contact information, send an e-mail, AND hand written note thanking them for their time and specific input. Doing this small thing shows you are serious, appreciative and detail oriented, it is an absolute must. Build an e-mail list off these meetings and let these people know where the organization is heading. Once you have many of your details ironed out like your 501c3 application filled out, the league you are playing in nailed down, some of your leadership in place its time to take a second round of meetings. You may want to update some of the more helpful people from the first round of meetings and then meet people from parks and recreation/field use. In Omaha, the metroplex is about 900,000 and the city proper is about 385,000, we were able to meet with the Mayors office, city councilman and our State Senator. Through some helpful connections we were also able to meet with our Congressman. All this is much easier to do if you decide you want to be a little more than just a youth football program. If you embrace the idea that football is an excellent way to develop character and confidence in young men and you want the program to stress things like academics and community involvement, you will be able to schedule meeting with the people I mentioned. These people LOVE to give advice and they have many connections to help you develop your program if you ask them and if you work the relationship. In this round, you are also going to want to meet with some of the bigger business leaders in the area. There may be a local businessmans or merchants association you can meet with. Now is the time to meet with some of the movers and shakers in your area, everyone knows who these people are: Influencers, former name athletes, church leaders, school principals and influential teachers to name a few. Again,
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always be networking and always follow up with an appreciative e-mail and thankful handwritten note. During this second round of meetings, again share your vision and more of how you plan on getting there. Give them some reason to think you are going to succeed by stressing what you have completed so far and share the names of some of your more prominent supporters. Let them know where your areas of need are, which at this time should be on the people, not the money side. Most people do NOT respond well if during a first meeting you arrive with your hand out. Again, ask them for contacts of people they think could provide value to your effort. Ask them for suggestions or recommendations for people in leadership positions in your program. If they cant help, ask them for the name of someone who might be able to recommend people that could fill leadership positions in your organization. You need to cast as wide a net as you can to build your network of contacts and relationships in order to get the best people you can AND to build a rapport with stakeholders. When you are building something great and lasting, people like to think that they had something to do with you getting there. Make EVERYONE you meet feel important, that their input is critical to your success. What League Should You Play In Choosing the right league for your program is critically important. No matter how well you run your organization, if you choose to affiliate with a league that is poorly run, it can be a deathblow to the life of a new program. In many places, there are a number of league choices to choose from. If that is the case in your area, the best way to make a decision is to take in some games the year prior to making your move to form a new program. Take in games at a variety of locations, it will be evident very early on if the league is run well or not. Things to look for: quality and safety of playing fields, are games on time, are the proper number of referees present, are the referees adults and certified, are the referees properly uniformed and professional, what is the sportsmanship like, how well are the teams equipped, how well are the teams coached, do the teams have reasonable numbers, how far are the fields in the league apart, what are the fans like, what are the restrooms and concession stands like and what is the quality of play. Next, ask a few parents and coaches from the winning teams what they think of the league you are considering. Ask about weigh-ins and application of rules to see if the league is run fairly with a reasonable amount of checks and balances to insure teams are complying. Find out how birth dates and weights are verified and how rules are enforced. Unbelievably a few unscrupulous coaches will actually cheat to win. I coached in two different leagues that were fairly well run and we still had two teams that were caught cheating. One team forged a
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birth certificate by hole punching the date on the birth certificate out and replacing it with another number, then copied it. This clown was found out, because he failed to also change the year of the issue date and the font didnt quite match. Another loser coach, (the good coaches dont have to cheat to win) used an illegal player for one game. When the opposing coach asked this coach to see his certification book with all his birth certificates and picture, the player in question threw his jersey off and took off running over the hill. When asked who the player was, no one could come up with an answer. In both cases the coaches thought to be responsible were banned for life, games were forfeited and the organization was either tossed from the league or put on probation. Find out if cheating is common. No league is perfect and expect to get a variety of answers, but you should be able to get a feel for the quality of the league and satisfaction levels by taking this approach. Do your homework, because if you choose wrongly it can significantly affect your retention numbers. Find out the leagues age and weight limits. Some leagues have very low weight limits that may restrict many of the kids you want involved in your program from playing. Some leagues have unlimited weight limits and have wide age groupings, which may scare off many families from joining your program. Other leagues have striper rules where if a player is over a certain weight he can play, but he has to play on the interior line. These heavier players are marked with a horizontal stripe around their helmets so the referees know where they must line up and if they touch the ball, the play is whistled dead. Some leagues require you to field teams at every age group, if you cant they dont want you. Others have very restrictive geographical boundaries you must abide by. Its important that you understand what each league has to offer before you decide which makes the most sense for your group.
Find out if your prospective league has any special rules. Many leagues have special rules for things like special teams; they may award 2 points for a PAT kick rather than 1, to encourage teams to develop a kicking game. Pop Warner and many leagues have this type of rule in place. Some leagues allow for an automatic punt of 25 yards at the youngest age groups instead of a live punt. Other leagues get EXTREMELY restrictive to the point of telling you what kind of offense or defense you must run. There are a handful of leagues that are so restrictive their rulebook looks like the Gutenberg Bible. You have to find a league that is a fit for your mission, your comfort level and the grouping of kids you think you can recruit to play. Leagues vary in quality all over the country. There are nearly 3,000,000 kids playing youth football in 2010 and they play in a variety of leagues. There are national leagues like Pop Warner, AYF and YFL, there are independent leagues and there are school leagues, primarily
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at the middle school age group of 7-8 grade. There are great Pop Warner, AYF, YFL and Independent Leagues all over the country, there are also weak Pop Warner, AYF, YFL and Independent Leagues all over the country. You have to do your due diligence and check the league out on your own.
Pop Warner Pop Warner and youth football are often times referred to as interchangeable terms like Kleenex is the common term used for paper tissues. Pop Warner began back in 1929 by Joseph Tomlin in Philadelphia to help keep wayward boys. It now has over 400,000 children aged 5-16 playing both tackle and flag football. Pop Warner is well known for the year-end tournament they put on annually at Walt Disneys Wild World of Sports to crown their National Champions. The games are covered by ESPN and the Midget Championship is usually televised on the regular ESPN channel. Pop Warner has a strict age/weight matrix as seen below. Before every game, each player is required to reweigh and certify. Pop Warner is very big in some areas of the country and not big at all in others. Check your local leagues out to determine the number of teams in the area and how far you may have to travel in order to participate in district play. Pop Warner has an academic qualification piece to its program as well as an academic awards program. It is an organization that has proven itself over time and in most cases is well run and well organized. Note however that there are a number of requirements your organization will have to meet in order to become a Pop Warner team and there are often times strict boundaries in place. Also note the age and weight matrix, bigger kids are restricted from playing and older kids that arent very big are allowed to play down an age bracket. The older but lighter rule, while well intentioned is sometimes abused, with teams starving older kids to load up a younger aged squad.
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2011 AGES AND WEIGHTS FOR Pop Warner TACKLE FOOTBALL PROGRAMS:
Tackle Football Divisions of Play: Age/Weight Division TINY-MITE (older/lighter) MITEY-MITE (older/lighter) JUNIOR PEE WEE (older/lighter) PEE WEE (older/lighter) JUNIOR MIDGET (older/lighter) MIDGET (older/lighter) UNLIMITED (older/lighter) Age(s) 5-6-7 No older/lighter 7-8-9 N/A 8-9-10 11* 9-10-11 12* 10-11-12 13* 11-12-13-14 15* 12-13-14-15 No older/lighter Certification Weight Range 35-75 lbs. No older/lighter 45-90 lbs. N/A 60-105 lbs. 60-85 lbs. 75-120 lbs. 75-100 lbs. 85-135 lbs. 85-115 lbs. 105-160 lbs. 105-140 lbs. 170+ lbs. No older/lighter
*The asterisked (*) provisions in each division allow the so-called "older but lighter" player to also qualify. The last year of eligibility falls under more stringent weight restrictions, per above. A child's age on July 31 is his/her age for the season. A player may gain 1 pound per week after the second game, up to a maximum of 9 pounds.
Taken from the Pop Warner site: www.popwarner.com
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AYF American Youth Football was started in 1996 by Joe Galat and presently has over 600,000 players involved under its operating umbrella. AYF offers quite a bit of flexibility, it has both age/weight level leagues as well as unlimited grade based leagues as well. Even an independent league with its own unique set of rules and age/weights can become a member of AYF, however to participate in their National Championships, the teams must conform to the national rules. The AYFs National Championships are held in the Orlando area the very same week that Pop Warner holds theirs. You do NOT need to play in an AYF league in order to become an AYF team and gain the benefits of being a part of the AYF. For as little as $25 per team, you can join AYF and take advantage of their buying power for lower insurance and background check rates.
2010 AYF Football Instructional Division
TEAM Tiny Mite

MITEY-MITE
AGE as of July 31st 7 and Under

9 and Under
Max Stripped Weight + Uniform Allowance = Max Dressed Weight 85 + 5 = 90 lbs.

114 lbs. MAX 94 lbs. MAX Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted
1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade
Protected Age 7 as of 12/31 Protected Age 8 as of 12/31 Protected Age 9 as of 12/31
*Instructional Division can be established/adjusted as your Conference sees fit, adjust to the needs of your area with this chart as a Guideline.
Age and/or Grades can be combined to fit the needs of your area Sample playing rules for Instructional Division play can be found online Pre-Game Weigh-In Must Be Conducted Prior To Each Game
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2010 AYF Football National Division
TEAM
Jr. PeeWee
AGE as of July 31st

10 and Under, 11 Older Lighter
Max Stripped Weight + Uniform Allowance = Max Dressed Weight

114 + 5 = 119 lbs., 94 + 5 = 99 lbs. 129 + 5 = 134 lbs., 109 + 5 = 114 lbs. 144 + 6 = 150 lbs., 124 + 6 = 130 lbs. 169 + 6 = 175 lbs., 149 + 6 = 155 lbs.
PeeWee
Jr. Midget
Midget
Pre-Game Weigh-In Must Be Conducted Prior To Each Game
Taken from the AYF web site: www.americanyouthfootball.com AYF also has unlimited weight divisions by grade that have playoffs and play for National Titles in the Orlando area. This is the fastest growing part of their program. United YFL United YFL is the a newer National League that like AYF has both age/weight based football as well as grade based unlimited football. Run by a group of top notch business executives that have a passion for youth football, United YFL has experienced growth and may eventually rival other national leagues many areas of the country. They can be found at www.unitedyfl.com Using a Democratic type approach coupled with sound business processes and a unique approach to year-end playoffs and the Bowl Experience in Florida, these are the new guys on the block. Like AYF, they offer the 501(c)(3) subjugation and discounted insurance prices through the group as well as a host of other benefits. Independents Again, there are more independent youth football programs in the USA than Pop Warner, AYF and United YFL combined. The independent leagues are independent for a reason, they like the flexibility of being independent and being able to establish their own rules and processes. Some are age/weight based, some are unlimited weight and grade based and some are a hybrid, unlimited from tackle to tackle with striper weight rules that require kids over a certain weight to play tackle to tackle with a stripe around their helmet designating that the heavier player is not allowed to carry the football.
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Like any other league, the quality of the independent leagues vary from locale to locale. There are some great year-end tournaments like the NYFC Tournament of Champions held in Las Vegas and Daytona, Florida that crown mythical National Championships for independents that gather from all over the country. Similar tournaments are held in Tennessee, Texas and other locales in Florida as well, often times hosting over 100 top quality teams. New League Starting a league of your own is another conversation and another book we will provide later. If you want to start a league of your own, you can apply many of the principles in this book to that process, but it is an entirely different endeavor that deserves a book of its own. That is a big chunk to bite off as we say in Nebraska, but successful new leagues are formed every year by hard working visionaries with great management and organizational skills. Practice and Game Fields There are no two ways about it, you are going to need a place to practice and play your games. Some leagues require some hefty minimum standards. The league my team plays in requires a regulation game field, goal posts, electronic scoreboard with clock, seating for a minimum of 100 people, restrooms for both sexes, separation of the field from the fans and a concession stand with hot food. You need to understand the requirements before you go work on finding a field to play on. You are going to have a tough row to hoe if you dont have a home field to call your own. Teams that play all away games typically struggle with numbers and developing an identity and ties to the community not to mention having to compete with programs for kids when your parents have to travel across town or to the next town to play every weekend. You will also need to find out what the field use fees are. In some areas where you have a strong relationship with the school or city, you may get it free. In other areas, you may have to play up to $1200 per day to use the stadium. Many schools are required to charge a standard fee and to have a school employee present for all games played. You need to know ahead of time what the insurance requirements and usage fees are so you can fairly evaluate your options as well as determine your budget. Practice fields are another story, you can get by with a lot less and you may have to. Practice space is at a premium in many locations and existing programs including evil soccer often times have death grips on existing facilities. Thats why it makes sense to develop some of your stakeholders prior to looking for practice space, they can often times provide the political power to help you get practice space that you would have no chances of getting on your own.
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The space you need really depends on how may teams you are choosing to field in your first season. Of course, the best practice field would be a legal football field with goal posts 120 yards by 53 1/3 yards. Ideally, you dont want to practice and play on the same field, they get too beat up by seasons end and you wouldnt want to practice on that field after or during rains. What the perfect practice field looks like and what you can get by with are two different things. You can get by with good flat grass of about 50 yards by 35 yards, keeping in mind you will need to get your kids onto a regulation field prior to their first game so they can get the proper feel and spacing of playing on a full field. Start with the City Parks and Rec Department, then check with the individual schools you want to practice at. Some schools might suggest that you go through some bureaucratic process to get access to the fields, dont go that route. Go directly to the Principal of the school or the Head Football Coach or the Athletic Director. They often times can run interference for you and know the ins and outs of securing the field use for you. It is too easy for some faceless bureaucrat that doesnt know you or your mission to say no to your request. Thats why its important to collaborate with schools, more on that later. You may be required to sign waivers or show a copy of your proof of insurance. Some organizations will require you to name them as a secondary insured, which is not a problem at all for the insurers that offer services in this space. Some may require payment as well, it all depends where you are located and sometimes how well connected you may be. Its important to understand what your costs are in order to prepare your budget and enrollment fees. Weve practiced on church softball outfields, regulation football fields, soccer fields, High School football practice fields, Parks and Recreation baseball outfields and even in open flat areas run by Parks and Recreation. Weve even practiced on Boys and Girls club fields, private club fields, elementary school recess areas and even a private facility run by the alumni organization of a local High School. You may be forced to be creative, in one case in order to make a field playable we had to bring in truckloads of our own dirt and seed the field with grass we paid for ourselves. In another case a local company donated a set of goal posts and even erected it on a field we renovated, more on that later. The practice field needs to have bathrooms, if none are available you can rent port-a-potties for anywhere from $40-$120 per month depending on where you live. Having a covered area is a plus for when there is rain or lightning. You want to be able to get your players safely under cover and continue to practice via chalk talks and not waste any time. Some of the High Schools that have practice space will let you come indoors when it rains so you can continue to practice albeit without pads. If you arent practicing at a school that can give you gym access, you need to work your contacts for gym space. When you know its going to rain, your practice field is soaked or you lose daylight or cant practice in November due to snow or cold, you need an indoor area you can practice in. Even though you will have to practice
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without pads, your kids can stay fairly sharp even in a confined area. If you plan a late season Florida Bowl game or have designs on a National Championship type event, you are going to need somewhere to practice if you dont have lights or the weather gets bad. Weve practiced in Elementary Gyms, Middle School Gyms, High School Gyms, Middle School lunchrooms, Church Gyms, a business warehouse and even a Church Multi use area. Let your parents and stakeholders know your needs and give you leads or ideas on places you can practice indoors. My Omaha organization outgrew our tiny practice area at a local city park and ended up splitting up to practice at four different locations. While for many that was not ideal, we simply couldnt find anywhere that could accommodate 400 players. In the end it was the better choice for us, it allowed more players to be able to walk to practice as we assigned the players to teams closest to the space we had to practice in, all locations were within 18 blocks of each other.
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Chapter 2 Organizational Structure

How should a youth football program be organized? There are a number of options you should consider before determining which makes the most sense for your program. Most people when they decide to form a youth football program think that they have to incorporate, while some feel comfortable with a less formal unincorporated association. Incorporating has a number of advantages including the credibility you gain by having a formal legal entity. Many times volunteers and stakeholders will not agree to help you without the protection of incorporation. While some states have approved laws that do protect volunteers involved in unincorporated groups, it isnt universal and it probably doesnt provide the protection many are looking for. When you incorporate as a nonprofit, you create a company that pays taxes and protects the members, leadership and volunteers from many forms of personal liability. In many cases, only the assets of the corporation are at risk, not the personal assets of the volunteers, leadership or Board members. If you are interested in applying for grants, many grant givers will make awards only to non-profit entities that have incorporated. If you plan to obtain federal tax-exempt status, you will need to incorporate. Incorporating The first step is adopting an organizational document and articles of incorporation that must have specific language in it if you are interested in taking the next step and applying for taxexempt status. This document must also be date stamped by the state to be legal. The states and federal government require that those applying for tax-exempt status also meet several qualifications including limits on pay to Board Members and a strict avoidance of partisan politics. The articles of incorporation list what your organization is, its purpose, the corporations name, address, phone and the names of your Board members. Most state offer this form in a download from the internet.
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Tax Exempt Status If you decide to become a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation and meet state and federal requirements, your donors are allowed to deduct the value of their contributions for tax purposes. For many people that means anywhere from 21%-55% of the value of the contribution comes back to them in the form of a tax break. If you are planning to incorporate, do it prior to applying for federal tax exempt status. Who Does the Paperwork If you are like many, the thought of doing legal work and filings with state and federal government entities is a bit overwhelming. Its best if when forming your Board, you include an attorney. If you dont have an attorney that is willing to donate his time to the Board, ask him or any of your stakeholders if they know an attorney that would be willing to do it for no charge. You can certainly try the do it yourself method, many do. However, like anything you do just the one time, there are definitely roadblocks that you may incur. Many times Incorporations are delayed and in about 10% of cases 501(c)(3) applications are denied, often times due to error in the filing process. There are a number of companies that can work with you to do these filings. One very popular and highly recommended company is Foundation Group based in Nashville, they can be found on the net at www.501c3.org or by phone at 888-361-9445. For most organizations they will do your incorporation and file your 501(c)(3) from $950 to $1200. You will also have to pay a state filing application fee, in Nebraska that fee is $32. The federal application fee is now $400-$850 and again you will have to pay that yourself. What Foundation Group does for you: Sets up your Articles of Incorporation, through a form you fill out, based on your visit with one of their consultants. Attains state and federal tax ID numbers. Sets up your Bylaws, prepares them and mails them to you. Does company name search at the state level. Fills out the federal 1023 application and helps you compile the needed information. Prepares first year 990 yearend tax filing form.
Getting Started
Once you decide to incorporate and go the 501(c)(3) route the first step is a Board meeting where your initial board of directors is installed and roles, titles and duties are assigned. The
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minutes of the meeting must be taken and recorded and need to include a resolution from the board that was approved that showed the entity was in favor of both incorporating and forming under 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Note that the IRS is going to require a short resume on each Board member to be included in your 1023 filing with them. The next step will be filing your articles of incorporation with your state government. It is filed with your states division of corporations, here in Nebraska the filing fee is $32, and every state varies. Most states will provide you with a form you can use for your articles of incorporation, all you would need to do is fill in the blanks, however if you are planning on filing for federal tax exempt status, there is specific language that is required that may not be on all the state boilerplate available for download. Thats why it may make sense to use an attorney or a firm that specializes in this process. See the sample articles of incorporation in the addendums section of this book. In Nebraska if the form is filled out properly, the approval process takes less than two weeks. Once your state approves your corporation, you are required to publish it in the newspaper. The next step is applying for federal tax-exempt status. Form 1023 is a 29-page snapshot of your organizations structure, goals and budget. There are additional information that you must include as part of this process, with most filings being 75-100 pages in length. The cost the feds are going to charge you depends on your budget. If you plan on spending over $40,000 over the next 4 years your filing fee will be $850, if it is less than $40,000 the fee is $400. You will also be required to submit a two-year budget along with details on what the organization is, what its mission is and how it plans to accomplish its mission. It along with your check is mailed to the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS in Cincinnati. Expect to get follow up phone calls and correspondence from the IRS, it is not uncommon for you to have 3-5 interactions with them beyond the initial filing. About 10% of these applications are denied and once youre denied the appeal process very difficult, if not impossible. If you are denied status, you do not get your fee returned, however with firms like The Foundation Group, they will refund you both their fee and your filing fee as well if you are not approved. Tax-exempt does not mean you are free from paying all taxes. The corporation may still be responsible for paying for investment on earnings or in certain cases if they did not spend
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money allocated by certain grants. If the corporation has employees, those payments are still subject to state and federal payroll taxes. States may also require some tax-exempt organizations to pay property taxes as well. As always ask the experts in your state to make sure you are compliant. Some states like California even require that you apply for state tax exempt status and the process is as difficult as the federal process. 501(C)(3) Shortcut Organizations like AYF and United YFL allow members to share their tax exempt status as a subordinate organization. Visit AYF or United YFL for more information on the process. You can escape filing all the paperwork with the IRS and paying the processing fees by using this avenue. You will still have to file a year end IRS 990 Form, but your contributors will know their contributions will be tax deductible. You may still need to apply to your state to gain exemption of state taxes. Consult with your attorney or consult with a company like Foundation Group for more information. Setting up a Board of Directors Being part of a board and committee can be fun, and the friendships developed can be everlasting. Yet, some boards can be a waste of time, and, even worst of all, when boards exist for the egos of the board chair or president. There is no one size fits all Board for youth football programs, or how responsibilities are divided. While we may attempt to discuss the look and feel of your youth football board, your own organization will construct the board, and committees that are appropriate for your own situation. Find Board members who are committed for a few years, even though it is recommended that terms be limited to one year increments. This is important when selecting an executive committee and setting up a nonprofit corporation for your organization. The management and operations of the organization are vested in the Board of Directors who have exclusive authority to conduct and maintain the affairs and interest of the organization. It is recommended that term of office be for one year, giving current Board Members an opportunity to move within the organization or be voted in another year. This also allows new people to be voted in. To be voted in as an Executive Board Member, it is recommended that the director be a member of the board for at least a year. Each member of the Board of Directors ought to receive a copy of the monthly financial statement and report regarding the organization at or prior to each monthly or quarterly meeting. It is the duty of the Board of Directors to approve the monthly Financial Report and the Annual Budget of the Organization.
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A Director may be removed from the Organization by the following: a. By resigning, in writing, approved by the majority of the Board of Directors, at any regular or special meeting. b. By the affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds of the members of the Board of Directors at any regular or special meeting. Executive Committee The government, management and day-to-day operations of the organization are vested in a smaller group called the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee has the delegated authority to conduct and maintain the affairs and interests of the organization. It is recommended that a nominee should serve for a minimum of two years. to be considered for any position on the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee should consist of the following titles and responsibilities.
1. President-The President will be the Chief Executive Officer of the Organization. He/she will have responsibility for the general supervision , direction and control of the business affairs of the Organization. He/she will insure the Organization is functioning in accordance to the ByLaws, and shall be the presiding officer at all meetings. 2. Vice President for Administration- The Vice President for Administration will be responsible for the management and direction of the administrative functions of the Organization. These responsibilities can include but are not limited to fund raising, special event, communications, and public relations. 3. Vice President and Treasurer-The Vice President and Treasurer will keep and maintain correct accounting of properties and business transactions of the Organization. Each month, the Treasurer will distribute financial statements balanced to the budget and a copy of the checking account register for the previous month to all members of the Board. 4. Secretary- The Secretary will keep a book of minutes of all Executive Committee and regular or special meetings. The Secretary will present these minutes to all Board Members at all regular scheduled meetings. 5. Additions-Additions to the Executive Committee may be proposed and adopted at the direction of the Board of Directors.
Recruiting a Board and Executive Committee The first year you, most likely you will need to appoint the Board members. So as not to have a leadership vacuum vary the term of the appointment in the first year, thereafter you can set the terms at 1-2 years, but not so all the terms end on the same date. While you cant
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guarantee anyone will stay through their entire term, its prudent to try to stagger the dates to help in the quest for some degree of continuity. After your initial Board is set, always be on the lookout for new blood. It is inevitable that over time either Board Members will decide to move on, or they will become disengaged, in any event over time every Board Member will be replaced. Your Bylaws will spell out the process you will use to replace Board Members. Most youth football programs use a process where Board Members nominate replacements and then vote, with a majority or super majority vote being required of the existing Board Members for election of replacements. Look for a variety of people from the community when considering Board and Executive Committee members. When you are just starting out, it is important to have engaged and committed Board Members rather than getting people that are well known in the community. Look for people with diverse backgrounds including legal, management, security, education, finance, medical and youth development. Be careful of having too many people from a single background, you are going to need a full range of skills in order for the program to succeed over the long haul. If you plan to approach someone to become part of the Board or Executive Committee, make sure you take a preliminary vote from the existing Board Members prior to approaching them. You dont want to alienate someone by recruiting them hard only to be voted down by the existing Board. Most big names are not going to be interested in becoming part of the Board until your organization has a record of accomplishment of sorts. Its always wise to keep your eyes open and develop relationships with your dream Board Member, but you may want to delay asking them until your program is on solid ground. Board members are recruited just like you recruit stakeholders and coaches, through your network of contacts as detailed earlier in this book. You will need the Board Members to pass the criminal background check. Bylaws In simple terms bylaws are the rules by which youth football programs can be run by. They detail the rights, duties and responsibilities of the membership and the leadership as well as the decision making process. It also details how leadership positions are gained and how the program will govern itself.
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For youth football programs it may even go deeper as to covering details like coach and team selection and codes of conduct. Two sets sample bylaws is included for your review in the addendum section of this book.
Other Leadership Needs Your Board and Executive Committee, in most cases, will not be able to perform all the tasks needed to insure the long and short term success of your program. In the early days your Board and Executive Committee might even be one in the same and they all may have to wear a variety of hats in order to get the program off the ground, but in the long run that creates burnout and you end up losing a lot of good people. Look at forming committees to perform many of the tasks needed to both run the program and gather information for future decisions. Committees are a great way to help spread the ownership of the program to the parents and stakeholders. Committees are usually a group of people, in some cases it is just a single person. Committees are also a great way to attract and engage new people and stakeholders into your program. Oftentimes committees are a great proving ground for future coaches or Board Members. Its important to define the roles, responsibilities and boundary of each committee as well as define the skills required to head up each committee. Oftentimes committee heads are your best people at recruiting parents and new stakeholders to become involved in your program. For Youth Football, here are some common committees and volunteer positions: Fundraising Committee Concessions Manager Banquet Committee Equipment Manager Risk Manager Security Committee or Manager Team Manager Team Mom Academics Committee Public Relations Manager Web Site Manager Video Committee or Manager Compliance Manager Weighmaster (Pop Warner and AYF) Legal Advisor Coach Selection and Recruitment Committee
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Coach Trainer Fields and Facilities Committee Recruit the committee heads, managers and members from your parents and stakeholders. You can communicate the positions, their responsibilities and the need for said role through your web site, through mailings, e-mails and your mandatory parent meeting before the season starts. Conducting a Board Meeting The President of the Organization is responsible for calling regular scheduled and special meetings. Setting up meetings for your Executive Committee may not require your greatest energy, yet, your greatest challenge each month, quarter, is when you set your regular scheduled youth football organizational meetings is to have good attendance. Do not get discouraged if you dont, put a plan to action. Since most youth football coaches love to eat, holding a breakfast meeting on a Saturday morning will most likely attract your largest audience. When setting up the meeting it is suggested that you reserve a room at a local favorite restaurant or eating establishment, and inform all that they are responsible for paying for their own meal. The meeting should not last more than two hours. Start on time and end on time. It is wise to request agenda items from your board members (coaches) prior to setting the agenda. Once you have items agreed upon, send out invitation to all Board Members via email, and request a response. Once you have arrived at your meeting it is very important to keep on track. Coaches will have the tendency to bring up issues not related to the agenda. This conversation is healthy and should be encouraged while eating. Keep within the agenda items will help you finish on a timely manner. It is important that participants have time to discuss and understand the items. Follow Roberts Rules of Order as close as you can. Keep documentation of all motions and approved items by your Board. You can vote on motions openly or secret ballot, secret ballot may help to maintain civility when facing difficult issues. Rule changes and bylaw changes ought not to be voted on in a regular scheduled meeting. These items are normally voted on at a special meeting at the beginning of the year. Laugh and have fun. If time permits, invite special guests, such as local college players, former NFL players, business leaders or local High School Coaches.
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Sample agenda: (introductions)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Reading of previous meeting minutes and approval Treasurer Report Old Business New Business Committee Reports as Needed Set next meeting Date Adjournment
Dont fret about all the formality of the Board or Committee terms or the pictures of people with suits and ties on. You dont have to be a major corporate manager to get your program off the ground. What you need is a commitment, a well thought out plan and an understanding of your strengths and the resources you are going to need in order to succeed.
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Chapter 3 Setting Your Program Apart

There is value in being a well-run and well organized youth football program that serves the needs of the players well. If that is all you want to be and you do it well, more power to you. However there is also much value to being more than a youth football program. Your coaches are in a unique position, they will be with their players for an average of about 102 hours over the course of the season. Everyone remembers who their first youth football coach was, even 40 years later. Even in todays world where you must earn the right to be heard and trusted, the youth coach by virtue of his position and the time he is spending with the kids can impact them in a dramatic way. The focus the Organization has will significantly affect how your program is viewed by those on the outside. If you are nothing more than a well-run youth football program, dont expect to get any favors from those determining things like field usage, grants, donations or school access. You dont have to be a full run Social Program to get the desired results in your kids, there is a variety of ways to address these issues without investing an inordinate amount of time in them. Some ideas include a focus on academics, community service or character development.
Academic Program
Academic programs are programs that stress the importance of academic progress and education in your youth football players. The programs can take many forms from checking report cards and progress reports, to simple accountability through a few simple forms being filled out and tracked, to full blown partnerships with local schools. Its up to your program to determine how academics fit into your mission and how much bandwidth you have to manage the program. Why it Makes Sense Consider adding an academic component to your program, it is a simple and easy way to motivate your players to excel in the classroom. Many programs talk a good game when it comes to academics and sportsmanship, but its all fluff. You can do a little or a lot, in any case your kids will know you think academics are important. The facts are that most studies say 70% of the kids playing youth football will not play a single down of High School football. Every year in the state of Nebraska, a state known for its fanaticism for football, there will be just 10-12 kids offered full ride athletic scholarships to Division I schools. Of that number, less than half will end up getting to play a single down of college football, many
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of them will be injured or quit. Even fewer of this already tiny number will go on to play in the NFL. Therefore, out of a state of over 1.7 million people, you probably have a better chance of hitting the lottery than playing a down of major college football. On the other hand every year, thousands of Nebraska kids are given full or partial academic scholarships to attend college. Some of our inner-city kids have yet to be told the truth about these numbers. Unfortunately, some players are told these facts and choose to ignore them. As a football coach, you are in a unique position to offer the right incentives for the kids to perform well in the classroom and in life. You are with them 6-8 hours weekly and frankly, they may listen to you more than they do mom or dad. Many kids are not hearing this message at home and many of our kids are dad-less or parentless. We have had several parents tell us that they tell their kids these things over and over and over again, but until someone verifies it outside the home, like the coach the kids do not pay any attention to it. An academic program also helps you get allies like schools or local companies. My guess is many; if not most of the Screaming Eagle sponsors would not have helped us, if we did not have an academic accountability program. It is very simple to set up and we usually have a team mom manage it after week one. How it Works We send our academic accountability forms home with the kids on Tuesday, on Thursday it is returned to us before practice. The players teacher checks and scores the childs effort and behavior for the week, as do the parents. Those players that fail to bring an academic accountability paper in for whatever reason are given a zero for the week and run after practice. The team mom tallies the scores for the week and calls the president with the team totals only. We take the number of kids on the team and divide by the total number of points for that team, to give us a team average. On the following Thursday, the team that had the highest total the previous week gets 4 extra large pizzas delivered to their practice site for the kids to eat after practice. Individually the team mom keeps a running log for every player. We hand out little helmet decals for academic performance weekly. We give out one decal for scores of 15-20 points, two decals for scores of 21-24 points and three decals for perfect scores of 25. The funny thing is, quite often our poorer performing athletes are often the best students and have helmets covered with stickers. It really causes confusion for the opposition when they see your best player with no stickers and a minimum play kid with a helmet covered in them. At seasons end, we hand out awards to the years best academic performers, like jackets, t-shirts and trophies. Local businesses have donated over 200 used computers that we rehab and hand out to the top academic performers. One season, a very large donor set aside money for an all-expenses paid trip to play in a Bowl game in Florida. We sent our three best academic performing teams, it
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was a real battle academic wise that year. Our teams that won the trip had the experience of a lifetime.
Weekly Eligibility Feedback Form
Teacher Portion
Students Name______________________Week Ending__________________________
5-Excellent 4-Good 3-Satisfactory 2Improving 1-Needs Improvement 0-Poor Effort_______________ Behavior____________________ Comments (Optional) ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Teachers Signature________________________________________________________
Parents Portion
5-Excellent 4-Good 3-Satisfactory 2Improving 1-Needs Improvement 0-Poor Homework Effort___________________ Behavior__________________________ Comments (Optional) ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ The player has my permission to participate in this weeks game._________ Guardian Signature________________________________________________________
Academics can be the cornerstone of your program if you so choose. A good friend of mine Dave Potter from the Durham Eagles program in North Carolina, developed an academic accountability system that has been extremely successful in helping his players develop academically and has helped the program secure support and funding from a wide group of stakeholders in the area. The Eagles desperately need that support thanks to their teams usually needing funding to travel to Orlando to play in the Pop Warner National Championships. This is his program, thanks to Dave and the Eagles program for sharing this with us. You could adopt a program like this or take parts of it to construct your own program. Dave regards their approach as not simply a step-by-step system, but as a philosophy. You
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may also want to brainstorm with your coaches, parents and especially your players teachers as to how you can improve your own program. You of course are going to need to figure out how much of this you can bite off and execute on over the course of an entire season. It may make sense to understand what Dave Potters programs goals are. Their mission statement is: The Durham Iron Eagles are dedicated to creating an environment of discipline, self-respect and success to aid in the academic, athletic and social success of our student-athletes. Emphasis on Academics is a Philosophy The Eagles emphasis on academics is also a regular part of football practice. They deal with academics on their team as regularly as they deal with blocking and tackling. Through this, scholastic success becomes ingrained in the teams modus operandi. The Eagles emphasize the importance of academic success, offer inducements to better serve their academic performance (such as Good News), as well as honor players when they perform at a high standard. Some coaches may complain that they dont have time to deal with academia and that an academic emphasis is best left to the players teachersbut coaches are teachers. Coaches may occasionally touch on the subject of getting good grades, but often this is merely lip service. Youth Players are Impressionable At the end of each season, players receive what they consider to be the Holy Grail; a football trophy from their coach. This is a highlight for the player at their end-of-season banquet. Players hear their coaches say that football is important. Players also hear their coaches say that school is important. But what message is being sent to the child when he receives a trophy for having merely participated in football but doesnt receive a tangible reward for academic success? The message that is sent is: Football = Trophy, and Academic Success = Nothing. By not rewarding your players for academic success, youre telling them that football is more important than school. After all, they got a trophy for playing football, but received nothing for academic success. Academic Hall of Fame Program Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. recognizes scholastic success only for players at the Junior Pee Wee division and older. For all our players who received Straight As during the scholastic quarter in which they played football for us, they would be inducted into the Durham Eagles Academic Hall of Fame.
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The Certificate Recognition consists of a framed, color certificate with their name on it that is presented to the player at the end-of-season banquet. The certificate is always framed because children can easily damage or lose the certificate. Framing it makes the certificate easier to keep, as well as making it more official. Inexpensive frames can be purchased at places like WalMart for less than $4 each. Being inducted also meant that their name would forever be on each successive certificate. Every inductee is listed on the certificate from each year. The message being sent it is one of great accomplishment. Once youre inducted into the Academic Hall of Fame, you will always be a member. The Trophy Each player also receives a 19-inch tall trophy with their name engraved on it. Have the players name engraved on the base plate, along with our team name and the words Academic Hall of Fame. Befitting its status, the trophy is taller than any other trophy we issue, including their conference championship trophy. The trophy is presented to them at their school with their parents, relatives, friends and classmates in attendance. Classroom Presentation Presenting the trophy in the classroom is easy to arrange with the school and the Eagle presentations last an average of fifteen minutes. The teachers that Dave has dealt with, in regards to this award, have always been thrilled for their student. Teachers have told me that they have never had a youth coach come to their classroom for any kind of awards presentation, much less an award for academic achievement. After the teacher introduces Dave to the class, he always start the presentation by telling the class why he is there. I am here to make a special presentation to one of our players. I offer some background about our team and then begin discussing our players accomplishments on the football field. Then I add that he was able to accomplish something more important than athletic success. He was able to maintain perfect academic standing while also playing football. I discuss the amount of time that is demanded of the player because of weekly practices, games and the length of our season. I add that while achieving Straight As is a great accomplishment for anyone, it is an even greater achievement for our players because they have less available study time than the typical student. I break down our players schedule and routine, so that his classmates understand just how much of his time is taken by preparing, practicing and playing football. We close out our presentation by showing the class his trophy for playing football, his Academic Hall of Fame certificate and his Academic Hall of Fame trophy. There is always an audible gasp when the kids see all of the hardware, especially the size of the academic trophy, which, at 19-inches, is taller than our
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football championship trophy. The DVD Dave also videotapes the academic presentation at their school and present it on DVD to the players family. Music is added to the DVD soundtrack and he does his best to make it look like a professional and polished production. All of this is done at no charge and he provides the family with as many copies of the DVD as they like. The presentation could be done at the team banquet instead of school, but presenting at school is so much more personal and gets the school involved as well. By presenting this award at the school, it not only rewards the player in front of his classmates but it also shows every student in that classroom that academic excellence gets rewarded. You cannot plant a better seed than that. The players classmates often ask questions regarding football and sometimes ask how and when they can play for you. For the presentation, or go to meetings at school, make sure you are dressed in team colors, wear your team jacket, and hat if you have one. The kids must understand that you are that players football coach and it is very important that you look the part. Display the trophy and certificates to our parents and players at your first Parents Meeting at the beginning of each season. Explain the significance of the award, what it takes to earn it and when, where and how you plan on presenting it. A Demonstration of Success Another level to the program is the Academic Honors Award. Players with an A/B average qualify. Those winners receive their certificates at the team banquet. Teachers Packet Teachers Packets are handed out to parents at your first Parents Meeting so that they can distribute them to their sons teacher. An added benefit seems to be some teachers take ownership and work even harder to insure players in their classrooms win the awards. Say Cheese At your banquet, make sure to take a group picture of your academic award recipients. Then submit the photo to the local newspaper and post it on your team website. College Scholarship Fund The Durham Eagles have also established a college scholarship fund for their players. They offer a $1,000 college scholarship to every player who participates in the Durham Eagles Athletic Association for a total of five years; or who participate for three years at the PeeWee, Junior Midget and Midget Division (with at least one year at the Midget Division). Players
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are able to claim their scholarship upon their entrance to any post-secondary academic institution, vocational or trade school. All players that meet the participation requirements receive this award. There are no predetermined limits to the number of children that will receive the award in a given year. Once eligible, the players award is reserved in their name until the DEAA is notified that the player has been accepted and enrolled. The fund manager, Triangle Community Foundation (http://www.trianglecf.org), then forwards the award to the financial aid office at that institution. Disciplined Follow-up In the Teachers Packet, you need to have the contact information of the person running the academic program for your club as well as the coaches e-mail address. Many teachers appreciate getting additional help and realize that a childs coach is held in high esteem by the player. By teachers having access to coaches, you can help to quickly rectify any situation that may have taken place at school. For instance, if a player was involved in a classroom disturbance, the teacher can e-mail you. I check my e-mail before going to practice and already know what happened before I see our player that evening. They now realize that school and football are not two separate worlds. If you determine the player is at fault, you can deal with his punishment immediately at that practice. Visitation In the Teachers Packet, let teachers know that you or your academic program manager is available to visit your players class. When you visit a player in his classroom you have ventured into a world where he never expected to see you. He knows his coach not only cares about him, but that his coach can appear anywhere at any time. Good News Dave Potter encourage his players to bring us Good News; that is, good reports, papers and grades from school. At the end of practice they might produce a test score, homework or other paper they received a good grade on. At the beginning of practice, players will put their paper(s) in a box we have designated for such a purpose. At the end of practice, we bring out this box and retrieve the paperwork. All of our players want to compete to be the best. Kids are naturally competitive, but many dont think of academics as a competitive situation. Good News has developed into a remarkably competitive part of our practice. When a player gives Dave a school paper in which he received a top score, he shares that with the team, making a big deal out of it. This makes for a breeding ground of competitiveness. The players are constantly looking to top each other on who can be the best academically. The competitive atmosphere develops our players confidence, self-esteem, desire to compete and these factors all find their way onto the football field. By stirring their competitive instincts in the academic arena, it enhances their competitive instincts on the football field. Players become competitive to win; at anything. Dave also uses Good News to see if players have a story to tell about how they demonstrated good citizenship, i.e., how they helped a neighbor carry in their groceries, helped clean the house, without even being asked, etc. This is what
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he calls Good News and its a great way to close out practice. Your Commitment How simple all of this is. While some of what we do can take additional time, how committed are you to your players? It requires no extra time at practice. Good News and Meet & Greet are simply other competitive drills. How you decide to fill your practice time is up to you. You can make excuses as to why you dont have the time to emphasize academics, or you can integrate it seamlessly into your program. Academic emphasis doesnt take away from your teams football practice. It enhances their competitiveness. Daves team won 68 of their last 70 conference games, seven conference championships and have gone undefeated six times. Taking it Forward Former Detroit Lions assistant coach Chuck Priefer made one of my favorite quotes. He said, Its not important that you are the greatest coach in the world. What matters is that you are trying to be. We can apply the same to academics. It matters less to me whether our players are the greatest students in the world. However, what matters is that they are trying to be. TEACHERS INFORMATION PACKET Hello! My name is Dave Potter and I am the head coach of the Durham Iron Eagles. We are Pop Warner youth football team here in Durham. Your student, ________________________ plays for our team. The Durham Eagles Athletic Association places a great emphasis on the academic success of our players and our approach to academics plays a big role in our program. The Durham Eagles, as well as Pop Warner offer academic rewards for players who excel in the classroom. Players who receive Straight As through the scholastic quarter in which they play football for us will be inducted into the Durham Iron Eagles Academic Hall of Fame. They will receive a framed, color certificate with their name on it. The certificate will be presented to them at our end-of-season banquet. They will also receive a trophy with their name engraved on it. We would like to present this trophy to them at their school, in your classroom with their parents and classmates in attendance. Players who receive As and Bs will receive a framed Academic Honors certificate. This certificate will also be presented to them at our end-of season banquet. In addition, Pop Warner also offers academic recognition for superior scholastic performance. The Pop Warner Academic All-American Scholar Program awards students who are currently in Grade 5 or higher, and have a 96% grade point average, or better for the entire school year. The criteria for this award involves not only the grade point average, but also additional scholastic achievements (Honor Roll, Honor Society, Gifted or AP Courses, school awards, etc.) and other activities. Activities such as student government, publications, school clubs, band, as well as Boy Scouts and service clubs are also taken into consideration for Academic All-American status. Players who achieve this honor will receive a congratulatory letter from Pop Warner, a Certificate of Achievement and have the opportunity to attend the National All-American Scholars Banquet held in Orlando, Florida at
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Disneyworld. Please make your student aware of these opportunities and encourage them to volunteer for extracurricular activities. At the close of each practice, our players share with the team any schoolwork in which theyve received high grades. We call this session Good News. In this competitive environment, our players are always looking to top each others scores, so Im hopeful that youll provide them with extra-credit opportunities so that they can achieve the highest scores possible. We have very high expectations of our players in regards to not only their academics, but their deportment, as well. Our players are made aware that leadership, proper behavior and classroom etiquette are demands that we make of them. I am available for you and am glad to make a classroom visit, if need be. If I can be of any service to you in regards to our players, please do not hesitate to let me know. My contact information is below. Thank you! Sincerely, Dave Potter Head Coach Durham Iron Eagles
Thirteen years with the Durham Eagles Athletic Association. Eleven years as Head Coach. Consolidated Football Federation Championships in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Community Service When you add a community service component to your program, you are showing your players that getting involved in your community is important. The choices are endless when it comes to doing a project. Consider doing something for the people that let you use their practice or game fields. We have cleaned up parks, painted benches, painted bleachers, planted trees, brought in dirt to even out fields, planted shrubs and even cleaned out locker rooms and storage facilities. Just ask the Athletic Director, Head High School Coach or Parks and Rec people what you can do to help them out. Just do it on a Saturday morning for 2-3 hours the day you hand out equipment and make it mandatory to get your gear. You can even take it a step further, all of us have kids whose familys struggle to pay the fees and equip their players. Every December and January make a trip to all the Thrift stores in your area, where we live they are all within about a mile of each other. At the thrift stores you will find PLENTY of very nice pairs of used cleats. You will pay $3-$5 per pair. Take them all to a local Laundromat, take the laces out and throw the laces out. Wash the shoes in cold water and detergent and then air dry them. Buy new laces, lace them up and you will have some very nice looking shoes for kids that cant afford them. You can also use this inventory to create a shoe bank where a player can donate his shoes from last year and take a used pair from the bank in return. If a player doesnt have any shoes to trade in, just give him an empty trash bag and have him pick up trash from the area and return with it full. That is his payment for getting a pair of shoes to wear. Some years I bought as many as 90 pairs of
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used shoes for this purpose. Dont put up with kids playing in shoes that are too small or even worse, playing in tennis shoes. Character Development Remember as a youth football coach, you have a bully pulpit. You have the players almost undivided attention over a period of 3-4 months. Most of us can recall the name of every football coach we had, even 40 years ago. You have instant credibility in many ways. We use this credibility and time to help in the childs character development. We use a program that involves both a verbal lesson as well as weekly e-mails and video clips. The character traits we are trying to encourage are: honesty, integrity, personal responsibility, humility, hard-work, perseverance, compassion, teamwork, loyalty, unity and grace. Our long term results will be harvested 30 years from now when we see what kind of husbands, fathers and employees they turn out to be. However, in the short term it is rare for a team to play further than their character will take them. Consider adding a character development segment to your practice schedule, it is time well invested. The Character Development Program, we use is called Foundations and is on our web site www.winningyouthfootball.com. I takes just 10 minutes per week out of your practice time and the results have been very good. The parents absolutely love it. Another less effective but proactive way is to invite speakers to talk to your group. Most local Universities have an outreach program for their athletic teams. Call in to the athletic program and let them know you have a need, it is extremely rare that they wont send someone to speak to your team. We had some very famous Nebraska football players speak to our boys, which the kids got quite a bit out of. If the University doesnt have anyone filling that role, ask them if they could recommend any former players. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes are always looking for speaking engagements, they often times will send a top local athlete to speak to your team. Talk to your parents and stakeholders, everyone knows someone that has an inspirational story they are willing to share. The Additional Benefits If you decide to be more than just a football program, do it because you believe in what you are doing, not to gain the additional benefits. Your leaders, coaches, players, parents and stakeholders are going to see right through anything that doesnt come from the heart. However, there are benefits that come from being more than a football program that reach beyond bringing your team together and shaping the future of the young men in your care.
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When you are more than just a football program, people view you much differently. You get meetings with people no one else can get into see, you get fields no one else can get and for less or no money, you get donations from people you dont even solicit, you get access to schools no one else gets and you get a lot of people on your side. Good luck getting any grant money just so your players can play for a lower fee. People looking to donate money want to see hard core real systematic stuff that you are doing to improve the lives of the players in your charge, they arent going to be impressed with some fluffy platitudes and ramblings. People talk and youth football parents are probably the worst gossips in the planet, they are worse than any group of bored housewives known to man. If you are competing for players with other organizations in the area, where do you think a parent is going to want to send their pride and joy to? Who do you think has the better chance of having that parent sign Junior up, the Organization who theyve heard all the great Character Development, Community Service and Academic Improvement stuff from, of the program that doesnt have any of that? Number of Teams to Field How many teams you should field is a big question that will need to be addressed early on. The short answer is dont field any teams that your infrastructure cant support and that means having solid well trained coaches coaching these teams. Nothing hurts your organization quicker than having poorly coached teams with high turnover and poor results on the field. Its MUCH better to start small, build up a cadre of well trained and strongly motivated coaches than to start with 15 teams right out of the gate with only two coaches with no track record with you coaching each team. When I started my first program in Omaha, we were in an area where there werent a lot of dads or qualified coaches. In the first few years we struggled mightily due to a lack of quality coaches. While we were doing a number of things right, the quality of our coaching varied dramatically to the point we ended up capping registrations until our coaching caught up to our numbers. We went to a first come, first served approach and the first year we had over 200 kids on our waiting list. This highlighted the need for coaches to the community and it forced us to develop a comprehensive training program for youth football coaches, which is how the Winning Youth Football program was formed. By necessity we had to build our own coaches and we did it with a manual, coaches clinics and later homemade DVDS, all which eventually morphed into a Book and professionally developed DVDs that had been requested by many coaches over the internet. A coaching staff should consist of a bare minimum of three coaches, with five probably being the perfect number. Too few and the kids dont get the coaching they need, too many and you have coaches stepping all over each other. Now each of these coaches does not have to be a Vince Lombardi clone, they can have varying levels of expertise and experience, for much of
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what you do, you can get by with committed and consistent dads if you train them and manage them well. Team Sizes Teams vary greatly in size. Some programs Ive seen field teams with 50-60 players on a single team, while others Ive seen field teams of 1314 kids. Again, just like the number of coaches, there is a sweet spot for the number of players on a team. The optimal number will vary a bit based on the age of the kids, the older the kids are the more injuries and the higher the drop rate. The historical drop rate is highest at the oldest and very youngest age groups, my guess is it has to do with hormones, independence, burn out and at the youngest age groups, coaches running kids off due to poor coaching, poor priorities and not easing kids into contact. Ive coached with team sizes from 17-36 players. This is my optimum team size matrix: Age 5-7: 20 players Age 7-9: 21 Players Age 10-11: 23 Players Age 12-13: 26 Players Many leagues have minimum play rules that require you to play kids a certain number of plays based on roster size. Just think how you are going to do that if you have 36 kids playing 10 minute quarters in leagues where many teams run the ball a lot and have a tough time getting out of the huddle. Did you know the average youth football game only has about 80 snaps? It can be far less if the teams are not coached very well. When you get to about 30 kids its time to start forming another team. In 2010 my 5-6th grade team got every eligible player back from the previous season and we had 14 fourth graders moving up. Therefore, before new signups were in place, we already had 30 kids. We told everyone to go out and recruit their friends and family members, otherwise the kids werent going to get much playing time. By the first day of practice we had 42 kids, which we divided into 2 teams of 21 each. Large teams means less focused coaching, less playing time and a lot of frustration. Super small team sizes of 12-15 are a problem too, if you have just a single team and your numbers are that low, you spend your valuable time recruiting kids, not practicing. The low number leaves you open to injury and fatigue problems, not to mention the ability of parents and players to hold you hostage to their demands. Beware the coach who feels he needs a lot of players in order to be competitive. Many of those guys are just hoping some Barry Sanders like kid is in the pile of kids assigned to him. The talent is king coach often times has little legitimate confidence in his ability to coach and feels the more kids he gets, the better chance he has to acquire talent rich players. Often
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times these type of coaches do not value coaching and do not spend much time trying to improve their coaching skills. Often times, they are not the type of coach that puts much time and effort into developing lesser skilled or minimum play players. Dividing Up Teams Dividing teams can often be divisive and damaging to your program if you dont do it fairly. Of course how you do so will depend on the rules of the league you are playing in. If your league has an A Division where the very best teams from each organization plays and then the rest of the kids play in a B Division against other B teams, the way you divide up your teams would be much different than if all your teams were playing in a Single Pop Warner or AYF style league. In my Omaha program, I had 16 teams in 3 different age groups. The first week all the kids in each age group practiced together, so that the A team coaches could select the best 25 players to play in the A Division. Once they had selected who they felt were best fits for their team, the rest of the players were divided up based on their zip code. Each remaining player was put on the team that practiced nearest his home, we just kept moving the boundaries a bit to insure all the B teams had the same number of players. The only problem with this system are later walk ups, late walk ups must be evaluated by the A coaches to insure that a top player is not playing B, which would be unfair to the other teams in the league. This isnt a perfect system by any stretch, you have to rely on the honesty and integrity of the other organizations and coaches in your league. It was not unusual for programs on occasion to stack B teams and sacrifice their A teams so that they would have dominant B teams. Those coaches and organizations werent around for long. If your goal is to have even teams, you need one reality check- no matter what method you use, people are going to claim there is favoritism or the process is unfair. Coaches that dont coach well are always looking for scapegoats and when they point fingers of blame, those types simply are going to point at anything that deflects attention away from them. You can try though, there are a lot of ways to try and create equal teams, and one is an open draft. The first week of practice ( I would HATE to have to give up an entire week to groupthink) the coaches of each team run the kids thorough a combine type process and at the end of the week, they draft players not unlike what the NFL does. Even this process can run amok and be called unfair. The head coach in this process often times has his assistant coaches picked out and of course the head coach and the assistant
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coaches kids are automatically assigned to their team. So a savvy coach could just find out who the best athletes in the area are, ask or convince their dads to be bag holders and viola a stacked team is born. A better way might be for the program to assign head coaches and at least 2 assistant coaches to each team and leave the open positions up to the coach to recruit from the parent base. You could even require that all the coaches with kids playing, have those kids drafted first before you get to the base draft. There are many different ways to conduct drafts, the one I prefer is that all the kids and coaches from the previous year that are still eligible to play for that team, stay with that team. This allows the coaches and players to develop deeper relationships and better chemistry in most cases. Allowances are made if a player/parent has a problem with an existing coach and would prefer to re-enter the draft. Obviously this is a red flag against the coach if he consistently has kids re-entering the draft. You also want to make it easy on parents, so brothers of the same age, or people living in the very same household are package deals. To even teams out, construct the draft so that the worst team from the previous year drafts first and the best team drafts last. Even out each age group before you move onto the next one. If you are playing in an age 9-10 league and team X has 5 ten year olds, team Y has 7 ten year olds and team Z has 10 ten year olds, you draft all the 10 year olds out until each team has an equal amount before you move to the 9 year olds. If there were 14 ten year olds in the draft and team X was the worst team, team Y the middle and team Z the best, team X would choose a ten year old, then Y, then Z. In the second round, team X would choose first, then Y, then Z. In the third round to make sure everyone had the same amount of 10 year olds team X would choose, then Y, Z wouldnt get a choice. Eventually team Y wouldnt be choosing and in the end every team would have 12 ten year olds. In the end it almost always comes down to coaching, the better coaches know what to look for and wont select players just based on outward appearances or even standardized combine measurements. Another method is to do the draft prior to the season. Like above, all the kids return to their previous team or re-enter the draft based on a grievance, but in this draft, all the information the coaches get to use is the players age and his weight range within 10 lbs. You would go through the exact same process as described above, almost a blind draft. Interestingly enough the first five years I coached, before I started my own program, was in a small league that used this system. In this 30 team league using an almost blind daft system that you would think would create somewhat even teams, the same program won the league title every year but the last one- the year after the entire coaching staff for that program had moved on. Think coaching doesnt matter in youth football? It does. Another method is to have all the coaches put together equal teams, then draw straws for which of the teams they get to coach. This would be a tough one to do if you wanted to keep coaches with their kids and spread around your coaching talent. Another problem is these drafts take FOREVER, I remember my first draft, the near blind draft with 10 teams in the division, dividing up just 250 kids. The draft took nearly 4 hours, 4 hours I wont ever get back to draft kids whose only information we had were their age and weight strata.
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Whatever you decide to do with the draft, communicate it to the coaches and parents, not the players. Just tell every player to do their very best during the evaluation period if you have one. Let all the parents and players know that you value them all and that no position is any more important than another. Let them all know that the evaluation period will be used to not only teach basic skills, but to help the coaches determine which positions are the best fit for each player. Once the teams are set, then its up to the coaches to determine where each player fit best and how he will maximize his team dynamic. Once the pads are put on, there may be an adjustment or two to the coaches initial plans. In any event, coaches need an evaluation plan, he cant be making mass changes in his personnel every week with the limited practice time most youth football programs have. In Chapter 4 of Winning Youth Football a Step-by-Step Plan see how we do our evaluations, testing for true football playing skills, like body control, explosiveness, strength, leverage, heart and coachability. We like to measure for true football skills, not things like 40 yard dashes which measure only straight line speed over a MUCH TOO FAR distance that is rarely if ever run in a real game. We also are big believers in making these evals fun and competitive, so they expose the true baseline football skills each player really has. In Chapter 4 we also show you a practically foolproof way to make accurate position determinations in a single day without pads and then a single simple process to insure the best players are getting the most playing time and in the right spots, once the pads are on.
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Chapter 3 Strategic Partnerships

Working With Schools Local schools are often times excellent partners in building your youth football program. Start with the local High School head football coach, then the Athletic Director, then the Elementary and Middle School Principals. Share your mission and passion with them and ask them how you can help them meet their mission and goals. If you decide to implement an Academic, Community Service or Character Development Program; share those details with them. In many of the Elementary Schools weve worked with, the Principals and teachers have become our trusted allies. A number of the Principals allow us to put our sign up posters in their halls, send out our fliers with the kids home packets, ask us to set up tables at their open houses and several even had school assemblies for us to present our program. Some Middle Schools did the same and even allowed us to give a presentation to each of their 6 scheduled gym classes for 2 days on a row. Weve even had some individual teachers who have seen the benefit of our program hand out fliers to new students or even alert us of a new family that moved to the area. Some have even handed out the flier, got it filled out and signed by the family and bundled it up with other sign up forms and mailed it back to us. You can get this type of cooperation when you are more than just a football program with its hand out. Aligning With the High School Many youth programs think that tying themselves to the local High School makes sense and best serves the needs of their players. While on the surface that may make a lot of sense, you may want to give this one some thought. It always makes sense to have an open and cooperative relationship with the local High School. Often times the Athletic Director and Head Football Coach can open doors for your program that you would have a hard time prying open on your own. They can be a great help in lending credibility and expertise to your program. However you need to be careful, there are some High School coaches that think the only function of the youth program is to make sure the Varsity football team in the area wins games. You have to remember, what is your mission? Is it to serve your players best interests or the best interests of the High School Head Coach? Now there may be some overlap, if your mission includes developing a love and appreciation of the game in your players so they continue to play the game that helps the High School
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coach with his numbers and numbers are important to him. However, you may want to think twice about trying to be a mirror image of the local High School. A small number of Youth Football coaches get pressure from the local High School to run their offense. The High School coach in these situations often think that by teaching 8 year old kids to run his system, by the time the players are 18 years old, they should be very proficient at running said system. Who is to say this School coach will even be at the school 10 years from now, or better yet that he will be running the same offense 8 to 10 years in the future? One of the local teams we feed into has run 3 different Offenses in the last 5 years and had 2 different Head Coaches. So which of the 3 offenses should my teams be running now? Yes lets train 70+ youth coaches a very difficult offense every year or two, when almost half of them have no football coaching experience. Most of these offenses, had we decided to run them, had zero youth materials or support system available for our coaches. I'm sure we would have failed miserably and lost lots of players had we adopted these systems. I've even seen on some coaching forums where some coaches say it doesn't matter at all if any team wins or loses below the varsity level. The "varsity" is all that matters - even their Youth, Junior High, Freshman and JV teams don't matter. Well, it matters to the kids and parents playing on these teams and isn't that why we are supposed to be coaching football in the first place? I wonder how that High School coach would feel if a college coach came up to him and said that it didn't matter if the High School won or lost, all that matters is what happens at the college level and that the High School should run the Colleges offense? Never mind the fact that few of the kids will ever play College ball, just as just 30% of youth players will play High School ball according to a Michigan State study. Sound enough reasoning for you? Let's take it a step further, shouldn't the pro coaches be telling the College coaches their wins and losses mean nothing, all that matters is that the College kids are running the Pro Offense? This "next level" baloney is just that, baloney. Any coach with even fair coaching skills can develop players for whatever system he chooses to run. Such arrogance is disappointing to see from anyone involved in coaching football. This type of attitude is rarely found among successful coaches, it is most readily seen from excuse making coaches that are doing poorly and are looking to lay the blame of their poor performance at someone else's feet. I've actually seen High School coaches blame Jr High coaches for their varsity teams woes, that's someone desperate to keep a job he probably shouldn't have had to begin with. At the big clinics I do for Glazier and Nike, I always sit in on a session or two. In addition to a Darrin Slack session, I like to see what the best High School coaches in the country are doing, teams like Southlake Carrol, Jenks, Union, Hoover, Colton, De LaSalle etc. The guys that coach these teams care little about whether the kid coming into their program can read a 3 technique and can run their offense. They simply desire that he goes out for football and that they have a chance to coach the kid. They want the youth coach to teach safe basic blocking and tackling and NOT to run the kid off. The good High School coaches are hoping to get a player that has a love for the game and is coachable. These successful coaches tell me they are confident they have the coaching ability to teach a player about anything over a 4 year time
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frame with nearly 4 months of 6 day a week contact along with year round, strength, agility and skills training. On the other hand we youth coaches get the kids for a few months of very abbreviated 2-3 day a week practices, a mere fraction of what the High Schools get and we are supposed to have the biggest technical impact on them? We know according to a Michigan State study that 70% of youth players will never play High School football to begin with. So using the High School system that only a fraction of our players will be using makes no sense. The main reasons most youth football players quit playing: #1) Poor Coaching #2) Playing on consistently losing teams. Running a system that is often not age appropriate (High School) and losing will often lead to the High School coach getting fewer players than he would get otherwise. Most of the great High School coaches could CARE LESS what the youth player runs as long as he's having fun, playing safely and developing a passion for the game. Developing that passion is hard to do if his youth football team is getting blown out every week or not scoring many points. In 2009 I took the final USA TODAY Top 20 High School Poll and called up all the head coaches. I got to speak to 12 of them, when I asked them if they cared what their local youth teams ran scheme wise not a single coach said they wanted the youth program to copy them. Some of these guys laughed at the question and even gave me sarcastic comments. All they care about is that the player makes it to their door, loves playing the game, knows how to block and tackle and if he is coachable, that is a plus. What really gets to me are a few of the simply preposterous e-mails I get from a few youth football coaches. One youth coach went 10-1 in 2006 and 11-1 in 2005 and was retaining right at 95% of his players. In that very same time frame, the local High School went 0-9 and 1-8. The High School coach was demanding the youth football program run his offense in spite of the fact the High School offensive football plays never worked at the High School level. Maybe the High School coach should have run the Youth coaches offense, he couldn't have done any worse. I make it a habit to support the High School programs, by encouraging the kids to go to the High School games and to play High School football. However, I have not coached School ball, so I do not critique the High Schools practice methods or systems, no matter how often I'm asked to offer my opinion. I don't have the time or expertise to do an in-depth study of the situation and would hope they wouldn't do the same of my team. Here are some other reasons the youth program should not run the High School offense: Not age appropriate Doesn't fit the talent level Doesn't fit the size level
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Does not work well with limited practice time Does not work with small team sizes where you are not allowed to cut or send players to a JV squad Does not accommodate minimum play players (I Formation, Spread) Is beyond the physical abilities of youth players (Spread passing) Is beyond the mental abilities of youth players (Triple or Midline Option or multiple read passing) Most High Schools will not take the time to teach the youth coaching staff how to coach their system "correctly" anyway School Offenses Change School Coaches Change Techniques Change Very few youth coaching materials, books, DVDs available for most High School offenses Many kids change positions as they go through puberty Youth football players rightfully care about what's happening to them in the season they are playing in right now. They want to have fun and most want to be competitive, they are not concerned with developing the knowledge of schemes that 70% of them may or may not use 10 years into the future. They could care less about some technique they won't remember in the 9th grade or will be taught differently or changed by the time they get to High School. If you can incorporate some of the High Schools numbering nomenclature into your system without a big hassle, great, but resist the meddling of the High School into your program if your program is headed in the right direction. The best coaches in the Nation could care less what offense or football plays the youth teams run. You should care that whatever offense you choose fits your kids, scores points, and wins ballgames of offense. Most importantly, the kids have fun and do well, which is what keeps them coming back to play. Winning and losing are both habits. I've seen very average teams with a history of winning win games they have no business competing in. These kids just feel somehow, someway they are going to win the game, even when they are down by 2-3 TDs and time is running out. I've seen the most improbable of comebacks and bizarre plays in the last moments of games where
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the team of destiny beats the better team. On the other side of the fence, I see teams that expect to lose. Even when these teams are ahead they expect to get snake bit and lose the game, these negative expectations are usually met. I would think the High School teams would want kids that have a winning attitude, it's contagious. There is nothing wrong with having a solid relationship with the local High School. Ask the head coach what is important to him. You can easily incorporate their naming conventions and nomenclature or even run a few of his favorite drills if you like. Ask the coach if he would be interested in working a team camp or talking to your players and parents. Ask him to speak at your year-end banquet if you think it makes sense. Volunteer your players as ball boys for his games. Ask your players to wear their game jerseys and show up together at the High Schools home games. A number of schools weve worked with had Screaming Eagle nights where our kids got in free if they wore their game jersey. Like anything, it is about relationships and a good relationship with the local High School makes a lot of sense.
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Chapter 4 Communication
Communication is extremely important when you are running a youth football program. You have several audiences that need to be kept up to date with whats going on in your program. Your communication will include somewhat static content like who your program is and some of the basic background information, but also time sensitive information on events. In this day and age, we are blessed with technology that makes this process easier and more effective. Web Site In todays world, having a web site is a requirement. Not only is it now the universal way most of us gather information to make decisions, it adds legitimacy to who you are out in the community. It eliminates lots of phone calls and gives interested parties a very low risk and low effort way of finding out more about you. There are a number of companies that offer free web sites for youth sports teams. With the basic free package you can communicate your contact information, who you are, who your leadership is and add things like: team roster, calendars, schedules, message center, photos, logo, team statistics, music, video, donation and fund raising tools, message boards and the ability to customize the site. You can make the site open or password protected. Most of them are reasonably easy to put together if you have someone with some technical skill in your organization. Its always a good idea to have a strong computer person on your Board to handle your web site and other technical issues if you arent a power user new age computer person. Companies like Eteamz.com and Leaguelineup.com dominate this space. Intuit.com offers a very simple process to build your own custom web site for just $5 monthly. With Intuit anyone with the password can update the web site with game changes and practice cancellations. The free sites make their money by offering additional services like online signups, additional web features and fundraising. Facebook has even become a simple and easy way to communicate with your parents and stakeholders. A team Facebook page is easy to put up and easy to update, however it is not a substitute for a good web site. What Content to Put on Your Website You need to communicate your mission statement very clearly on your home page as well as spell out what age groups you will be serving. A Frequently Asked Questions Page would include the answers to questions like: What league the program plays in.
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Where the opposing teams are located, where they will need to travel to. Include prestigious teams if they are in your league. Are there tryouts? Team sizes and limits, if you have one. Playing time requirements or standards if you have one. Number of teams and age grouping of teams. Weight limits or restrictions if you have them. Cut policy and retention rate history. Season duration. Typical Practice times and locations. Typical Game times and locations. Typical number of games. League makeup and vision. Equipment Provided. Fees and fundraising requirements if required. Fee refund policy. Program history. Organizational leadership. Sponsors and Supporters. Testimonials. Sportsmanship Policy. Coach hiring, selection, screening and training process. Calendar of events. Volunteer requirements. Call to action, sign up. Sign up credentials. Contact us link including phone number. Optimizing Your Web Site for Recruiting If you are a new program, depending on your area, you may end up getting a number of your new players via the web site. If you are a new web site, its doubtful any new players are going to find it, unless they know your team name. A player in Chicago, Illinois who enters the Google search term: Youth Football Programs in Chicago will not find your program because it will NOT appear on the first page of the search and very few people ever go past the first page. You may want to consider advertising using Google Adwords. When you use Google Adwords, and buy the term Chicago Youth Football Programs, your team site will appear on the first page of Google on the right hand side, in blue. You may have to pay $.25 for every person that clicks on your add, but that may be one of your most effective and efficient ways to bring in new players who are searching on the internet. Dont be intimidated, these campaigns are very easy to set up and you can set a maximum daily budget and use as many key words and campaigns as you think make sense.
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Communicating Logistics Whenever possible, send a sheet home with the kids with whatever announcements you have in addition to using e-mail. No matter how well you communicate, the kids will make mistakes in this area. In inner-city Omaha about one-fourth of our kids did not have phones, so calling them to remind them of game times or changes was not an option. Many times the only option was giving instructions orally. There are some tricks you can use to get the kids to pay attention to you and help them remember as you give out the instructions. Memory Tricks Here is a simple way to help the kids remember; lets say we have a game at Omaha Central at 2:00 and I want everyone there at 1:30, this is how we would announce it to the kids : We have a game at Omaha Central on Sunday at 2:00; I need everyone there no later than 1:30. Now I ask the group and require they YELL back to me. What time do you have to be there? 1:30. 1:30 in the morning or afternoon? Afternoon. What time? 1:30. What time? 1:30. What day is the game on? Sunday. Saturday? No Sunday. This Sunday or next Sunday? This Sunday. Where do we play? Omaha Central. Are we at UNO Stadium? No. Memorial Stadium in Lincoln? No. Arrowhead in Kansas City? No, Where? Omaha Central. Are we playing at Central High in Omaha or Central High in Little Rock Arkansas? OMAHA The more ridiculous you get with the no answers the better you keep their attention and the better they remember. The kids always look forward to the announcements instead of ignoring them because they cant wait to see how goofy your alternatives will be that week. Our announcements are a time we all laugh and have a good time. Therefore, with this process, the kids and the parents hear everything (the kids are yelling the answers) and its ingrained into their little minds. No matter how many times you have the kids repeat the answers, you will still have parents SWEAR you never gave them or their child the instructions. The mistakes parents make in this area do drain some of the joy one gets out of coaching. I hope that this method at least reduces the number of mistakes for you. E-mail and Phone Calls Thank goodness e-mail is the norm for communicating in 2011, it is the simplest, cheapest, most efficient and easiest form of communication for youth football programs. Make sure to check your spam folder for bounces to insure that everyone is getting your e-mails. Make sure your team moms or team managers have all the players phone numbers and e-mail information. Texts have become increasingly more prevalent, but dont assume everyone that has a cell phone texts, they dont.
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RainedOut There are some interesting free services that will help you communicate with your teams, one is called RainedOut. Lets say practice is at 6:00 and when you get to the field at 5:45 it starts to rain. Just because it is raining hard at the practice field, doesnt mean its raining hard across town. You need a quick and easy way to communicate time sensitive and urgent changes in schedules. RainedOut is a nice solution to this problem, it is a free Web-based service that empowers non-technical people to administer and send messages instantly to the entire community for improved communication. Through one simple interface, RainedOut instantly and simultaneously broadcasts alerts to your subscribers mobile phones (via SMS text message) and e-mail accounts, and to your organizations own Web pages, RainedOut Page, Facebook Page, and Twitter Account. Broadcast your time-sensitive updates to your parents and coaches at the touch of a button. Find out more on that at RaindedOut.com The company can offer it free because they include targeted advertising after each text, a small price to pay for a free service.
Taken from the RainedOut web site: www.rainedout.com Why RainedOut?

Eliminate "phone trees" & overwhelming calls to your coaches Eliminate the weather hotline number Eliminate having to update your group's Web pages Better league communication = happier members
Public Relations
Public Relations is another role your board should assign a volunteer to. Good PR can help your program grow not only with players and good volunteers, but with resource donations as well. The great thing about PR is, most of it is free and most times PR is much more effective than paid advertising in bringing attention to your program. Most of the time, good PR involves letting the media know about a good story in your program. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the media person, what about your story is newsworthy to the point their viewers are going to want to hear about it? Sure you can get
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free spots in the community events section of most papers, but those sections arent heavily read, same goes for PSAs on the local radio or TV stations. What generates buzz are real stories, where the public engages your program because of something unique and newsworthy. Things like community service projects, academic award programs and character development programs all seem to qualify as newsworthy in most places. Maybe you are doing a free punt, pass and kick program with a guest NFL speaker or you just got awarded an NFL grant for new equipment, and you have to let people know. You can even invent an Award your program gives out to something that matters to you and meshes with your mission statement; Community Service, Leadership, Sportsmanship etc. Maybe you have implemented an entirely new and unique coaching development or parent management program, many times newspapers, radio and TV stations will pick those up on slow news days. When crafting a press release always use an interesting title page, think like someone writing a catchy newspaper headline. Always in big and Bold under the headline put the words: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Make sure and include your contact information in a block to the left under the headline, it should include your name, organization name title, telephone and e-mail contact information. Opposite this should be a block for the city, date and time of the release. A press release should be short and to the point, it cant be salesy or persuasive, it shouldnt be over three paragraphs long. Do your best to avoid using hyperbole or sensationalism. Your lead paragraph needs to grab the attention of the writer without going over the top. The middle paragraph should give the where, when, how and why of the event or announcement with the final paragraph as a short recap while adding some additional credibility or content in the first two paragraphs. Your local newspaper will have an e-mail address of where to send the story, but dont stop there. Submit it to the general news source e-mail address, the sports desk and the local community news desk. Dont be afraid to contact specific writers directly, they will often times run with their own story leads. Always remember to write them a thank you note for any article they write, that is usually good for a follow up story one year from the initial story. For radio stations, the local sports talk radio is usually the best to reach your target audience, but dont discount popular morning radio shows or very localized TV news programs. We were able to get TV crews in a 900,000 metro-plex to attend and report on football camps with guest speakers, academic award ceremonies, shoe program community service event, community service clean up event, punt pass and kick event and even a big game. Once you establish that relationship, treat them as a stakeholder, weve gone so far as having sending them a thank you card signed by the entire team accompanied by some team photos. Radio is also a very important medium in most markets, especially sports talk radio. Many prospective players dads listen to sports talk radio. Call into the shows program director and ask to have you on. They arent going to let you come on and pitch your program in most instances, but you can pitch them a show. They want to engage their audience, so maybe the
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show you pitch them is you telling how most youth football coaches mess up their teams, the most common mistakes youth football coaches make. Of course at some point during the interview or show you are going to mention where you coach and what age group. The radio people know that is the cost of doing business, in fact most of the better ones will prompt you for the information during the course of the show. The best time to do one of these shows is the week before most of the youth football teams start practice, the time to set up the show is 30-60 days prior to the day you want to air the show. A lot of good free publicity comes through your network of parents and stakeholders, either they know someone in the media or they know someone who knows someone. Let your parents and stakeholders know that you need them to pass along their contacts or make introductions for you so that the general public understands who your organization is and what your mission is as well. Public Relations is often times MUCH more persuasive than advertising and it is usually free. Take the time to either put a strong person in this position or invest a little time in coming up with a PR strategy, it is time well spent. In todays world people expect good communications, it is a given. Blow it and you give up a lot of credibility with your parents, stakeholders and community, do it real well and you will set yourself apart from the pack. The pack being other youth football programs in the area as well as competing sports, remember you arent just competing against other football programs. In todays world we are competing against fall baseball, year round basketball, martial arts, BMX racing, the communist plot also known as soccer, computer games and doing nothing.
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Chapter 5 Volunteers
Getting volunteers in your youth football program is going to be critical to your long term success. There are so many things that need to be done, that if left to the coaching staff, will overwhelm them with duties they may not have the skill or time to perform. We all have different talents and abilities. Your best coach may be fantastic at working with kids and is an excellent teacher but has no ability to manage finances or do effective public relations. Most teams have parents, relatives of players and stakeholders with a wide variety of talents that can be utilized to enhance the experience of your players. Most youth football coaches, even the good ones, have a tenure of three years or less. The major reason they leave coaching is because of all of the non-coaching activities many of them are required to do. In some cases they are the Head Coach, equipment manager, medical specialist, team mom, team manager, fundraising manager, game day director, video manager, public relations director and concession manager all wrapped up into one guy. Add in a few unrealistic, entitled and ungrateful parents and you have a recipe for a short tenured coach. If you want to build and retain a top notch coaching staff, do all you can to take all of the noncoaching duties off of the coaches plate. Remember the critical success factor to an organizations long term success is the recruitment and retention of great coaches. You arent going to get and keep those type of people if they have to do all the work. When you spread the work around, you will get a much wider and deeper sense of ownership from your parents and stakeholders. Many people wont sign up for a volunteer position because they dont understand what the position entails or feel they are unqualified to do the job. Thats why it is very important to have a job description of every volunteer position in your program. Concentrate on the macro skills required to do the job, not that the person has performed the same job in the past. For instance when looking for someone to fill the Equipment Manager position, dont ask for someone that has performed that role in the past, ask for someone that already had plans on attending practices with their son who is well organized and patient. Let parents and stakeholders know how valuable volunteers are to the success of the program and the football experience their son will have during that season. While some roles like the Risk Management Director have to be filled, you might suggest that if some roles are not filled, that the activity simply wont be done that year. If no one steps up to be the Video Manager, maybe you dont have film or a slide show that year. If no one steps up to take the Academic position, you dont do it that year. You simply cannot push that burden off on your coaches who are already putting in much more time than anyone imagines.
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Some organizations even require people to volunteer a certain number of hours every season. Others have volunteer fees to facilitate the involvement of parents. These organizations charge any participating family an extra fee if they do not volunteer. Some organizations take an extra check at registration, which is returned to the family once they put in the required number of volunteer hours. Im not so sure how voluntary those type of systems really are, but it works for some. In any event, volunteers are important. Recruiting, managing, motivating and retaining key volunteers is a must for any successful youth football program. For those positions that require significant player contact, you may want to run those people through your criminal background check. Make sure and recognize your volunteers at every turn, they arent getting paid, the only currency they are receiving are well placed pats on the back. Recognize them at every practice, over the loudspeakers of the game, in your game programs and at your year-end banquet. You can never over recognize your volunteers, while not recognizing them will drive many of them back into the crowd of consumers rather than providers.
Detailed Role Descriptions

It is important to define the roles and responsibilities of your volunteers. Here are a few samples you can use as a starting point for your volunteer positions: PROGRAM DIRECTOR Program Position Overview: This is the football programs ultimate manager. He is responsible for setting up the management team and in helping make head coach selection decisions. He is the visionary that makes sure the programs mission is communicated to all and that the organizations priorities reflect meeting the stated mission. Reports to program President.
Responsibilities of this role include: Recruit and appoint Training and Management Coordinator Schedule and reserve all practice and game fields Schedule extra games, communicating with Team Managers Communicate league schedules to Team Managers Consistently look for process improvement opportunities Monitor Competitiveness of program offering compared to others in area Solve Escalation issues that the Training and Management Coordinator cant On selection committee for Head Coach selections Parses players out to respective teams or manages the selection and parsing process Sets dates for special events and practice start dates Sets practice parameters Sets minimum play standard if no minimum play rule in place Reviews parental problems that are escalated from the Team Manager
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POSITION: TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR- Program Position

Overview: This position will train all new Team Managers and conduct periodic meetings with them and address any team issues, League issues or questions, and to assure compliance with all League rules. This position reports directly to: Football Director. Responsibilities of this role include: Inform all management team members of their roles, responsibilities How To instruction and training on their responsibilities League Rules representative League By Laws representative Market and coordinate all Special Events for final review Represent the Football Director in the case of any absences Oversee any sub League Directors, i.e Flag Football etc. Conduct periodic meetings with all Management Team Members. Appoint Assistant Director and volunteer committee, as needed to fulfill all requirements Parses out coaching candidates to respective teams Recruits and Assigns Committee Heads as needed including Concession Manager
POSITION: TEAM MANAGER- Each Team

Deports to the Training and Management Coordinator Responsibilities of this role include: Management of the Team Book and League Paperwork League Rules compliance League By Laws compliance Game Day Responsibilities including all volunteers needed Play Counters Chain Crews Assignment Field Monitor for home games Game Day drinks or snacks Referee assignment and pay if non-league game Set Up or Tear Down crew home game fields if first or last team Proper chain for team issues, complaints, requests, etc. Reports Scores Game Day Programs Academic Program reports and monitoring if no Academic Manager assigned Makes sure parents are meeting the standards stated in the Spectator Contract Recruits or assigns team level committee heads or managers
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POSITION: TEAM MOM- Each Team Duties assigned by the Team Manager Reports to Team Manager
POSITION: COACHES LIAISON- Program Position

Overview: This position will assist in interviewing all new coaching candidates, and serve as an issues facilitator between our football coaches and parents, and our football coaches and the Football Director. This role requires periodic meetings with coaches and the ability to address any team issues, League issues or questions, and to assure compliance with all League rules. This position should be the initial stop for any coaching or parent issues, before it is escalated to the Director. This position shall have limited decision making authority on minor issues not affecting the League By Laws. The Coaches Liaison should have a minimum of 5 years head coaching experience. This position reports directly to: Football Director. Responsibilities of this role include: Interview/Assist in interviewing new coaching candidates and make recommendations to the Football Director Train new coaches, and make training available to existing coaches, as to the logistics, responsibilities and protocol for all coaches Coaching Clinics schedule and management Selection of Coach training materials and management of library Team Manager role and selections Practice planning assistance Resources Manager for coaching education materials End of year coaching evaluations League Recruiting & Draft procedures Equipment procurement, requests, inventory Weigh-Ins Registration issues Fields ( game day set ups/tear downs, etc.) Conduct discretionary meetings with non-winning coaches (How can we help?) Coach reprimands and firing if required Work with Team Manager, Equipment Manager and others Appoint Assistant Director and volunteer committees, as needed to fulfill all requirements
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POSITION: WEIGH-IN COORDINATOR- Each Team and Program

Overview: This position is responsible for the effective and orderly conduct of our pre-season weigh-ins of all League players in compliance with all League rules. This position is also responsible for organizing a supervisory group to oversee one other League area weigh-in. This position reports to Team Manager. Program Weigh-in Coordinator reports to Program Director. Responsibilities of this role include: Prepare and coordinate efficient and orderly weigh-in of all players Determine and arrange for site and scale Mobilize reliable group of volunteers for weigh-ins; the number of the volunteers needed to be determined by agreement with League coordinators Determine and arrange for contingent plan for players missing official weigh-in Assure accurate, timely reporting of all weigh-in results to the appropriate League official Appoint Assistant Director and volunteer committee, as needed to fulfill all requirements
POSITION: EQUIPMENT MANAGER- Each Team AND Organization

Overview: This position is responsible for the timely, effective and orderly procurement, distribution, storage, inventory and upkeep of all League football equipment. This position reports directly to: Football Director. Responsibilities of this role include: Request and procure all reasonable and necessary equipment Maintain all receipts and deliver them to Treasurer in a timely manner Obtain pre-approval for purchases Maintain all equipment in good, playable condition Repair, or cause to be repaired equipment as needed Replace, or cause to be replaced equipment as needed Distribute, or cause to be distributed, all equipment to coaches, fields, etc. Maintain clear, accurate records including Year End inventory Distribute Equipment Collect & Store equipment at year end, or obtain written Inventory List from coaches Managing, collecting, and distributing all equipment needed for camps Work with coaches who are coaching in the camps to bring their own equipment Communicate all equipment needs, procedures, requirements to all coaches Coordinate with vendors on all equipment needs Appoint Assistant Director and volunteer committee, as needed to fulfill all requirements Maintain clear and accurate report of all number assignments for every player Order and insure timely delivery of all reasonable and necessary uniforms for New players
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Size changes Jersey number requests Communicate all uniform needs, procedures, requirements to all coaches Coordinate with vendors on all uniform needs Run Parent Jersey program as fundraiser Appoint Assistant Director and volunteer committee, as needed to fulfill all requirements
POSITION: SPECIAL EVENTS DIRECTOR- Each Team and Program

Overview: This position is responsible for the timely, effective and orderly planning and running of League Football Special. Events including, but not limited to Camps, Jamborees, League Fundraisers, Post Season Tournaments. These events are vital to our financial bottom line. This position reports directly to: Football Director- Program- Team reports to Team Manager. Responsibilities of this role include: Organizing a reliable group of volunteers to fulfill all Special Events Director objectives Organize, plan and coordinate each event to include all budgeting for approval Seek early involvement of all League coaches regarding scheduling, drills, etc. Reach out to and integrate high school coaches Procure all Field(s), Guest Speaker(s), Entertainment, Sponsorships, Vendors for each event T-Shirts and other merchandising for event Food & Beverage Advertise and promote each event Coordinate with Cheerleader Director Appoint Assistant Director and volunteer committee, as needed to fulfill all requirements
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Chapter Chapter 6
Recruiting and Retaining Players
Recruiting players is important and is either allowed or banned, depending on the League your team is playing in. In Omahas Heartland and our rural EVW League, there is no limit on recruiting players. We shy away from actively pursuing rival teams players, and do not go outside our adjacent neighborhoods to recruit. However we do aggressively seek out all kids that may have an interest in playing football in our local area. Recruiting should be a year round activity to insure you have reasonable numbers to work with. Your coaches, players and parents should help you do it. Numbers You have to have reasonable numbers in order to practice and field a team. While our approach to coaching football has worked with team sizes as low as 16, we have found team sizes of 22-24 players works the best. If you have too few players, the players and parents can almost hold you hostage to enforcing practice time requirements and discipline. If you have too many players it becomes difficult to coach them all up, rough to keep them all engaged and tough to get them reasonable amounts of practice and game time reps. It is important that your kids be able to simulate the offense and defense against 11 players. If you start at 24 kids, have one drop and are missing another because of illness or injury; that puts you at 22. You can always sub in a coach or parent with a blocking shield to get to 22 without a problem, so dont get hung up on the magical number of 22 kids. While recruiting is a very important job you must do, do not let it consume your attitude toward your team. Too many coaches think that out-recruiting the other organization is the only way they can compete. More often than not, unless there is a very wide canyon of disparity in talent, over time the best-organized and coached teams have the most success. Your job as a coach and recruiter is to make sure that this disparity is reasonable, not that you become the Texas University of youth football and get the very best kids every year. Every year we all see weaker teams beating bigger and better talented teams, it happens everywhere. Recruit aggressively, but dont despair if you do not get a bunch of great players.
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Effective Methods For most coaches it is much more rewarding to win without having the best talent. The only year I had the best talent was in 2003. While we won all our games in blowout fashion, it was a challenge to coach this team. It was very difficult keeping the kids on task and many got lazy with their technique. Because this team was so physically dominant, they did not have to use perfect technique to dominate games, it was a constant struggle to get them to use the proper technique. While it was a dream team talent wise and we won every game big, it was a frustrating team to coach. Be careful what you wish for, you may get it. Some organizations or coaches fail to recruit at all, and hope a few newspaper ads do the trick, that is a mistake as well. There are many different ways to recruit players and some methods are just not effective at all. Our organization does not just recruit the biggest and best athletes we see, we recruit everyone, regardless of talent or size. Our experience has been that the following methods work best and are listed from best to worst: School Flyers and Assemblies Lunch Room Highlight Video Displays Player Bounties ( pizza or t-shirts awards) Church Flyers and Assemblies Special Public Events with Table or Booth YMCAs-Flyer Placement Scheduled Special Events by You Posters Sporting Events-Booths Strength Training Newspaper Adds News Releases Web Site School Flyers and Assemblies This has easily been our most effective way of recruiting players. While some schools have policies against sending home flyers with students, we have gotten around this many times by partnering with schools. We speak to the school principal to review our program and our academic accountability program that the teachers have to sign weekly. The schools love what we do and the academic incentives we provide. Out of over 20 schools we have approached only one failed to send our flier home with every boy age 6-14 in their school. We even had several principals agree to put on school assemblies where we presented who we were to the entire school.. A Maryland coach friend of mine even brings in his VCR/TV unit into lunchrooms and plays his Season Highlight tapes and hands out flyers over lunch. We have set up tables on open-house or parent nights as well. When we set up the tables, we include sign-up sheets, homemade brochures, and decorate the booth with our helmets, jerseys, cheer gear, trophies and banners.
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School Events A number of schools will allow you to set up a sign up table on Open House night, this is a great way for parents to meet you. Make sure and make a nice trifold brochure people can take with them. Set up your laptop and show some team highlights to draw people to the table. Dont be bashful about putting a team helmet, game jersey and team trophies on the table to spark interest. Most schools will let you set up a sign up table at home football and basketball games, a great way to get in front of your target audience at low or no cost. Player Bounties Player bounties are rewards you give your players for signing up their friends to play. We have handed out sign-up sheets to players on a Thursday and got over 50 returned on the following Monday by offering incentives like; helmet stickers, pizza party attendance, carrying the ball in a scrimmage, the possibilities are endless. Free Speed Camps or Free Football Camps Offer a one or multiple day free speed development or football camp. This is often a great way to get people talking about your program and getting kids interested in playing for your program. Obviously you need to put your best foot forward, you wont get a chance to create that all important first impression. You have to be well organized, offer quality instruction and give kids and parents a reason to come back. Local football celebrities are often times more than willing to help if you give them a chance to speak at the end and you invite the media for photo opps. Church Flyers and Assemblies The Screaming Eagles have a faith component to our program and have had churches put our information in church bulletins. Most larger churches have Wednesday evening youth programs. In Omaha we had the churches hand out our flyer to every male student age 8-14 that attended. We have spoken and given our testimony at a number of these churches to the entire group, churches always love guest speakers. The Eagles do not believe in practicing on Wednesday nights and always leave that open for church. Special Public Events with Table or Booth These are special events like church festivals, community Easter egg hunts, fairs and the like. Most event sponsors will allow you to set up a booth or table for free to sign children up.
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YMCAs or Community Centers Most local YMCAs and Community Centers do not offer tackle football and are glad to allow you to recruit kids directly involved in their programs. We always put up posters and a stack of fliers at these places. We ask the staff when the largest groups of kids are in attendance or if they have any special events and then make sure we are there with flyers in hand. Scheduled Special Events by You This is an area where you can get very creative. With the Screaming Eagles, we hold an annual Punt Pass and Kick contest in the spring. We get celebrity judges to attend like Carolina Panther Mike Minter or University of Nebraska football players. Just contact the Athletic Department of your local University, they will gladly send out players for the great public relations it offers for the University. Since our program has a faith component, we get the local FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) chapters to send out celebrity judges that also get a chance to speak to the group. We have had a local TV newsman MC the event and have had TV and newspaper coverage. Sending out a nice press release to your local newspaper and TV stations often get you coverage on slow news days. We hand out flyers at the schools, send a mailer to our existing player list, and usually get a nice crowd. We offer bikes that we get at Wal-Mart for about $60 each for prizes. The entire thing usually costs us less than $500, which is $350 less than a tiny newspaper add. Several years we had the top three contestants at each age group square off at halftime of the local professional arena football teams game. It was a real thrill for the players and parents. You could also do a free throw contest, home run derby, 3 on 3 tournaments, the possibilities are endless. Posters Colorful posters have done fair, if posted in the right places. Places like schools, swimming pools, grocery stores, day cares, sports facilities and the like are good spots. The best ones include a color picture with posed players and a catchy phrase like Screaming Eagles Can You Handle It ?. All you need is a digital camera and the skills to insert text, Kinkos will make copies for about $3 each. Sporting Events If you do not have a basketball or baseball component to your program, go to these venues to recruit coaches and players. I like to watch youth basketball and baseball games. If the coach appears to be well organized and behaves himself well, I introduce myself, compliment him and ask if he is interested in coaching football. Even if he isnt interested most likely he will allow you to pass out flyers to his kids. If you are a shy person and just cannot do that type of thing, just do flyers on windshields in the parking lots of these events. One of the all-time best players in the Screaming Eagle Organization came to us via me handing out a flyer to a kid that was at a baseball game watching a friend play. He had never heard of us before and
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although he was 10 years old and weighed 180 pounds, he had never talked to anyone about playing football. Newspaper Adds This is a very expensive and low return method for us to recruit. A tiny display add in the Sports Section of our big paper costs us about $850 and will rarely get us more than a small handful of players. The return is just miniscule for the amount of money spent. News Releases News releases are free and often get us as many or more players than the ads. If you are a new program or are implementing many new things, a newspaper story can really help your cause. The Eagles have been on the front page of the newspaper in a 600,000 and 220,000 population city several times. Grocery Stores Many grocery stores will let you put up a sign up table at the entrance to their stores. The best time to set up shop there is the first Saturday of the month. Remember that when you first start a program you are going to have to get creative to attract players. Once you establish yourself and if you run your program well, you may not have to recruit players at all. With my existing program we havent had to recruit a player in 3 years and our teams fill up in the November prior to the season starting. Player Sign Ups There are varieties of ways to sign players up to play, the simplest is just having a sign up form like the one here. You would use a form like this at a table sign up. You could collect the fee there or just gather the information and e-mail the parent with payment instructions. No one is ever committed until you get their checks in. If you are going to limit the sizes of your teams, dont get caught up in thinking players are going to show up if they dont have their player fees in. On your web site make sure and give instructions on how a player can sign up year round. Im not sure how having set sign up times at your team office or another location accomplishes much or is a wise use of time other than if it is in a public area and you can create some buzz. Make it easy on the parents and yourselves by giving instructions on how to sign up with a downloadable sign-up sheet and payment instructions on your web site.
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More than 70% of youth football signups are now done online and parents love not having to enter the same info repeatedly on forms. There are varieties of ways to take payment over the web site via credit card. Leaguelineup, Leagueahtletics.com and eTeamz offer these services at a cost anywhere from 5%-10% of the player fee including your credit card fees, there may be set up fees included as well. Some require you to set up your own merchant account, others allow you to use theirs and they just transfer the funds to you every 15 days. Other companies that provide this service include Active and SportsSignup. The nice thing about online signups is less data entry for you and fewer mistakes. Some of these services also include waiver, paperwork flow, volunteer sign up and management and much more. Take the time to look at what each of these companies offer and choose the one that is the best fit for your program. We are not in a position to recommend one over another at this time, we are still investigating, testing and gathering data about them all.
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Youth Football Association (name, address, phone, email)

Fall Football Registration Form
1. Make check for the $125 registration fee payable to:. 2. Registration form must be accompanied by check
Player Information print legibly

Players Last Name: _____________________________________________DOB: ______ Custodial Parent or Guardians Name:__________________________________________ Non Custodial Parents Name:________________________________________________ Custodial Parents Address Include City and Zip______________________e-mail________________ Non-Custodial Parents Address____________________________________e-mail_______________ Custodial Parent Phone______________________Non Custodial Parent Phone_________________ Players Street Address___________________________________________________________ Fall Grade: __________Fall School ____________________ Age as of (League cutoff)_______ New or Returning player __________ Last Season Coach ________________ Total Years Playing Tackle Football_________ Estimated Weight __________ Parent/Guardian Emergency Contact Information (please be complete as possible)
No Refunds. Equipment will be issued when full registration payment is received. Players will not be allowed to participate in the (name) Youth Association program if payment is not paid in full. Fees include rental of game uniform, football or cheerleading equipment. Uniforms and equipment are the property of (name) Youth Association and must be returned by the end of the season. I agree to pay the cost of any lost equipment issued to my child or me by (name). Equipment. Equipment must be returned at the end of the season, clean and in good working order. Failure to return the gear within 10 days of the last game will result in a $250 fee to be assessed. If the organization must retrieve the gear, an additional $100 fee will be assessed. In the event a player quits or is removed from the team, his equipment must be returned within 5 days of the termination date. A $5 per day late fee will be assessed if equipment is not returned in 5 days. By signing this form I agree to these terms and also agree to pay for all recovery, attorney and collection costs incurred by the organization to recover the equipment and monies owed.
Signature of Parent / Guardian ___________________________ Print Name ___________________________Date
______________ (league) Check No.
Amount Paid
Date Received
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Player Retention Over the long haul how your organizations health is going to be measured is by retention. Well run and well coached programs are going to retain players, programs that arent well run and well coached are going to lose kids and be on a constant battle to recruit enough kids to play. While some parents may jump on board and volunteer to help in their sons first year, most take more of a wait and see attitude. If they see the program is well run, is going in the right direction and has strong committed leadership and coaches, they are going to lend a hand in years 2-3-4. However if you are constantly churning through players, you are going to have a very difficult time building a strong organization or get committed volunteers to lend you a hand. A well run youth football program will retain from 90-100% of their players from one year to the next. The sign of a weak program is one that is retaining 70% or less of its players. Retention is measured by the number of players that started with the program on the first day of practice, who then were at the first day of practice the following season. Of course we dont count the kids who age out of the program against that number. The key to retention is making it a focal point. I judge my coaches on how well they play to potential, how well the team is prepared from a fundamentals standpoint as well as how many players they retain. We compete with each other not only by how many games we win, but how many kids we keep. If you make retention a stated goal, have a specific plan to reach that goal and judge yourself and your coaches on how well you did in this area, you might be amazed at how well you do with it. You can win AND retain all of your players, these are NOT mutually exclusive goals, but it takes a plan and coaching to make it happen. Remember when you put your retention goals together that most times the kid that gets the most out of his youth football experience is probably the one on the lower end of the athletic prowess spectrum and the one most likely to quit playing. Retaining youth football players requires that the coaching staff develops trust and buy in from the players AND the parents. Getting both groups to trust your coaches and each other is the first step in earning the right to be heard. In the book Winning Youth Football A Step-byStep Plan along with the Developing Chemistry, Character and A Winning Attitude CDROM, you get a step by step approach and program that helps your coaches accomplish this. Retention numbers go off the roof when players and parents know that the coaching staff cares about the players beyond what happens on the football field. It doesnt matter how much football knowledge you have or what your credentials are. Kids dont care how much you know until they know how much you care. There are MANY ways to help you build up what Steven Covey calls the emotional bank account between your coaches, players and parents. There will come a time in every season where coach will need to make a withdrawal from that
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account. If there are funds stacked up in the account, things will be just fine, however if the account is empty expect lots of drama and problems. Retention is often times a result of the body of work the program has put together that shows it cares and is competent. This would include things like well-run practices, competitive teams, nice banquets, special events (swim and pizza parties), character development program, academic program, community service program and well behaved coaches. Dont fret if other programs try and steal your players. While the thought of having someone defecting to another program is distasteful, if you are doing the right things, if the parents know you care about them and you are coaching with thought and purpose, you arent going to lose many players. The ones you do lose are those whose parents arent sold out on the program. Losing those type of families to other programs, which are better fits for them, is probably best for both parties. If you do lose someone, put that smile on your face, wish them the very best and move on. How you handle situations like this will say a lot about who you are and how successful your program will be. You dont have to have the best players to effectively compete in youth football or to have a great program, what you need is a good infrastructure and well trained coaches. Its nothing worth getting excited about or lose sleep over.
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Chapter 7 Managing Risk

We live in a much different world today than in decades past. There are real dangers in the world of youth sports and we as administrators need to take reasonable measures to protect our players from. At the same time there are litigious people that are willing to sue at the drop of a hat, quite often times when you are doing everything you can do to protect their children. Risk management is not only putting procedures and processes in place to make the players safe but also to minimize the threat and success of possible lawsuits against the organization, its coaches, volunteers and Board Members. For starters it should include procedures and processes, education, insurance and waiver forms. If your organization is large enough you can assign this position to a trusted parent or stakeholder. Look for someone that has management experience or has an insurance background who will take their responsibilities seriously. They need to be detail oriented and a task master of sorts. Your Director of Risk Management must be committed to the task. Injuries Injuries happen in youth football, it is a contact sport. A good Risk Management Program will include education to your coaches and staff about both injury prevention and injury care. Before training your coaches look within your organization for those with medical experience, you never know if a nurse or EMT is a parent or friend of the program. Often times they are more than happy to volunteer their services for your games. In one case we had a bank manager who was an EMT over 20 years ago who still had a lot of his equipment and passion for helping kids. As part of your mandatory coaches clinic you should include a session on injury identification, rendering first aid and even CPR. At least one of your coaches should be certified in CPR. We arent trying to make physicians out of every coach, just making sure you have the resources to help stabilize the situation until real help arrives. Some people feel that Waiver Forms arent a valid form of protection. Most waivers are written to protect the organization, its coaches and volunteers against claims of negligence. While every state is different in how their courts value waivers, you should never think that a waiver as your sole point of defense. Most of the time getting your parents to sign a waiver is
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worth the time and effort, think of it as another layer of defense. Some states allow parents to enter binding agreements on behalf of the player and some do not. In some cases waivers have been effective in getting lawsuits dismissed early in the legal process, in other cases people have racked up very sizeable legal bills before the case has been dismissed. In any case a waiver may not only help get a case dismissed, it can also help lessen the amount awarded. Coaches and Risk Management Risk management includes many facets including having processes, education, training and safeguards built into your systems. The coaching section in this book should give you some good starting points to work from.
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Screaming Eagles Football
Waiver
This form must be filled out and signed even if you played last year. Players NameGuardians Name.. In consideration of being allowed to participate in the Screaming Eagles Youth Football Program Program, I agree that: I the guardian of the above mentioned minor give my permission for him to participate Screaming Eagle football. My child, my spouse and I (If married) are aware that participation in youth football is a potentially hazardous activity. I assume all risks associated with participation in this sport, including but not limited to falls, injury, contact with other players, poor weather, poor field conditions, faulty equipment, improper instruction, improper medical treatment /diagnosis, and negligence. All risk known and unknown including permanent disability and death are assumed by me. All risks are hereby understood to my child and me. I do knowingly and willingly waive, indemnify, release, absolve and agree to hold harmless, Screaming Eagle Football, board members, coaches, volunteers, members, sponsors, commissioners, property owners, property maintenance crews, players and participants for any claim arising out of injury, negligence or dissatisfaction while playing in a Screaming Eagle activity to the fullest extent allowed by law. Any legal proceedings in regards to this event will take place in Lancaster County, Nebraska. I have read this release and fully understand it. I understand the risk in participating in Screaming Eagle football. I am signing this voluntarily of my own free will.
Guardians Printed Name Guardians SignatureDate.. Players SignaturePlayers Printed Name Witness NameWitness Signature..
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Insurance In todays day and age, insurance is a necessity. Everyone wants to sue at the drop of a hat so you are going to need to carry insurance. Most leagues and fields you play on require that you carry insurance. The company nearly everyone uses to insure youth football teams is Sadler and Company. They are at www.sadlersports.com and are located in Columbia, South Carolina, their phone number is 800-622-7370. For the sake of discussion, lets define some of these scary words: General Liability insurance covers claims against the program, officers, coaches and volunteers against claims due to their negligence. That could include bodily injury, property damage and even things like libel and slander. Accident insurance pays for the medical bills of the players and volunteers after their insurance has paid its portion first. There are a variety of coverages you will need to consider. Their base coverage is $1,000,000 liability and $25,000 Accident Medical Coverage. The Medical coverage kicks in after a $100 deductible and after the injured parties personal insurance has been used to pay for those medical expenses. The base rate for most individual teams is about $450, it varies based on age and location. If you join AYF for just $25 per team, you can use their buying power to cut that insurance rate in about half. You do NOT have to be playing in an AYF league in order to buy the insurance and get the discount. With the other benefits both organizations offer, its silly not to pay the $25 and take the discount on the insurance at Sadler. The AYF rates also include a raised Medical limit of $100,000 rather than $25,000. United YFL also has a similar type program set up with their insurance partner. For very small increments you can raise the medical and liability caps. For another $300 per organization you can protect the Directors and Officers of the program. There are also options for equipment and crime or theft insurance. No one will cover you for sexual abuse or molestation, but most of the Sadler policies will cover the legal costs of a defense. Talk to your agent for more details. Child Abuse and Molestation As unpleasant as the subject is, you must address it to protect both your kids and your program. This is one if not the most despicable crimes in our world today and you just never know who the potential predator looks like, they come in all shapes and sizes and often times try to work around children. Criminal background checks are a must as is checking your local sex offenders registry. Reference checks are helpful, but not foolproof. Some organizations even do home visits, but again child molesters often time appear just like anyone else on the outside.
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Make sure you have a clause in your coaches contract that forbids coaches from having overnight visits from a player and forbid coaches from meeting with players one on one, unfortunately that means player rides. If you have a policy where a coach stays until the last boy is picked up after practice, the next to last player MUST wait with the coach until the last player is picked up. Its best to have at least two coaches or coach and volunteer both stick around and be there until the last player is picked up. Aggressively encourage your parents to be on time with pickups. Our coaches contract forbids touching a player below the waist, that means the players parent or the player will have to make any equipment adjustment on anything below the waist. Make sure to alert your coaching staff and volunteers to be on the lookout for anyone violating the coaches or volunteer contract or see the signs of child abuse in any player. Signs of sexual abuse include but are not limited to: Sudden changes in behavior or school performance. Overly compliant, passive or withdrawn. Tries to avoid contact with a specific coach at all costs. Physical complaints, physical symptoms. Depression or suicidal thoughts. Abdominal Pain. Coach doting on player, lavishing gifts. Evidence of regressive bed wetting. Drastic weight loss or gain. Radical change in appearance. Signs of exhaustion or lack of sleep. Possession of unexplained gifts or money. Signs of intoxication or drug use. Sexually precocious behavior. Radical mood swings. Boredom with age appropriate activities. Fearful of certain people. Angry, hostile or aggressive behavior. Fear of being photographed. Fear of undressing in front of others. Self-mutilation. Abusing animals. Self-hatred. Runaway. Withdrawn, isolated or excessively worried. Sucking of thumb or fingers. Becomes perpetrator, targeting others. Inappropriate kissing. Accidental bowel movements. Unable to concentrate.
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If you see any of these signs in a player, report it to your Risk Management Director and he can look into it, see if these signs can be validated, and possibly contact authorities. Other Forms You are going to need a medical release form to allow you to perform basic first aid on the player if they need care as well as to give your program the right to ask that medical care be provided in the event that a parent is not present to do so. Make sure this form is in a notebook with the coach or team manager at every event. The media release form allows you to publish the players picture on your web site and other media products like your highlight DVD, season DVD or slide show. You never know what avenue a disgruntled parent may take to try and throw your program off its tracks, thats why you need the release.
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Screaming Eagles Medical Consent Form

Note if Guardian or primary care giver is someone other than the mother or father please note this on the form
Players Name Players Phone Number..Players Address. Fathers Name.Fathers Phone Number.. Fathers e-mail address.Fathers Physical Address.. Fathers Cell Phone NumberFathers Work Phone Number. Mothers NameMothers Phone Number.. Mothers e-mail addressMothers Physical Address.. Mothers Cell Phone NumberMothers Work Phone Number. Health Insurance Provider: Policy NumberGroup Number.. Family Physicians NameAddress Family Physicians Phone Number...............Alt Phone Does the Player Have Any Significant Medical Issues ? Please List ............................................................................................................ Does Player Take Medication? Please List Is Player Allergic to Anything? Please List .. Does Player Have Asthma or Use an Inhaler? Please Explain .. Of sound mind I do hereby grant consent to any and all health care providers designated by: Screaming Eagle Football to provide all needed and necessary medical care as well as rudimentary first aid and transportation to needed medical care facilities or medical care personnel. Fathers Printed Name......................................................................... Fathers Signature.Date Witness Printed Name. Witness Signature.Date.. Mothers Printed Name......................................................................... Mothers Signature.Date Witness Printed Name. Witness Signature.Date..
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2011 Screaming Eagles Media Release Form

During the course of the season games and Eagle Events will be photographed and videotaped in order that we might retain a living memory of the season as well as publicize the Screaming Eagle Youth Football Program. In consideration of participation in Screaming Eagles, I agree that my child may be photographed and videotaped during official Screaming Eagle events and that the video and pictures may be published to promote or publicize the Screaming Eagles, our Football League or the Community. Players NameDate.. Fathers Name..Fathers Signature.. Mothers Name.Mothers Signature..
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Safety
Safety is priority one in youth football. All coaches should be issued a small medical kit, with basic bandages, Band-Aids, safety gloves, antiseptic, tape, and cold packs. Additional supplies are available in the large metal cabinet in our office entryway for any coach to replenish their supplies. Prevention is the key. Do not allow any player to practice or play if they have any type of serious illness or condition that could jeopardize their safety. We once had a player that suffered from serious asthma, he was required to carry around a shot kit. He had a major attack during a game that scared the heck out of him and us. His mom was not there to administer the shot. The player, our team, and the coaches got quite a scare. We no longer allow kids with that type of problem to play for us for their own safety. Kids with inhalers and minor asthma can play. Kids with shot kits for asthma may not. All inhalers must be given to a designated person prior to every event and kept at the ready. We have also had a player that suffered from seizures; they CANNOT play either. It is not a safe situation for them or their teammates. Any serious medical condition requires us to exclude that player from our teams for the players own safety. However, we have been able to accommodate special situations at the B level that included a player with autism and one with dwarfism. In these cases, the league made special accommodations to waive the minimum play rule for both players so they could be part of the team. Heat The most common problem and possible serious situation is heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Every year you read about a football player dying during practice because of a heat illness. Try to do as many drills as possible including cals, angle tackling, fit and freeze, bird-dogging and any conditioning with the helmets off. Do as much as you can in the shade on hot days. Make sure to give your players plenty of water breaks, as often as every 15 minutes if needed and make water available to those that have none. Never deny water to a player at any time. If needed, shorten or cancel practice if its too hot. We do not do conditioning drills, but on very hot and humid days we limit how far we run out plays and do more chalk talks in the shade. Heat illness is very serious and can be fatal. Common signs of heat illness are excessive sweating, not sweating at all, vomiting, nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting, and disorientation. If you feel a player is having a problem, immediately get them to the shade, douse with cool water, get them to drink as much water as they can, call their parents and call 911, to get them to a doctor immediately. Always err on the side of caution when it comes to heat problems.
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Cuts Any type of cut that has visible blood needs to be attended to. If it occurs in a game, the player is required to exit the game immediately until the bleeding is stopped. Use the safety gloves and use antiseptic pads to clean the wound before bandaging it. Apply pressure and if its serious, have the player go to their doctor. Any possible broken bone needs to be immobilized, elevated and ice applied. If it is a compound fracture (through the skin), call an ambulance. Any serious break that prevents a player from moving you should call an ambulance. Do not attempt to remove a players shoe if they have a serious foot or ankle injury. Do not attempt to remove a players helmet if they have a neck, back or head injury. For any serious head, neck or back injury, do not move the player and call an ambulance. Any serious injury or condition that looks threatening like but not limited to continuous shortness of breath, seizures, or loss of consciousness, call an ambulance. Any time you approach a possible injury, make sure to get other players out of view. Make sure and have a calm, everythings going to be ok attitude. Most players take their cue based on the coachs reaction. Quite often I like to smile and crack a joke to keep the player calm. For minor sprains, apply cold packs and compression, if pain persists, ask the player to see his doctor. If a player loses consciousness he cannot re-enter the game, he is a candidate for a concussion and must see a physician immediately, keep him awake and get him to a doctor. Always make sure to err on the side of safety.
Concussions
Concussions have become a significant point of emphasis in youth football due to some highly publicized concussion problems with some former college and NFL players. Unfortunately a lack of knowledge of the signs, dangers and treatment of concussions by most youth coaches probably resulted in a number of players either continuing to play in a game they suffered a concussion in, or the player was held out, but returned too early making him highly susceptible to a second concussion.
Concussions are a type of injury caused by a blow or bump to the head that disrupts the way the cells in the brain normally work. Football isnt the only culprit when it comes to concussions. It happens in soccer, baseball, basketball, just about every sport. It is estimated that over 3,000,000 children suffer concussions in recreational activities in the US every year. As coaches we have to be able to recognize the situations or symptoms of concussions in our players. The first step is to be aware of any big hits or trauma to the head, which could include helmet to helmet contact or even helmet to ground contact. We also need to look for changes
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in behavior in the player, because all the big hits or contact with the ground isnt always seen by the coaching staff on every play with every player. Signs of concussion are not limited to, but can be: Confusion Nausea or vomiting Appearing lost or dazed Rubbery legs Balance problems Dizziness Metallic taste in mouth Saw flashes of light Loss of consciousness Memory Problems Concentration Problems Headache Moves awkwardly Blurry vision Unsure of location, time or circumstances Sluggishness Change in attitude Sensitive to light
To be safe, youth football players who exhibit these type of symptoms after a blow to the head, the player should be held out from playing or practicing until they have been cleared by their doctor. Its important to educate your entire coaching staff on the dangers and symptoms of concussions as well as your parents. Some concussion symptoms will not appear until hours or even days after the head trauma. Returning to play before the brain has healed properly can delay recovery and even put the player at greater risk for a second concussion. In some cases returning too quickly has resulted in a quick second concussion, brain swelling, permanent brain damage and even death. Second Impact Syndrome (SIS) is probably to blame for these results. SIS is a condition in which the brain swells rapidly and catastrophically after a person suffers a second concussion before symptoms from an earlier one have subsided. This deadly second blow may occur days, weeks or minutes after an initial concussion. SIS is often times fatal or leaves the injured with permanent disabilities. SIS causes massive bleeding on the brain and in most cases the injured players eyes dilate and he loses consciousness. Once you see the symptoms of a concussion in your player, take him out immediately and notify his parents so they can seek professional medical care. In the event of the trauma of an SIS type injury of course an ambulance should be called. Another step to help lessen the impact of concussions is to make sure the player is equipped properly and that he is using proper technique to help prevent concussions. In youth football we still see a lot of players leading with their helmet or putting their head down upon impact. This is
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a coaching issue that has to be corrected. Players need to be taught in progressions and told the reasons why they bend at the knees, not the waist and why they keep their head up and slid to the side. Players need to be held accountable to a safe standard, even when an unsafe technique was used where a positive outcome was achieved on the field.
Medical Kit Supplies

The following is a minimum supply list that is a part of every Screaming Eagle Medical Kit. 10 Rolls Tape 3 Rolls Pre-tape 1 Can Pre-tape spray 40 Band-Aids 15 Gauze Pads 30 Alcohol Wipes 2 Pair Elastic Gloves 2 Screwdrivers 1 Pliers 1 Scissors 12 Cold Packs 1 Bag Helmet Hardware 20 Shoulder Pad Clips 20 Mouthpieces Emergency Phone Number List All Inhalers
When a Serious Injury Occurs

In youth football we need to be ready for most occurrences, even those we hope may never happen. What would you do in the case of a serious injury? In the league my teams play in, there was a player in 2009 who sustained an injury from his head hitting the ground after he fell to the ground. To everyones horror, he collapsed on the field and had to be life-flighted out. He ended up being in a coma for nearly two weeks before starting a slow and painful recovery. What would you do in a case like this? Emergency Action Plan As a youth football organization/coach, you naturally want to prepare your team win as many games as possible, and as a responsible organization/coach, you want to be prepared for potential emergencies. Certain types of emergencies may occur outside the game itself, such as weather related and illness or injury to those watching the game. Having written emergency plan will help alleviate chaos for everyone involved. It is very important to note, that should your organization/team adopt a written plan to follow, that it be rehearsed and the
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procedures be followed should an emergency occur. Failure to follow your adopted plan may result in litigation. Knowing your location It is important to know where emergency professionals are located in proximity to both your practices and games. Identifying Police, EMS personnel, and hospitals can save time. If possible, contact your local Fire and Rescue and schedule EMS teams to be present at your games. This can be done by making a simple phone call to your local fire and rescue department. They may require additional information i.e. total number of guests attending the game, length of time desired. League/Team Responsibility Assign a person to be Team Care Provider (Preference to parent/coach who is AED/CPR/First Aid Certified or a medical professional). Assign a person to meet emergency services (if required). Assign and provide emergency vehicle when appropriate to transport (may be players parent). Team Care Provider Asking a parent or coach to be your team care provider is a great responsibility. This important decision ought to be treated the same as selecting coaches, and should be assigned prior to your family team meeting. This will allow the team care provider to be properly introduced as part to the team. A background check ought to be mandatory. Select a team care provider who has completed AED/CPR/ First Aid or may be a medical professional. Should you have more than one team, you may have to select a team care provider for each team. Make certain that each team follows the same procedures and has updated emergency equipment. Suggested Documents for Emergency Action Plan In order to best serve the needs of the situation, it is best to prepare ahead of time. The following documents ought to be included in your emergency action plan binder by each Team Care Provider. Parent addresses, phone numbers, and contact names. Players health information: This information can be taken from the players application. Permission form to treat players: Parents must sign permission form to provide routine health care, administer medications, and seek emergency medical treatment. League information: Names and contact information of league officials (share with all parents). External Medical information: Addresses, phone numbers and map of hospital/health care facilities. Check list of first aid supplies: Always good to update equipment.
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Document all injuries on an incident report.
Follow chain of Command When facing the unenviable problem of having to deal with a serious injury, it is important to remember your chain of command. That means in any event, contact the parents or guardians first. Then contact your Program President and the President of your league. They need to know immediately of any serious injury and in the event the press deems the story important enough, they may be asked to comment on it. You never want those people to be blindsided, that means making sure you have their phone and e-mail contact information with you at games and practices. In the event the press contacts you in regards to the story, you may be limited by current HIPPA legislation from giving out very much of the medical information at all. Keep your comments brief, to the point and to where the player has been transported to. Ask the reporters to refer those questions to the parent. If asked about the severity of the injury, let the reporter know you arent sure and that the players doctors and parents would know better. If this happens during a game or practice, it can have a very damaging effect on the psyche of your team. Its always best to round everyone up, let them know the player is going to be ok, that the player is in good hands and to focus on the task at hand - finishing the game out. Some other things you need to do: Print summary copies of Emergency procedures for coaches and parents Rehearse emergency procedures with appropriate personnel at practices and game locations. Call 911 in the event of any serious injury. Have health information available. Follow up (complete documents, incident report, and accident report) Check on status of injured player Debrief coaches, parents, and players on serious incidents. While we cant protect our players from every threat, we can take reasonable proactive measures to protect them from the obvious ones and put safeguards in to protect them from the less obvious ones. Training, Education, Processes and Awareness are the bulwarks against those threats. While this is an unpleasant subject, it cant be ignored or swept under a rug, it has to be acknowledged and addressed in order to protect your players and keep your program viable in the long run.
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Chapter 8 Coaching: Coaching: The Ultimate Critical Success Factor

Priorities are what makes Organizations and teams great. You have to understand what your critical success factors are and how to allot your resources in order to build a great youth football program. First and foremost is developing your coaches, every coach impacts 20-30 kids. Coaches, not players will make or break your teams and Organization. Look at the best leagues in your area and ask the movers and shakers which coach wins pretty much every season. You will find there are 1-2 coaches in every league that win no matter what age group or team they are coaching. It wont matter if it is a totally blind draft or kids selected by a computer there are 1-2 guys that win and retain their players, no matter what. Ive had coaches in my own organization who Ive moved around to the most challenging and difficult situations and seen them win at every stop and retain their kids. On the other hand Ive had coaches that would consistently lose games and players regardless what team they were assigned. Every organization is like that, having the best talent does not guarantee competitive teams and championships, having the best coaching staff does. Now the guys that consistently lose games or are all over the map based solely on talent will try to shirk blame and tell you its all about talent, the facts are it isnt. The Importance of Coaching In my first coaching gig I started as an assistant coach in the KWAA league in suburban Omaha. This was a blind draft league. In the 5 years I coached there the Dolphins either won or were runners up in the first 4 seasons I coached there in both age groups. In my fifth year there, the entire Dolphins coaching staff moved on and a new crew took over the program. In this league each team kept the players from the previous season and you blind drafted to fill in your teams. The new Dolphin coaching staff with pretty much the same kids from the previous year who had finished first and second respectively, finished dead last in both divisions and most of the games werent even close. If you go to my web site www.winningyouthfootball.com and click on the testimonials page you will find over 400 stories from coaches that went from last place to first place using our system in the first year alone. Coaching matters, by far it is where you need to devote your resources to find, train and retain a great coaching staff.
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What To Look For In a Coach What do you look for when it comes time to recruit and select coaches? The answer may surprise you. Early on in my Coach Admin career I looked for ex-players. The idea was if someone were a great player in their day, they would probably make a great coach. The problem was in actuality a lot of those great ex-players didnt end up being very good coaches at all. Im talking about guys that played DI or even NFL football. Just because you played the game doesnt mean you can effectively teach it. In addition, what those players may know and want to teach may not always make the most sense for the average youth football team. Some of the best coaches Ive ever hired never even played the game. They coached basketball, knew how to teach and reach kids and were open minded about learning how to effectively coach the game. Ive hired over 300 youth coaches over the years and after a few years we noticed a trend, the most effective guys had more or less the same skill set. While some may have been fiery and excitable, while others were low key, they all seemed to have reasonable management skills. They were either managing people, ran a business or just had a knack for working with people and making good decisions. Thats all coaching really is, good decision making, setting good priorities, allocating resources, managing teams and individuals to meet their potential, setting goals and plans, understanding the competition and making on the spot adjustments. Does that sound like some work place jobs? Does that mean a postman, construction worker, doctor or waiter cant be a good coach? Goodness no, but there do seem to be some skills most coaches need that are usually in place for some jobs in the real world. Recruiting Coaches Again, your two most important critical success factors in a fledgling youth football organization is the leadership and coaching. That means that once you define your coaching profile you need to start recruiting coaches. Just like the recruitment of players, newspaper ads are going to be a HUGE waste of money, they rarely if ever produce descent results. The good coaches, you have to go find them. Personal relationships and your network of stakeholders are going to be your first step. Reach out to them letting them know how important you value coaching and what your coaching profile is. Ask them for the name phone number and e-mail address of two people within 48 hours that would either be a good coaching candidate or may know of good coaching candidates. Ask your parents if they know of a great football coach or even baseball or basketball coach you can talk to.
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Other Sources For Coaches or Leads for Coaches High School Head Football Coach (ask for former players and coaches names) High School Athletic Director Pastors Community Organization Heads Business Leaders Watch Youth Basketball Games Youth Baseball Games College Outreach- Many have volunteer coordinators Fraternities Competing Programs (ask them if any good coaches have left the league in recent past) United Way- Here they have a volunteers connections board. Press Release Web Site Add Facebook Twitter Some of the best youth coaches Ive ever hired had very little interest in coaching youth football, they were baseball and basketball coaches that had an interest in developing young men. Some were cultivated over the course of years of e-mails and phone calls. When you find someone that appears to be a fit, stay after him, situations change. Every Saturday morning during basketball season I would go to Kellom Gym and watch how guys behaved. If they were well organized and kept their cool, they were a candidate. Let everyone you know what you are looking for, but dont scare off the guy that thinks hes not qualified but is. Some of those guys with great decision making and prioritization skills arent going to volunteer if you dont communicate the profile. Yes you are assembling a top notch coaching staff and your standards are high, but its not necessary that they played College football or were some type of star player. Always be networking and on the lookout for good coaches, some of the guys that came on board with me, I had been after for 3-4 years, sometimes it just takes a little persistence. Background Checks Before you even bother interviewing coaching candidates, make sure they go through a background check. Selecting a head coach and then telling those interviewing for the position that they didnt get it, then having to go back to them because they were unable to pass the background check would be very clumsy and embarrassing. In todays world background checks are a must, you have to do your due diligence to protect the kids and your program. There are a variety of companies that offer background checks, your league may have a relationship with a company that does them as well. One we have used is the National Center on Safety Initiatives, ncsisafe.com For $25 they do a criminal background check.
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It is safe and confidential, the applicant logs into their system and confidentially gives them the information they ask for: Social Security Number, Drivers License Number, addresses, criminal history and other questions. The process takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Then NCSI give a green light, red light to the organization administrators based on the NCYS recommended guidelines. They also provide identity verification, national criminal database search, search of all available state sexual offender registries, and search through two separate national crime data bases, single county search, social security verification and address history records. For an additional fee they can also do a credit history check, employment verification and educational verification check. If you are a member of AYF or Pop Warner, they have a comprehensive and less expensive process in place. Practice Time Next is how to dole out your second most valuable resource, your valuable practice time. Great teams practice well, have great priorities and do not waste time. The best coaches run practices that would make efficiency effort Henry Ford proud. Next is to help your coaches understand how to teach and reach kids to maximize the potential of your teams. Lastly is your schemes, they have to fit your players, your mission, your practice time, your age group, your competition and your minimum play requirements if you have them. Any endeavor requires that one have goals, a plan to meet those goals and a philosophy that guides and combines the two. As a coach, its up to you to develop that philosophy and a roadmap for your team each year. If you dont have one, its critical you develop one and communicate it to all of your coaches. Without one, its like having a racing boat team with a fast boat and no rudder. All the speed and power in the world wont matter as your boat wanders aimlessly around the lake. The coaching philosophy we use for our own teams can be found in our book Winning Youth Football a Step-by-Step Plan. Becoming a successful youth coach is just like anything else that any of us develop a proficiency at over time. It takes training, effort and experience developed over time. Great coaches arent born that way; they develop their skills over years of coaching. In youth football you can accelerate that learning curve dramatically with books, DVDs and clinics. Knowledge is power and its up to your coaches if they want to acquire that knowledge to coach well or not. You dont want them to wait until their fifth year of coaching before they start to have success, by then a lot of boys will have been turned off to the game. Youth football coaching does not take an incredible amount of time to get competent at, a little focused and prioritized knowledge goes a long way in even the most competitive youth football leagues.
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Coach Selection If you have the luxury of having more coaching candidates than coaches, you need to have a fair way to select which coaches will be chosen to head coach and which coaches will be allowed to be assistant coaches. One way that has worked well for many programs is to start by having the coach fill out an application. If you felt like he had made the cut, based on his answers on the application, the next step could include a test. The next step would include the personal interview and the last step would be the background check prior to making the final selection and informing the coach of his position. A sample application, test and interview questions are included for your review. Your mission and goals will determine the skills and answers you are looking for your own organization. Either a selection committee or a coach trainer makes the decision on who is qualified to coach where and he can also either determine or help determine with the President who coaches where. Beware of putting too may people on the selection committee. For goodness sakes the people making the decisions need to be people that understand and have bought into the mission and who have been successful coaches. I never understood why coaches with awful retention numbers and lots of last place finishes find themselves on these selection committees. This is a great place for some of your former coaches to continue to stay involved in your organization. For my personal organization we were looking for coaches that were honest, reliable, consistent, open minded about football, valued learning, shared our sportsmanship values, were interested in youth development, had good relationships with their own children, were well organized and took direction well. For head coaches we were looking for good managers, people that know how to manage and motivate people, were interested in all the kids- not just their son, were confident they could do the job and were on the same page and sold out on the organizations mission.
Coaching Application
Unfortunately, in todays world, it is necessary to screen coaches. We have been fortunate and have not had any serious problems with coaches. However, it does happen and you should do background checks on anyone that volunteers to coach. Background checks cost about $25 to do, but ours are done for free by our local Police Department. You might try getting your local police to do the same for you. Dont scrimp on this one, it could save one of your players from some serious trauma and yourself from some hefty lawsuits. This is the form we use: Thanks you very much for your interest in helping develop our youth. We desperately need coaches for many of our teams. Depending on the team, we need coaches of varying levels of experience from none to significant. The safety of our players is our top priority. In todays world, unfortunately, certain precautions are needed. The following information is required to
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perform a background check. All applicable blanks need to be filled in to help us make a reasonable decision. By signing this form, I hereby agree to have the Screaming Eagles and or its agents to perform a background check. By signing this form, I am applying to be a coach, but will not be assigned a role, if any, until the check has been completed. Failure to complete the form or falsifying the form is grounds for rejection. None of the information of the background check is made public to Screaming Eagle staff. Our security firm, knowing the criteria established for our coaches, make the hiring decision for us. None of the findings will be shared with anyone but you.
Coaching Application
Name.Address.. Phone..ZipEmail Address. Drivers License Number.Social Security Number... Date of Birth.. Sons name if playing. Have you ever been arrested?............................................................................................. Have you ever abused or molested a child?. Have you ever been convicted of a crime?.. If so when and for what? ... Previous coaching experience. Please list team, sport, year and your role.. .. Have you ever been asked to leave a program?. Why? Have you ever been kicked out of a game?Why? Why do you want to coach?. . . . What positions can you coach? . What additional skills do you have that may add value to a youth football organization? . Reference 1- Name, Phone.. Reference 2- Name, Phone. I give permission to this youth football program to do a criminal background check on my behalf . All finding will be kept confidential Signed..Dated..
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Coaching Test A simple way to determine a coaches interest level and general knowledge of coaching and your programs approach to the game could include a test. The test could be administered after the coach has attended your mandatory coaches clinic or after he has reviewed your coaches training manual if you have one.
The main mission of ( organization name) is to transform every youth football volunteer into a knowledgeable youth football instructor. The (organization name ) Youth Football Coaching Exam allows volunteers with any level of experience, to be prepared with the knowledge of proper teaching techniques, understanding of coaching ethics and motivation when dealing with the youth of today. Having yourself and your league coaches certified ( organization name )coaches will provide ( organization name ) the ability to separate from other areas and other programs. Once a coach has passed the test by 80% they are given a certificate allowing them to coach in the league for one year.
Step 1: Contact Information

First Name Last Name Home Address
City
ST Zip
Phone
Email
Email Address
Step 2: Take the Exam! By-Laws, Rules and Policy Section

1. Is it considered illegal recruiting if a player has been rostered on a another teams roster within one year? st 2. Can a coach conduct a practice before the 1 official practice? 3. An existing team must return 12 players minimum in order to return as an existing team every season regardless of any coaching changes. th th th 4. Detachable cleats are allowed for all 6 , 7 and 8 grade teams. All other teams must wear molded rubber cleats. No team may wear metal cleats.
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nd rd th th th 5. All 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 grade teams are allowed to practice 4 times per week during the pre season and 3 times per week during the regular season and 5 times per week during the playoffs. th th 6. All 7 and 8 grade teams are allowed to practice 5 times per week during the pre season and 4 times per week during the regular season and 5 times per week during the playoffs. 7. No practice session for any grade may exceed 2 hours This includes warm ups!!! 8. Per NFHS rules, cut blocking is not allowed within the Free Blocking Zone (FBZ)
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by an offensive player that is lined up on the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball and within the FBZ. 9. The FBZ is four (4) yards in both horizontal directions from the spot of the football and three (3) yards in both vertical directions from the spot of the football. Once the football is snapped and the football leaves the FBZ, the FBZ disintegrates and cut blocking becomes illegal. nd rd 10. For all 2 and 3 grade teams. You must play a defense that aligns no more than six (6) on the line of scrimmage, no more than eight (8) in the defensive box and may not blitz when defending in-between the 10 yards lines. 11. All grades have a 12 minimum play rule for all games, regular season and playoffs. 12. All Head Coaches are responsible for maintaining the integrity of their fans per the ( organizations name ) Code of Conduct procedures that all participants must sign. If you cannot manage this you may be replaced as Head Coach. 13. Early / first game tackle football home teams will be tasked to set up their game fields. The last game tackle football home team(s) will be tasked to break down their game fields. Each team tasked will be notified each week via their Team Managers. 13. A coach is allowed to take part in team assignments before, during and after the draft. 13. When a coach knowingly played an ineligible and/or illegal player said coach
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would be suspended for the next scheduled game and any games the player played in would be forfeited. 13. A player can be added to a roster under the guise that the players relative is an -- Select Answ er -assistant coach.
General Knowledge Section

14. When fitting a player with shoulder pads, the pads must overhang the shoulder by 1 inch.
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15. "Bull in the Ring" is a great drill to teach tacking fundamentals. 16. When teaching basic tackling techniques, you should instruct your players to put the top of his head into the ball carrier's stomach. 17. As a defender is attempting to make an angle tackle, his eyes should be fixed on the ball allowing him to keep his head up upon contact. 18. Defensive holding is not called when a defender does not tackle the opponent but uses his hands & arms to defend or protect himself against an obstructing opponent. 19. If the defense blocks a Point After Kick and returns it for a Touchdown, the touchdown counts? 20. A kick returnee must salute the ball for a fair catch whistle. 21. All coaches, team manager, parents and officials should be aware of the league's injured players evacuation plan at all times. 22. It is a safety if the offensive ball carrier retreats into his own end zone and fumbles the ball beyond the end line. 23. A preplanned practice will lead to a more productive and efficient use of practice time. 24. A charged team time-out shall be reduced in length if both teams are ready to play before the ready-to-play signal is given. 25. An official's time-out can be called for unusual weather conditions. 26. A lateral is defined as a pass that goes out of bounds. 27. A regulation football field is 120 yards long and 50 yards wide. 28. A wide receiver is considered off the line of scrimmage if he is at least 1-1/2 yards behind the ball. 29. A "false start" foul is a dead ball foul. 30. All offensive players must be set for a least one full second with no movement after a shift or huddle break otherwise an illegal movement penalty will be called. 31. The defense must have a minimum of 4 players on the line of scrimmage at the start of the play. 32. The quarterback is an eligible receiver. 33. When teaching running backs handoffs the inside arm is always up. 34. Pass interference cannot occur after a forward pass is tipped. 35. Encroachment is when a player enters the neutral zone and makes contact with an opponent before the ball is snapped. 36. No interior lineman may invade the neutral zone after taking or simulating a three point stance or they will be called offsides. 37. The "neutral zone" is the width of the football along each side of the line of scrimmage. 38. When on offense, a minimum of 7 players must be on the line of scrimmage. 39. The Coach Liaison role is to provide assistance for all Head Coaches when
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dealing with disciplinary issue on his/her team (i.e. Sports Board Review). 40. When a coach is not able to remedy an issue on his/her team it is the responsibility of the coach to escalate the problem to the Director of Football. 41. The Team Managers role is to manage the logistics of his/her team according to the Head Coaches agenda. 42. The Team Manager and the Team Mom are the same person and have the same roles and responsibilities. 43. Pass interference occurs when a defender makes contact with the receiver past 5-yards (i.e. NFHS rules). nd 44. The backfield limitations for the 2 grade is 95lBs.
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Ethics Section
44. You should encourage a player to go on a diet in order to make the backfield weight limitation requirements. 45. You should encourage your players to blitz when beating a team by more than three touchdowns. 46. You should encourage players to get together during the summer to practice their playbook, conduct drills, etc. 47. You should consider asking a parent to work the sideline chains or down markers to signal in to the defense the oppositions play call i.e. if it is a run or pass. 48. You should consider filing a Re-weight petition if you feel a player is over the weight limit in order to protect your player. 49. The number one rule in youth football is to have FUN. 50. You should consider recruiting players to ( organization name ) if they were rostered on a ( organization name )team. 51. You should consider practicing in the regular season 4-days per week for 2 hours per practice. 52. You should bench a player if he doesnt show up to practice for more than 2 consecutive practices. 53. You should consider asking your Team Manager to note a player has met the minimal play requirements when he/she has played 13 plays. 54. You should encourage your players to cut block in the Free Blocking Zone (FBZ). 55. You should start your practice after youve completed your stretching and warm-up routine. 56. The first aid kit should be kept in your car and out of the way of the team. 57. During a time out, more than one coach may enter the field, approach the huddle, and speak with players, as long as they do not talk to the same player. 58. Players should wear cleats with metal spikes. 58. When a penalty has occurred, your play counter should count that play in the minimal play count.
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58. Team fees should be used to pay for dinners and drinks during a coaches meeting. 58. Team fees should be used to pay for all banquet items. 58. When disciplining a player for poor play you should grab his face mask and proceed to yell obscenities at him/her. 58. A coach should discuss a players abilities or lack of abilities with someone other than that players parents. 58. A coach should have contact with his players on a Sunday. 58. A coach should find an alternate location to practice if the fields are closed due to weather related events. 58. A coach should find an alternate location to practice if practices are cancelled. 58. A player on your team has decided to enter the draft but in the process has said terrible things about you as a coach, do you communicate his misgivings to his new team before and during the draft. 58. It is appropriate to bench a player if their parents are causing issues on the sideline. 58. It is appropriate to bench your start player if he/she was not performing in the classroom. 58. When discussing with a parent playing time or positions it appropriate to compare to other players on the team. 58. As the Head Coach it is appropriate to discuss playing time and positions with other coaches on the team. 58. When discussing team finances with the Team Manager it is appropriate to penalize a players playing time if the parents are unable to pay or perform the fundraising events. 58. It is appropriate for the head coach to decrease the plays for a player in one game and have them increased in another game to make up the difference.
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General Health Knowledge

59. Signals of heat exhaustion include headache, nausea, or dizziness and weakness. 60. Signals of a concussion include pupil dilation, headache, forgetting basic commands, acting or feeling sick or dazed, seeing stars, nausea or vomiting, blurred vision, sensitivity to light, feeling overly tired, or feeling anxious, slurred speech or saying thing that dont make sense, difficulty with concentration or balance. 61. A player that is having a hard time concentrating in a game, feeling sick to his/her stomach should be asked to re-enter the game and play. 62. A defensive player can tackle an offensive player anywhere from the top of the shoulder pads to the bottom of the cleats. 63. Drinking Gatorade is better than drinking water pre and post activity.
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64. Never remove an injured player's helmet if there is a suspected head or neck injury.
Submit Exam
Reset Form
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Coaching Job Descriptions Like anything, the job description and responsibilities of each position need to be clearly communicated on your web site and your coaches application. Some coaches may have worked under entirely different structures or no structure at all. Some dads new to coaching might not have a clue what they are getting themselves into. You need to make sure you set expectations early and often, it will weed out many that are not good fits for your program.
POSITION: HEAD FOOTBALL COACH
Overview: This position will hire and train all Assistant Coaches to always be in strict accordance with the Coaches Contract. This position will be responsible for teaching the Parents and the rostered Players the Rules of the League and the game of football as described per the NFHS Rulebook. This position reports directly to: Coaches Liaison Responsibilities of this role include: Represent the League in the Community Volunteer for all Camps Volunteer for all Jamborees Maintain all League equipment that is issued to the coach- not players Enforce Team Rules not described in the By-Laws Appoint Assistants and volunteer committee, as needed to fulfill all requirements. All Assistants and volunteers that spend more than 2 hours per week coaching kids must pass a background check. Develop Coaching Staff Assign Coaching Duties and responsibilities to Coaches Choose or approve offensive, defensive and special teams schemes Determine Practice Priorities, Practice Times and Practice Plans Determine Positions and playing time with input from assistant coaches. Determines team captains Interacts with referees as needed Be supportive or program and Program Director
POSITION: ASSISTANT FOOTBALL COACH
Responsibilities of this role include: Represent the League in the Community Volunteer for all Camps Volunteer for all Jamborees Enforce Team Rules not described in the By-Laws under direction of Head Coach Assist Head Coach as needed under his direction Be supportive of Head Coach and the program and team
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Personal Interview for Youth Football Coaching Position Do you currently have a son that will be playing on this team?
Do you currently manage people on a professional level? If yes, explain.
Are you self-employed? If no, is your current professional situation flexible with their schedules? Explain.
Can you pass a background check? If no, explain.
Why are you the best candidate for the desired position?
Please explain in detail how you might handle the following situationsA player has obliviously been seriously injured during a practice session.
An assistant coach is favoring his son with unwarranted playing time and has him in a position he is not suited for.
A fan that you have never seen before is harassing some of your players after a game.
You are winning a game by 30 points at halftime, what do you do?
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You are losing a game by 30 points at halftime, what do you do?
The game Officials are doing a poor job.
A particular family has become incorrigible and will not follow the rules.
Please explain in detail the followingDescribe a successful football program.
Describe your philosophy on winning.
Describe your coaches hierarchy.
Describe your approach to Offensive systems.
Describe your approach to Defensive systems.
Describe your approach to Special Teams.
Describe your approach to team discipline.
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Football Coaches Introduction

Its very important to get all coaches on the same page early, and for those not willing to get on board to get them to bail out before the season starts. Nothing hurts a program more than a coach that has not bought into the system and is a disruptive force. This is what we say: Thank you for your interest in the Screaming Eagles and helping uplift our youth in a very important and positive way. Our goal is to use football and our time with these boys to instill in them as sense of pride and knowledge that if they work hard and follow the rules of society, good things will happen for them. When they leave, they will know that success is a function of being a good son, brother, husband, teammate and father, taking advantage of the education system offered to them and working hard to support your family. Most find this to be an extremely rewarding and fun experience if you approach the task properly. We have to keep our focus on the prize, helping to raise these boys properly. Do we want to win, yes, but we do not compromise our integrity for wins. Our goals of playing well are only there to maintain a reasonable level of competitiveness so that we get kids to come back. You do not have to be a perfect to be part of the Eagles. However, we do have very high standards. You do not have to be a great coach, or know all the information in our coaches manual verbatim to coach with us. We have many successful coaches that have never coached before or even played the game. The instructional book and videos are there for your reference and study if you so choose. I recommend you take the time to read it and watch the videos. Most coaches that have embraced the concepts and template have done extremely well. Each coach will only be responsible for a small part of the team: offensive line, defensive line, Linebackers, Defensive Backs, special teams, backs, or Defensive Ends, Offensive Coordinator or Defensive Coordinator. We have a variety of coaches with a variety of skills and abilities. We want and need all of the time and help you can provide. All head coaches will have a clear understanding of our practice methods, drills and schemes. They will assign duties and lead the assistant coaches in the areas of need. The head coach is responsible, along with the Team Mom, for all the paperwork and dates, etc. Your job as an assistant coach is to help the head coach as needed. You do not have to agree with all of the information and requirements in the book and tapes to coach for the Eagles. However, our system is set in stone. Our offense, defense and practice methodology is non-negotiable. You need to ask yourself can I agree to implement this system to the best of my understanding. If the answer is yes and you can agree to the coachs contract, you can coach for us. If you feel you have to put your own system or methodology in, you cant.
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Football Coaches Contract

It is important that all coaches understand the goals and boundaries of an organization. We have found that a coach contract helps us communicate these goals and helps our coaches to coach to these goals. It also helps protect your organization and allows you the authority to get rid of coaches, should the situation require it. This is how ours reads: Screaming Eagles Coaches Contract 2011 Our goal is to help develop young men by providing an environment where they will have fun and develop the values of sportsmanship, teamwork, commitment and hard work. We encourage scholastic achievement and family involvement while acting as consistent and caring male role models. The following are not suggestions they are how as coaches we will act as role models and Screaming Eagle Coaches. Be organized. Have your practices and drills planned out, written out and timed. Be efficient with our time, keep it short. Change drills often. Make sure your player information sheets and release forms are in your possession at all Screaming Eagle events. Speak with confidence and purpose. Get your kids plenty of water breaks. Take no chances with heat exhaustion. No need to have helmets on when doing cals, or chalk talks, keep the kids cool. Take no chances with health issues, if necessary call parent, evacuate or call for ambulance. Keep all asthma inhalers in one location. Have drills with group sizes 5-10, no larger and 10 minutes or less. Keep calisthenics and agility drills to an absolute minimum (no more than 10 minutes). Sprints should be kept to a minimum as well, run plays out, play Hawaiian rules football or play tag to get the conditioning in. Do lots of fit and freeze drills, keep live scrimmaging to a minimum. Keep live tackling drills limited to smaller spaces. We do not want 10-yard cushions for high-speed ramming type drills. Review in depth safe and sure blocking and tackling techniques with the head up to lessen the possibility of neck and head injuries. Read the warning sticker on the helmet to all players every practice the first week in pads. Be positive, smile, and enthusiastically encourage your players. Be consistent, set parameters and dont let your players go outside them. Encourage overt sportsmanship at every turn. Encourage teamwork. Do not touch a player when we appear angry. Never touch a player below the waist. Do not use any abusive or foul language. Do not smoke, dip or drink alcohol in front of any players or parents. Do not wear any clothing that promotes firearms, alcohol, tobacco products or bars.
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No Do rags, backward or sideways ball caps. Keep extensive tattoo displays covered. Safety is our first concern; medical kits will be issued to each team. All players will play a minimum of 16 plays per game. Players must play half their plays in each half. Any violation of this rule will result in suspension and or permanent expulsion. We do not want any Screaming Eagle team to win by more than 4 touchdowns if we can help it. No Screaming Eagle team is allowed to score 50 points unless the other team is within 3 touchdowns. Be pro-active; dont put yourself in a position to go over 50. As a precaution, tell the official to flag your team if they score. Any team scoring over 50 will forfeit the game and the coach will be fired. Call timeout and put in wholesale second offense or defense in immediately for one series when ahead by 3 touchdowns. Substitute freely. Have 3rd string QB and running backs ready to play for above situations. Do not blitz, pass, have star players handle the ball or run trick plays when up by 4 touchdowns or more, except for first series after half. Do not run outside or pass when up by 5 touchdowns or more. Put players in unfamiliar positions when a slaughter is on to keep the scores reasonable and guarantee fumbles to the other team. When ahead comfortably late in the game, do not call timeouts, absolutely do not pass or call blitzes and stay inbounds and run the clock out. Dont sub a star or big player back in late in the game. Kneel to run out the last few ticks if you are close to the goal line. Do not excessively celebrate big plays with such things as raised arms or booming shouts. Make sure your "Birth Certificate and Contract Book" is in your possession at all practices and games No arguing with officials or opposing coaches. Only talk to officials to clarify the number of the player committing the foul, asking for amount of time left or timeouts and clarifying any Special League Rules, never a judgment call ever. Any coach that is tossed from a game will be fired. No parents on the sidelines except for coaches, control the crowd. Restrain any problem parents by asking them to tone it down. Next warning, tell them their child will be removed from the game if they do not tone it down. Next step remove the player if necessary. Put the player back in when the guardian leaves the field. Have a board member help if needed. Refer any guardian or coach complaints to the President or any Board Member. Make sure pop is distributed to our opponents after every game during the handshake line up, an Eagle Tradition. If a player throws his helmet in anger or removes his shoulder pads in anger, the player is expelled from the program, collect his equipment from him on the spot. No sleepovers.
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Report any player that has missed 2 unexcused practices in a row to the President immediately and pick up his gear. Retrieve equipment from expelled or players that quit immediately! Report any rules violations to the President or any Board member present. Once school starts, Thursday is academic night. All players must bring in their Academic Accountability report. Make a big deal out of it. Coaches must have a heart to help children of all races and economic conditions. All coaches must be approved by the President in advance, absolutely no exceptions. They must fill out paperwork, pass the background check, attend clinics and pass tests prior to them working with any player.
I agree to abide by the above guidelines as a condition of Coaching for the Screaming Eagles. I can be terminated at any time, with or without cause and will have no remedy or review. I agree to accept whatever actions the Board feels is appropriate and agree to hold harmless the Screaming Eagle Organization, its Board Members and coaches for any wrongdoing or acts of negligence. I agree to resolve any issue directly with the Board of coaching staff and not in court of law. I agree to pay the Screaming Eagles or its coaches for their legal fees if I choose to ignore this clause. I acknowledge that I will be a role model, that players will take their cue from me. I agree to act in a way that is honorable. While the goal is to play well, the primary goal is the uplifting and proper training of young men. Signed..Date. Printed Name..
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Working with Officials

Working with officials is a key component of how your teams are viewed by the world. Remember, all eyes are always on you, like it or not. Your players and fans as well as opponent coaches, players and fans take their cue from you. You may not be able to 100% control how your kids behave or how the referees perform, but you can choose to control yourself. You are responsible for your reactions to even the worst of circumstances and in the grand scheme of things. Lets face it youth football shouldnt be a life or death proposition for anyone. If it is, you need to look at another hobby. Sportsmanship As an organization, the first thing you are going to be evaluated on is sportsmanship. If you dont get an excellent in this category; most people dont care about how great your team is or what you do for the kids, you and your team will have earned a bad reputation. Most organizations work very hard to earn a reputation for good sportsmanship; why let one person ruin what has taken years to develop? Dont let an assistant coach, player or fan ruin that for your organization. It is the job of the head coach to control all three groups and their interactions with officials. Most teams dont get to see your teams play each week; they will judge you, your organization and your team during the short game they play with your individual team. Working with game officials is no different from the guy that bags your groceries. Most of the time they do a good job, however sometimes they blow it. So what, remember your kids are watching how you respond and will act accordingly. The officials should be respected at all times for their efforts and contributions. Please instruct and remind your fellow coaches of this before and during games if need be. When to Talk to the Officials At no time should an officials judgment call ever be openly challenged. You can ask the official what player number the penalty was called on so you can help coach the player from making the foul again, however, many youth officials do not give out numbers. You might ask the official how much time is left in the half or how many timeouts are left. You may talk to him about any problems with compliance with a special League rule your League may have, like striped (players over a certain weight), players are not allowed outside the tackle or
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on kickoffs. Do not beg for calls, or suggest the referee make certain calls. Harassing officials just gives you a bad reputation; it sets a terrible example for your parents and kids and does not help your cause with the referees. Eagle coaches that are kind and courteous with the referees often seem to get the benefit of the doubt. When dealing with officials, remember to be friendly. Head coaches should identify themselves as head coaches and introduce themselves before the game starts. Thank them for being there and let them know that if it is a home game and you have concessions going that day, they are entitled to free pop and two hot dogs. If you are going no huddle, or have some type of bizarre trick play, let them know about it before the game starts. I like to let them know ahead of time about our unbalanced line and wedge play, we often demo the wedge for them in pre-game. Let them know your players are good sports, but that you dont tolerate profanity and to flag, not warn, your kids if they hear anything bad. I let them know we dont need any warnings for poor sportsmanship, flags are just fine. Sticking to the Plan Tell your coaches that bad mouthing the system, fellow coaches, or the program in public will not be tolerated, dissension will tear a program apart. It serves no useful purpose and creates needless drama that should not be tolerated. It just drains the joy out of coaching. Splitting up the Duties Each team should have a head coach and one coach in charge of the offense or defense. The head coach should make the calls on one or the other side of the ball, but not both. It is too difficult for one person to make decisions on both, while managing the entire team. We have been very successful using this model and our coaches enjoy the season much more by using this system. The head coach can give parameters for what he wants to see on the other side of the ball and make suggestions from time to time, but there needs to be ownership by two different guys, one on offense and one for defense. If you dont have anyone that can fit into the role, train them. You may want to hold off on assigning the duties until after you get a chance to see the coaches in action the first week of practice. What has worked well for many, is having an offensive line/defensive line coach, a backfield/defensive backfield coach, a linebackers coach, defensive ends coach, bear-crawlers coach, special teams coach (or kickoffs and for
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defensive coach, punt return and kickoff return for offensive coach). The more coaches you have, the more specialized you can get. If you can have a Defensive Ends coach, Defensive Backs coach, Tight Ends coach, Linebackers coach, do it. Give everyone something to do based on their ability. Have parameters in place on how they will coach and substitute their positions, then let the coaches substitute based on these parameters. Have a secondary goal of building coaching depth within your organization; keep that in mind as you make your coaching assignments.
Coaching Reviews
At the end of every season, it makes sense to do a review of your coaches performance. This will allow them to improve as a coach as well as help you determine if your coaching staff needs to be adjusted. First have the coach fill out the form below and then have your Coach Trainer fill out the same form and review the results. The Coach Trainer will obviously need to spend some time watching each team practice and view parts of games. The head coach can then use the same review process with his assistants.
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Year End Coach Improvement Process

Team NameCoaches Name... Number of Players Assigned to the Team That Showed to 1 Practice or More:.. Number of Players Actively Attending Practice and Games at Seasons End.. Number of Players Eligible to Sign Up-Following SeasonNumber Singed Up.. Average Practice Attendance NumbersNumber of Players With Perfect Attendance. Average Penalty Yards Per Game..Average Number of Turnovers Lost Per Game.. Rate Your Overall Team on the Following Criteria For Your Specific Age Group: Mastery of Fundamental Blocking, Tackling and Ball Protection: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Players Level of Love and Appreciation of the Game: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Players Execution of the Base Offensive Scheme: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Players Execution of the Base Defensive Scheme: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Players Execution of Special Teams: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Head Coach Performance Level on Game Day Management; ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Head Coach- Performance Level Against Minimum Play Standard: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor
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Head Coach- Level of Practice Organization- Well Run and Well Organized Practices: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Head Coach- Team Management- How Well the Team Came Together as a Unit: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Head Coach- Sportsmanship- How Well Did the Coach and Team Represent the Standard for Sportsmanship as Outlined in the Coaches Contract: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Head Coach- Parental Management- How Well Did the Coach Manage His Parents in Accordance with the Coaches Contract: ExcellentVery Good.AverageBelow Average.Poor Season Highs- Comments on Things That Went Well:.............................. . Season Lows- Areas the Need Improvement:......................... . . Where Does the Organization Needs to Improve: . .
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Removing Coaches Unfortunately we all make mistakes and sometimes coaches are put into positions they are unsuited for. In other cases sometimes we find out coaches are not suited to be coaching in the program altogether. When this happens you have a difficult situation that doesnt always have a cookie cutter solution to the problem. Before you make any decision on a coach, make sure to investigate it in depth. There are always two sides to every story and many times things may be much different than they appear on the surface. If the problems are minor and the coach is a reasonable person who has the best interest of the kids at heart, you can demote them into a lesser position if you have a suitable replacement in place. You may even just want to step in and give him some help where he needs it and let him ride the season out. That is why in larger organizations its always great to have a coaching trainer who can jump in and rescue a guy that has good intentions and is rescuable. In other cases you may have to let a coach go. Lets say you find out a coach is very volatile and exceeds the boundaries you have established for your organization and he is not repentant of his actions and refuses help, he probably needs to go. Demoting someone like this usually ends up making everyone miserable. If your process says its time for the coach to go, you will need to manage the process well in order to salvage the team. I remember one season back in 2002- the coach in question was a good church going man that had a heart for kids, however he chose to ignore almost everything our program was about. From practice times, to practice methodology, practice priorities, paperwork and communication methods, he was off the reservation. His arrogance made him totally closed minded about what we wanted all of our teams to look like and how we do things. The straw that broke the camels back: He was coaching a B team competing against other B teams. That meant in order to be fair and honest, all the best players needed to be on the A team. The A team always got first choice on players to make sure the B teams were not unfairly stacked. This coach would arrive early to practice and any new walk ups, he ferried over to his team without letting the A team coach know these kids ever existed. When I came over to see how things were progressing with this team, I saw that they were spending most of their practice time on cals, agilities and conditioning. Their execution of their base play was 100% incorrect and awful to boot, plus their fundamentals looked terrible. What really pushed me over the edge was that he had at minimum 6 players that were easily legit A team players including a 63 220 lb. lineman. Had these kids played on the B level, it would have been a farce and our program would have been rightfully accused of cheating. When I spoke to those A kids and asked how they got on the team, they all said the same thing and the A coach of course had never seen any of them. When I confronted
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the coach, he defended his actions and took offense that he couldnt keep players that would unfairly give him an advantage. Both of his assistants stood solidly behind the head coach. I waited until the next day, called an advisor meeting that night and decided to fire the entire coaching staff the next day before practice. When firing a coach try and do it away from the practice field and after practice. In the above example, I couldnt do it. This team had its first game that week and they needed an immediate infusion of coaching. Tell the coach you appreciate all that he has done, point out all the positives, but let him know those positives dont overshadow the reason why the program is not a good fit. Always have another coach or Board member with you for backup and document any problems. If he has a son on the team and he is not combative, allow his son to continue to play. If the coach is a loose cannon bent on destroying the program, you may even have to enforce your rights in the coaches and player contract and ask to pick up the players gear as well. Thankfully Ive never had to do that with a coach, but know of several program Directors that have had to make that difficult decision. While every child is important, you have to weigh that against the destruction of team and having throngs of people leaving due to one knuckleheaded coach. Make sure you gather all of his coaching gear and paperwork as stated in your coaches contract and wish him the best. Coach Training The difference between organizations that retain nearly all their kids, have satisfied parents and have competitive teams and the disaster programs is coaching. If you can recruit, retain and BUILD a solid coaching staff your organization is going to succeed. No program, no matter how successful they are at recruiting coaches is ever going to be able to recruit as many top flight coaches as they need every season. The great programs build their own through training and mentoring. Most of coaching is not rocket science, it is being able to effectively teach and communicate simple instructions to kids. Like anything else, it can be taught if your coach prospect has an open mind and is willing to put a little time into it. Some things youth football coaches need to be taught in order to be successful: How to effectively communicate with players How to develop trust in players How to teach concepts using the progression method How to encourage and hold players accountable Basic Fundamentals, blocking, tackling, ball protection Basic Fundamentals of the position group they are assigned Injury prevention, recognition and care Rules of the Organization and league playing in Risk management
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There are a variety of ways you can use to help your coaches come up to speed. A very common but ineffective one is to leave it up to the coach. While some coaches will get on the internet and search for answers, maybe buy a few books and DVDs, most will do nothing. One effective method is to have a template developed that includes practice organization, how to bring teams together from a chemistry, character and confidence perspective, defense, offense, special teams, game day management and offensive line. Thats great if you have a credible resource within your program that can develop the materials, that the materials fit all your teams and coaching abilities and that the material actually gets used. For other organizations they have a library of approved coaching training materials or at a minimum direct their coaching staffs to buy specific books and DVDs. Other programs like the Lakota Stallions, which has over 500 kids playing, buys a complete set of books and DVDs for each team and requires the head coach to make sure that each of his assistant coaches has viewed the DVD collection assigned to each team. Coaches today have no excuse for being poorly trained. With the advent of the internet there are plenty of very good youth coaching materials available on the market today. Just go into Google and do a search on the term coaching youth football, there will be plenty of resources available from just that one search. With that in mind its important to make sure the materials you are buying are designed for youth football. Since we live in the world of smaller squads, limited practice time, minimum play rules, younger minds and bodies, many times the DVDs designed for the College and High School coach, dont work very well when applied to the youth football dynamic. In fact the schemes and plays you will have to defend against and the defenses you will face in most cases will not look like the ones you see on Saturday and Sunday on television. Make sure whatever you invest in is PROVEN at the youth level over a long period of time at various age groups in various locations. What worked for a super select team for one season in Houston is much different than the guy that has run the same system for 20 years with 10 different teams and has hundreds of testimonials. Coaching Clinics One of the most effective ways to teach youth coaches is to bring them all together for a coaching clinic. When done well, they can be a great tool and catalyst for developing good youth coaching staffs, when done poorly they are a colossal waste of time that everyone dreads coming to. To help getting coaches there, make them mandatory, if you cant make it you cant coach. This will separate the pretenders from the committed, it will also expose the know-it-alls. In coaching we can always learn from others, the guy that thinks he knows it all, knows nothing. The interesting thing about the 100 plus clinics Ive spoken at over the last 5 years is the top
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coaches in the country, the Pop Warner National Title winners like Jeff Miret sit in on every session and are actively taking notes and asking questions. The incredible success Jenks High School in Tulsa has had on the National Stage over the last 20 years hasnt gone to the head of their coaching staff, they are attending the first session on Friday to the last session on Saturday and even sticking their head in to listen to guys like me talk about youth football. The best coaches always want to learn and have an open mind about new or different concepts. The coaches clinic also gives youth coaches a way to interact and build relationships with each other. These guys have common goals, common fears and common interests, clinics help foster a sense of belonging and purpose that can be a catalyst for them to develop relationships with other coaches. When coaches bond and develop those relationships, they often times end up helping each other. Those bonds also help you with retention, when coaches like spending time with each other, the time spent coaching becomes less of a burden and more of something they feel they cant live without. Some tips on running an effective coaches clinic: Saturday morning start 9:00 am Rolls, doughnuts, coffee available from 8:00 on Pads of paper and pens available Tall bags, shields, cones and balls available for demos Printed schedule of events Gym location, allow for lecture and demos Cold caffeinated drinks available High energy kickoff with highly motivated big name speaker Start with general topics all coaches need to know Then break off into more specialized topics- multiple sessions- if your group size is over 30 Presentations- Power Point with embedded video if possible White board- a definite must Lots of interaction with coaches- ask questions- lots of hands on demos Paper handouts of all presentations 50 minute presentations with 7 minute breaks in-between Have lunch delivered and work through lunch, coaches eating from their seats Film the clinic to add to your video library Your clinic is going to succeed or fail based on the quality of the presenters. Choose coaches to present based not only on their credibility as a coach, but also on their ability to present. Not all great coaches are great presenters and dont count on the local high school coach to take the ball and run with the clinic for you. While they may have a mastery of some of the same fundamentals you will use, most of them have no clue what a minimum play rule is or how to effectively evaluate, teach and motivate a typical 9 year old boy. Sure bring them in to kick off the clinic or teach a segment or two, but youth coaches who know what they are doing is going to get you the most mileage. Make sure you let your speakers know what you are looking for and get an outline from them, the last thing you need is having coaches teaching things that conflict with each other. At least a week prior to the clinic, try and do a
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quick dry run with each of your speakers to make sure he is prepared. Get youth coaches, who know the youth game and can teach it as the backbone for the clinic speaker schedule. Make sure and break up the lecture with plenty of demos, not only does it keep guys awake, but they learn better by actually doing it themselves than just listening to a presenter talk about it. We found by using a series of tests that our coaches performed nearly 35% better on the written exam when we did extensive hands on demos with everyone involved versus just using a lecture format. If you can go in and out of lecture to demo by doing the demos in the front of the classroom, that is very effective. Mentors Another extremely effective way to build solid youth coaches is using mentors. Instead of putting all your great coaches on one staff, split them up and assign assistant coaches with promise but not a lot of experience to those staffs. Develop your own coaching trees. Just imagine replicating your best coach over and over and over again, you can do it if you plan for it and execute and mentoring program. Know ahead of time that this can be painful, many times once coaches work with each other, they want to stick together as a staff. If they stick together, the rest of your program doesnt get the benefit of the expertise of your best coaches. Set expectations with coaches that show promise, let them know your goal is to peel them away to head coach a different team once their apprenticeship with your best coach is completed. Build for the future by working with your best coaches to build more head coaches. Ask your best coaches to train, mentor and spread their coaching duties around so the next generation of good head coaches can be built under their watchful eye. In order to be viable over the long term your best coaches need to develop their coaches just like they develop their players and teams.
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Chapter 9
Managing Players and Parents

The reason many coaches and organizations fail in youth football is they fail to understand the importance of managing players and parents. They spend so much time trying to figure out their Xs and Os that they forget to develop skills and methods to effectively manage their players and parents. You can be the worlds greatest tactician and technique teacher, but in youth football if you dont have some basic player and parent management skills and processes in place, you are probably going to be in for a very long and unpleasant season. Getting Everyones Attention Quite often kids in a group setting are difficult to settle down. This can be a huge problem, as a disruptive player not only is not listening, but he may be distracting others or creating sufficient noise to be a disruption to all. In order to effectively communicate, you first must have everyones attention. There are a number of instances during group drills where its probably ok for the kids to talk amongst themselves. Its not realistic to think the kids wont do this and you need to allow some freedom and social interaction during practice. However, there are times you need everyones attention and there are times the talking gets to be a distraction. We use a very simple technique taught to us by a Pastor and former inner city youth coach and Utah Utes Football great, David Cunningham. When a coach needs the groups undivided attention, he doesnt yell above the kids, be quiet, settle down, etc. We yell one word, READY; the kids drop whatever they are doing, stare into that coaches eyes and yell back the word FOCUS. The kids and coaches stop moving, talking, whatever, and keep their eyes on that coach until he says to move on. Early on, you may have a child try to whisper to a neighbor, if he does this, make him run. If you are looking at a player and he is looking away or to the ground, make him run. The player must be silent and looking into your eyes. After the first week, everyone will be in tune with paying undivided
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attention to the coach who yells READY and rarely does anyone have to run after that. The READY FOCUS method for us has been the single best way for us to get and keep the players attention. Not enforcing it is a real waste of time and practice killer. Just think about it, if you waste two minutes trying to get kids to quiet down ten times during practice, thats 20 minutes of practice time youve wasted and over 14 hours over the course of the season. I have also used the silence and glare method as well. If we see someone whispering, we dont try and talk over them, but stop talking and stare at them until we have their attention. This works well, but the running punishment and READY FOCUS method has worked extremely well for us.
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Player Contract
A very valuable tool in helping communicate to your players your standards is a player contract. We use the following contract with our players to make sure they understand our rules and expectations; I highly recommend you develop one of your own to hold your players accountable to the standards you develop. I do hereby agree to abide by the Screaming Eagle Players Conduct Code as well as to the discretionary authority given all authorized coaches in the program. Failure to follow the code or coaches instruction will be deemed grounds for disciplinary actions and or dismissal from the team. 1) I will respect all coaches at all times, calling them Coach or Mr. Last name. 2) I will work hard in school. I will turn in weekly school accountability reports on Thursdays. This Screaming Eagles form will be filled out by your teacher. 3) I will respect and obey my parents/guardian. 4) I will respect referees and opponent players and coaches at all times. 5) I will have sportsmanship as my number one priority in all games and practices 6) If I have an unsportsmanlike event, it will result in my immediate removal from game and one game suspension. If I have an unsportsmanlike event that is a result of poor interaction with a referee, it will result in my season long suspension. 7) I will not use profanity or gang talk. Nor wear gang clothing, bandanas, gang clothing styles, colors, hats turned backward/sideways etc. 8) I will encourage my teammates in a positive way, regardless of circumstances. 9) I will attend all scheduled practices and games. If unable to do so, I will contact my coach beforehand. If I have an unexcused absence, it will result in loss of playing time. 10) If I have two unexcused absences, it will result in expulsion from the team. If I have multiple excused absences, it will result in loss of playing time. 11) I will respect, protect and maintain my equipment. I will never throw or purposely drop my helmet. 12) I will return all equipment at years end or immediately upon dismissal from team. Failure to do so will result in $5 per day fee plus the cost of equipment ($250) as well as legal and collection costs assessed to my guardian and me. 13) I will conduct myself in a way that presents a positive image of the Screaming Eagles and myself on and off the field. Agreed Players Signature..Date
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There is much more on this topic including the motivation and discipline of players in Chapter 3 of the book Winning Youth Football a Step-by-Step Plan.
Managing Parents
Parents are the reason many youth football coaches or administrators only help for a year or two. Its why many youth coaches joke around with each other that they would love to coach for an Orphanage, where there arent any parents around to create problems. From drama queen moms to never was an athlete dads trying to live their lives through their sons, parents can drain the joy out of any season and destroy teams. The way your team is often judged by others is a function of how your parents act. Administrators and Coaches must manage this area effectively as part of their coaching duties. That is how problems start and many fine organizations crumble because of it. It all starts by setting expectations. The spectator contract and your example are probably the biggest tools to use here. The spectator contract is posted on your web site, available as a download and handed out again on the first day of practice. Setting expectations, having the moral authority because of your own actions and being in control are the keys. I have never had a problem on any of my personal teams in all my years of coaching, because my parents know I will not tolerate it. On the other had the very same parents caused other coaches problems the following year because the coach failed to set the ground rules, failed to set the proper example and failed to hold the parents accountable. Many coaches like to send out a personalized letter or have a team parents meeting at your first scrimmage, those are both great ideas; however if you wait that long, often times the genie is already out of the bottle. Be prepared, however that some or many of your parents will not show for the meeting or read the letter. A sample letter and meeting agenda are enclosed for your use. The Get Back Coach Assign a get back coach to be responsible for keeping all players and coaches inside the 30-yard lines and off the playing field. This can be one of your parents that did not come to the clinics but is showing up every night to help. He can do the same for parents, keeping them away from your sideline and off the field. Ask some of the parents that you have relationships with to keep you informed of any problems in the stands during the games, you will be too busy to be policing the stands. However, if a problem does arise, they need to tell
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you and you need to address it immediately. Human nature dictates that once a behavior goes unrestrained, others see this as something that is acceptable and your problem will escalate. Anything we allow, we implicitly condone, anything we condone we implicitly endorse.
If a problem does arise, get after it immediately. Calmly and as privately as you can let the person know you appreciate them coming to the game. Let them know however, that your players can pick up poor sportsmanship from the crowd. Tell them that this is not acceptable per our spectator contract and that they need to stop immediately. If they persist, let them know that this is not acceptable and that if it happens again, that their child will be removed from the game and they will be asked to leave. If it happens a third time, take the player out and tell the parent to leave. If need be, stop the game. In eight years, this has only happened twice in our entire organization. The player cannot continue to play for us if this disruptive person returns. At the end of the season this player will not be invited back, (after we get the equipment) and will be sent a letter letting them know why they wont be invited back. Consider using this approach in your own program if you have the authority to do so. Coach Adds Fuel to the Fire We had a coach who is no longer with us that used to skirt the sportsmanship issue by encouraging the parents to be rude by making snide comments about the refs to these parents and encouraging the parents to rant on the referees. He was adding fuel to the fire rather than extinguishing it. He would always use the woe is me excuse and blame all losses on the refs. In 3 years his teams always had the worst record in our organization, so it was not the refs fault, it was his poor coaching skills. After we got rid of him in 2003, he went to a rival organization in our League. In 2004 he got thrown out of the League for throwing a tantrum with his new team that included the F-word and him denting up his own vehicle with his own fists. He never did anything remotely like that with us. Gee, I wonder if we made the right choice. His team went 1-8 that year; his new team got rid of him after that season. In 2005, he went to another league; his newest team went 0-8. Some people just should not be coaching youth sports, he is one of them. I am sure you all have seen the same in your leagues, stupidity and immaturity unfortunately are everywhere you look in youth sports today. Ken Blanchards book The One Minute Manager is a great resource for ideas and methods of dealing with people and managing parents. This tiny book can be a lifesaver and takes less than 30 minutes to read, I highly recommend it.
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The Spectator Contract

This is a copy of the Spectator Contract we require the parents to sign in order for their children to play. It has been a great tool in eliminating problem parents before we even start and to set expectations of what type of behavior is acceptable. It has also given us the authority we seek to enforce discipline when needed The Screaming Eagle Program has a history of being the best, in providing a positive Sportsmanship Environment for our players. Our program is bigger than any one player, coach or spectator. As a Screaming Eagle Spectator, we require the following: 1) 2) 3) 4) Encourage members of both teams. Keep all comments positive. Only players and coaches are allowed on the field, no exceptions. Leave the coaching to the coaches. If you have suggestions or would like to coach next years team please volunteer so you can attend the mandatory coaching clinics, pass the background check, sign the coaches contract and pass the coaches written test. 5) Criticizing the officials, coaches, opponents or fans will not be tolerated at all. Same goes for abusive language or cursing. This is youth sports, everyone makes mistakes. 6) Be supportive, creating unnecessary drama or stirring controversy is grounds for dismissal from the program. 7) Do not beg or suggest calls to the referees. 8) Playing time and positions are at the discretion of the coaches and is determined by what is best for the player and team. Football is a team sport and every position is of equal value. Each player will be guaranteed x number of plays in every game if he attends all practices that week. 9) You are responsible for all family members and friends attending the games to watch your child. 10) No open alcoholic beverages on the fields or parking areas. 11) Help make this a positive and fun experience for all. 12) Report any violations to head coach or board member. Get involved. Policy Enforcement 1) Individuals will be given one warning for inappropriate activity. 2) Individuals that continue will be asked to leave the fields and the player will be removed from the game until the spectator has left. 3) Other sanctions as deemed necessary by the president or board may be enforced, including permanent ban. THIS MUST BE SIGNED AS A CONDITION OF YOUR CHILDS PARTCICPATION Agreed Guardian Signature.Date..
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First Parents Meeting

Introduction and setting expectations are very important in any type of setting. Nothing takes the joy of coaching young kids away sooner than having to deal with knucklehead parents. The following is exactly what I tell my parents and kids the first 30 minutes of the first day of practice in a mandatory parents meeting: Welcome to the Screaming Eagles, Nebraskas finest Youth Football Program. Before we get started, let us make sure we have everyones attention. To be a good and safe football player you have to be a good listener. Whenever you hear an Eagle coach yell the word READY you stop what you were doing, stop talking, look directly into his eyes and yell the word FOCUS as loud as you can. You will continue to stay perfectly quiet until the coach is done talking. Every eye should be on the coach, if he looks at you, you should be staring into his eyes, not off into the distance or to the ground. If the coach does not see you looking at him, he will send you running. Lets get ready to have some fun and learn how to play football properly and safely. Is anyone a little nervous maybe a few butterflies swirling around in your stomach? Thats very natural and no big deal, everyone that has ever played has had them, me included, and they go away during the first 10 minutes of practice. By the second or third practice you wont have any at all. READY FOCUS. We then introduce each coach by name. We are a different program. Please do not compare us to others. We are a competitive tackle football program focusing on life lessons while maximizing the talent level of our kids, playing to our potential, utilizing well-trained dad and volunteer coaches. All programs have pluses and minuses, we are not saying anything bad about anyone, and all programs serve a useful purpose. The Eagles guarantee that every player will get to play in every game regardless of circumstances. Each level has a different standard. Here, in Hickman its 10 plays per game if you attend every practice that week. Fun Our goal is to learn the game, learn a few life lessons, learn and live sportsmanship, but mainly to have fun. Our goal is to have fun every time we get together, however to have the most fun we have to be organized and use our time wisely. Listening Football is a team game, every player has a job on each play. For us to succeed, every player must know his job and how to do it. To play the game safely each player must understand how to safely perform blocking and tackling. In order to do this, we need good listeners. We have all kinds of kids play for us - big, small, fast, slow, athletic, clumsy, aggressive, and passive. We have been able to teach them all how to play the game and play it well and safely.
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The one common thread for those that did well is they were all good listeners and came to practice. Those are the only two requirements we have, as well as of course being a good sport. Quite frankly, it does not matter to us if you are a great athlete or not, we do well with either because we play team football. Sportsmanship
Giving Pop To Opposing Coach After the Game
Sportsmanship is goal number one for us all. All coaches, parents and players sign contracts and are held accountable to a very unbendable Sportsmanship Standard. Our players do not talk to referees, we do not trash talk, we do not do excessive celebrations, we do not curse, we do not hit after the whistle, we do not get upset at our teammates and we do not fight or use dirty tactics. We do help up our opponents, we do complement our teammates and opponents for good plays, we run the ball back to the official when he calls for it, we do not run up scores and we provide pop to our opponents, win or lose at every game. Our parents are held to a very high standard as well, as defined in the spectator contract that must be signed by the parent as a condition of playing. It spells out among other things that our parents will not hassle the referees with snide comments or remarks. Our parents will not gripe about missed or poor calls or beg, suggest or otherwise communicate with or about the referee before, during or after the game in public. We are trying to set a good example for the boys and the Eagles have worked very hard to earn a great reputation for sportsmanship. Our parents are the best in the state, they are fantastic, and we are the example every team wants to be like. We are the program with long waiting lists to even get on the team, while others are folding. We will not compromise that for one silly parent or player. We have a zero tolerance level in this area, if you choose to violate the agreement, you may or may not get one warning before we ask you to leave, pull your child out of a game until you leave, or remove you from the program permanently on the spot. You are responsible for the actions of family members; if you have that crazy cousin Irving that you know is a hotheaded loudmouth, make sure not to invite him to our games. If you are one of those that cant keep your mouth shut, you need to either never show up at games or go to another program. Fundamentals We are believers that sound fundamental football results in players and teams playing to their potential. We spend an inordinate amount of time perfecting our blocking and tackling. This would include learning how to perform blocking and tackling safely, accelerating through contact, proper footwork and stances, steps, and finishing. We use very sophisticated blocking schemes that include down blocks, double teams, chips, pulling, trapping, wedge blocking,
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crab blocking and pass protection. We do throw some and use a variety of shifts, formations and motion to get numerical advantages. Most players do not usually get to see this until High School, it is very advanced for the age group. On defense, we use a number of shifts, calls, blitzes and stunts depending on game circumstances. Each aspect has been thoroughly researched and tested. The Eagle program is well known on the National level and the system is taught at various National Symposiums and Coaching Clinics all across the country. This system is packaged and is being used successfully by coaches in all 50 States. Organization/Practices Our practices and games will be very organized and planned down to the minute. Our teams are well organized, with our goal being to play to our full team potential. Our system is a technique and timing based system that is taught in a set progression, meaning if a player misses a practice, they miss a key piece of the puzzle. We also practice just 3 nights per week until school starts and just two nights thereafter from 1 - 2 hours. Many of our opponents will be practicing five nights per week the entire year, some 2 to 3 hours per practice. We can compete despite the disparity in practice time because we have a unique practice methodology and we have a sense of urgency in our practices. We will start promptly at 6:00 and end promptly at 8:00; we will not go over unless it is an extremely odd circumstance. We expect that same from you, if you miss we need to know about it ahead of time. If you have an injury, we expect you to be at practice to listen. Acceptable Excused Absences (Must be approved ahead of time) Church Functions Academic Functions (contest) Illness requiring player to miss school School Suspension Unexcused Other athletic contests Injury Social Functions (skating parties, etc.) Fatigue Disciplinary Actions If we see a player not listening, or not hustling, we may ask him to refrain from doing so or we may just send him running. It is important that everyone understands our boundaries and understands them early. Our practices are relatively easy, but we have no time to waste, therefore we do not have time to go into long conferences with players. If they are not paying attention or not hustling they will run. It is very rare to have anyone do any running after the first two weeks. I will raise my voice if I see someone not listening or not hustling, just to get the players attention. I wont do so if a player is just not athletic enough to do something, like dropping a
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pass, fumbling the ball etc. all that is expected. Not listening, hustling, or being a poor sport is not OK. Please know ahead of time that this will happen, if you or your son cannot handle that; please consider playing elsewhere, because it is going to happen. I am fair and always have the highest retention rates and of my last 5 teams, 3 never lost a player. I am very quiet during most every game and will never hassle a referee. We also ask the players to follow a few simple rules:
Team Rules
Must attend practices and be on time Must respect the referees and your opponents What the coach says goes, no back talking Must show up on time for the pre-game Respect fellow players Respect and take care of your equipment Turn in your weekly academic accountability forms and keep up on your schoolwork
Equipment All equipment will be provided. Per league rules, mouthpieces that are not strapped to the helmet are not a legal piece of equipment and will result in a penalty. Do not sit on your helmet or toss it around. The league does not allow visors. If something does not fit, or is broken, talk to a coach. The parent must pay for any damaged or lost equipment. When you turn equipment in, please make sure it is clean, and helmets have no stickers or marks. Playing Time and Positions The head coach makes all playing time decisions. He distributes a depth chart to the assistant coaches with the positions and playing time scenarios set for each player. The position coach then subs in based on those parameters. We do not care who you are, where you are from, or what your name is, the player performing best that comes to practice at that position starts. We determine positions based on your sons ability, the teams needs, and lastly the players preference. In EVW, the rules dictate that no one over 90 pounds for the juniors, 120 pounds for the seniors and 160 for the Varsity can carry or catch the ball. We determine positions in practice by the gauntlet drill, tackling contests and other drills. Quite often, we have two very good players at one position that are equal in ability; we may move one player over to a position that is not his natural position to get him on the field. We play kids in positions that are best for him and the team, not necessarily what they want to play. A player may play 2-3 different positions. They may even change positions during season or next season. We try to get them a few snaps at what they want to play but that is not always possible
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Playing Time If your son is a star player and we are up big early, he will not play a bunch in the second half, as we sub very generously. If your son is not a starter and he plays a bunch in some blowouts, do not get greedy and complain when we have a close game and he gets the minimum number of plays. There are many teams where he would not play at all, it usually all evens out in the end. We do not negotiate playing time with parents or change positions based on a parents recommendation. We do what is best for the team and the player, based on the teams needs and the players legitimate ability. If your child wants to play more, he has to earn it. Encourage your child no matter what position he plays or amount of time he gets in the game, things change. Many kids want to quit in their first season, those that do usually regret it. Everyone has doubts that is natural, but always finish the season. Drama Some people just enjoy creating drama and controversy for the sake of the drama. Creating unneeded gossip or behind the scenes drama will not be tolerated. If you arent happy with an outcome talk to the head coach or quit, dont act like a spoiled child if you dont get your way, it does nothing positive for the team or your child. The leadership put in too much time to have to hassle with petty selfish squabbles. Our goal is to build the very best youth program in the area, you cant do that with drama lovers. If you choose to act out in that fashion, you wont be invited back the following year and in some cases to finish out the season. Coaches All coaches must go through a criminal background check and attend coaching clinics in the off-season put on by me. They must agree to and sign a code of conduct contract. They must study a coaching manual and film developed by me for all our coaches. Here in Hickman we have a great staff with lots of ex-college players, we have had many very good coaches that did not play college or even high school ball. If you want to coach, we would love to talk to you right now about next year. Our System Our practice methodology and offensive and defensive schemes are not debatable subjects. They are a fit for maximizing the talent of the players we typically get and provides them a framework to have fun and allow them to be successful. It is a great system for developing kids into sound High School players. Winning The Eagles win but we do not trade our integrity for wins. Our goal is to play to our full potential, whether that is 12 wins or 2. We do not talk a whole lot about winning, we talk about playing well. Our goal is to play well, if we play well and win the game that is a bonus; the winning takes care of itself. If we play well and lose, thats ok too. I would rather play
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well and lose than play poorly and win. One of my teams sorriest games was a 2003 game versus the Boys Club that we won 34-6; we did not play well at all. In 2008 my age 7-9 team lost 9-6 in 3 overtimes to the Gretna Gold, a game I couldnt be prouder of. The winning takes care of itself, it is a byproduct of doing all the other things well. Conclusion This is who we are. If you are going to be part of us, we look forward to it, if you do not; we wish you and your son our very best. We realize we are not the best fit for everyone, but be aware we are not going to change anything. We do not try to pressure anyone to stay or leave. The nice thing about having multiple programs in the area is that there is a choice. There is nothing worse than having someone feel they are forced to participate in something they do not believe in, or support. We think our program is great, but it is up to each family to determine what the right fit is for them. We just ask you to do it quickly so we know who we have. We do need significant help in a number of areas, we will be sending out forms with the kids this week that will let you know where our needs are. We do need everyones help. Think about how you might incorporate some of these ideas into something you can present to your parents before the season starts. Heading off problems before they become ones is time well spent for any youth coach.
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Coach to Parent Letter The following parent letter has been very effective if sent our early in the season, developed by Craig Millius, one of our best coaches.
Dear Parents/Guardians, I want to thank each of you for your support of the Screaming Eagles Football Program. So far, the parents have been great. As you are aware, the program teaches young men the fundamentals of football, the importance of achieving good grades in school, the importance of overt sportsmanship and the opportunity to pray. I am asking that each of you get involved in our program by encouraging your son to be on time for practices and games and making sure he is picked up after practice or games on time. Help him complete and turn in his school grade report on time each week. If he does not he will have to run extra and not participate in that weeks pizza party if his team won the weekly grades contest. Support your coaches; we are all here voluntarily for your boys. Be your sons biggest fan. Show your support by attending his games and cheering for the team. I ask you as a Screaming Eagles fan that you conduct yourself in a positive manner at all times during games. As parents and fans, we have to set an example for the boys that show them good sportsmanship on and off the field. We will not tolerate actions such as foul language, unruly behavior and hollering at an official within our program. Our fans will be examples for all other programs to follow and look up to. We are the standard. Thanks again, for your support. I look forward to seeing each of you at our games this year. God Bless,
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Chapter 10 Managing Teams

How you manage your team will determine how well you and your players enjoy the season and play a big part in how competitive your team is.
Choosing Players for Positions

Once you have the players now comes the fun part, figuring out who goes where. This can be a very controversial subject if you dont do it correctly. There are always some people that feel they are being shortchanged even when you are giving them every break in the book. That first day of practice for coaches is like opening up that new box of chocolates, we all want to see what we got. Choosing players for positions may be one of the most important jobs for a coach and something even experienced coaches make mistakes with. To maximize the talent you have, it is important to make sure you understand the capabilities of your kids. If you dont handle player evaluations and placement correctly you are opening up a can of worms. Quite often a coach will just look at a player and think, hes a Fullback without thoroughly understanding what that player can do, or what it is you really need at the Fullback position. We see teams with a player playing Fullback because he looks like an NFL-type fullback, but has no aggressiveness or quickness. He might be a good tight end, or center instead of fullback had he been evaluated properly, instead hes having a miserable season stuck in a position hes not suited for. Please refer to the Selecting Offensive Players and Selecting Defensive Players sections of the Winning Youth Football book to help you understand what we are looking for at each position in our scheme. The first step in selecting players is understanding what it is you are looking for, then mapping your evaluation drills and games to measure for those attributes and them finally you go out and start evaluating players. That position description should include the athleticism, quickness, strength, smarts, toughness and demeanor needed to have success at that position as well as deal breakers, things the player just has to have. Player Evaluations Evaluating players for specific positions before you put pads on is not as difficult as most people think. You can determine a players basic speed, coordination, aggressiveness, elusiveness, toughness and strength with a number of drills and games. Many coaches
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mistakenly try and judge players on straight line speed alone and then are very disappointed when a player doesnt work out to be a very good football player. The problem with looking at straight-line speed alone is that football is not a sprint, it is about short controlled movements with acceleration and change of direction being key elements to success. In most youth football games excluding kickoffs, only 2-3 plays go for 40 yards or more. Yet most youth football coaches test players on the 40. Why is the 40 time important if it only happens 2-3 times a game? A players core strength determines his ability to start, stop accelerate and change direction. That core strength comes from his abdominals, upper legs and hips. Many of the straight line speed kids cant change direction very well or dont have great balance, the core strength kids do this well and are almost always good football players. You should have a good understanding of who your top athletes are and who your weak players are before you put pads on, you can have that figured out on the first day of practice by using our evaluation games. You should be able to assign positions during or after week one if you use these games. If you are not good with names, make sure and have a clipboard with you with all the players names written down in alphabetical order. You could grade each player from 1-10 on each drill to give you a composite. See the Fun Drills section in Chapter 4 of the book Winning Youth Football, for these drills: To determine speed: Rabbit chases, races To determine athleticism, elusiveness and coordination: Deer Hunter game, Slam Dunk To determine core strength: Dummy Relay Races, Deer Hunter, Towel Game Aggressiveness: Gauntlet, Towel Game, Slam Dunk, Tackling Contest, Blocking Contest Strength: Towel game, Sumo game Toughness: Gauntlet, Towel game, Slam Dunk
All of us have some kids that do not look very athletic, but are football players. These little surprises will be revealed and make themselves known during the contests. One boy comes to mind, a very small, thin and not terribly fast player (Terry M), someone that not many coaches would notice. He did not look like much on the outside, small, skinny and with average straightaway speed, but once he went through our more detained drills his ability became very evident. No one would have known this players true ability had we been doing just straight line speed evaluations or other traditional methods most coaches use.
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Team Building
Team building will be an important job if you want your kids to come together as a cohesive group. Get kids to believe in themselves and trust and play for each other and you have a team that is having fun and tough to beat. Buddy System This is mandatory for us and something all youth coaches should seriously consider. Many players quit simply because they feel left out, they have not bonded with other players and have no accountability to show up at practice and games. This will help any team bond and help you retain players. Pair players together the first day you come together with your final team, after teams have been split-out. Pair the kids, not with their buddies, but with other players. We prefer to pair kids with kids that are of different races and backgrounds. Each day the player must meet up with his buddy, and be next to him during cals. He must talk with his partner during every water break. Every day require the players to learn something new about their partner such as their partners name, school, number of brothers and sisters, pets, favorite football team, favorite school subject, favorite food, etc. Every practice, designate the question of the day. Each day you test the kids on the question of the day, if the kid gets the question wrong, he runs a lap, or maybe the whole team runs a lap. The test can be comprehensive each day; we do this during our water breaks. Have the partners exchange phone numbers, it is the responsibility of the buddy to call and find out why his partner missed practice. If you see a player that seems to be isolated, go out of your way to make him feel part of the team. These kind of players are most apt to quit. Put this player our front in your warm ups, let him kick to your kick return team in walk-throughs. Let him do the break at the end of practice or some other honor to make him feel like he is contributing. Remember that for many kids this is the only football experience they will ever have and its up to you to make it special for him. I know these kinds of kids can occasionally blossom into real contributors and when they do its something you will take great satisfaction in. Have a game plan in place for bringing your team together, dont just hope it happens on its own. More on team building and building team chemistry in the Winning Youth Football book, Developing Chemistry, Character and Confidence in Youth Football, Step-by-Step.
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Chapter 11 Financial Management and Safeguards

Establishing good financial practices from the start may prevent future challenges for your organization and its many unselfish volunteers within your youth football program, giving you more time to focus on having fun, teaching football fundamentals and enjoying the game. It is sad to say that some youth organizations have had bad experiences with theft. One program I know of in Denver had over $70,000 stolen from it by a seemingly trustworthy treasurer. The President of this organization had not opened a bank statement for three years, had he done so, he would have seen over $70,000 in checks written to his treasurers American Express bill. Unfortunately it does happen more than you can imagine and most of the theft goes unreported, you never see it on the evening news or worse yet, no one ever finds out, Yet, we can do our very best to help prevent financial difficulties by following simple, but important guidelines. Youth football leagues are also businesses and need to be managed properly. Organizations that have successfully been approved for 501(c)(3) tax status have even more accountability. League officials, teams, and coaches have a responsibility to their communities to be good stewards of their funds. Most funding is paid for by parents application fees and in some cases, donation from the community in which they live. One of the biggest surprises of development of a youth football program is the need to handle financial issues such as audits, account signers, fraud and organization paperwork when running their program.
Setting up your financial system

Your constitution and by-laws should identify a treasurer position. It makes sense to have your treasurer open a checking account and be on the signature of all checks. To avoid conflicts of interest, the checking account should be separate from the treasures own personal account. Further, two signatures should be mandatory for a check over $100 to be paid. Adding the President or Vice President as signees is acceptable. Since banks do not always check for two signatures, it is important that procedures be put in place for approved expenditures before a check is written. Once a checking account is open, and signatures are agreed upon, you are ready to do business. Ask your bank to send duplicate copies of the
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bank statement and all canceled checks to the President as well. This may cost you a little more, but is always a good safeguard.
Keep Good Records

Keep records of all banking transactions, deposits and payables. In addition to bank statements and transaction receipts, include paper copies of deposits, withdrawals, and document names of all donations. Should an error occur, these records will help you and your bank quickly resolve the problem. Always send a thank you note to all donors signifying receipt of their donation and if you are tax exempt include the formal name of your organization and your Federal Tax ID number so the donor can deduct his contribution from his taxes.
General Guidelines
It is important that purchasing levels/limits be identified for check writers. Make sure these procedures are part of your organization by-laws or spelled out in minutes of meeting. It is recommended that large purchases of equipment be voted upon prior and be documented in the minutes before check is written. Use care about how much money is received in cash. Do not withdraw cash yourself which may put yourself at risk or suspicion. Always document who paid in cash. Sometimes we think we are hurting other peoples feelings by asking for a treasurer report. ASK FOR IT! A treasurers report should be presented at all meetings. Further, ask other board members to periodically review the books. The more open information about finances builds trust throughout your organization.
Developing a Budget
League fees and/or player fees should be planned to cover your annual operating costs. Should a fund raiser be necessary, it is suggested that parents know this up front before they commit to participating and paying the fee. For record keeping purposes, all fund raising monies should be separated from regular League/player fees. The same applies to receiving larger donations from parents and outside organizations. This will help should an audit be requested. It is important to budget beyond equipment needs. Other expenses to consider include liability insurance, referee fees, rent, phone, office supplies, website, coach training, tax filing fees, legal fees, advertising, field rentals, year-end banquets and trophies.
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Cash
Many organizations have a no-cash policy and it makes a lot of sense. Cash is one of the hardest things to track. With the exception of concession stand sales or small fundraising sales items, consider going to a non cash process for signups.
Fundraising
This ten letter word is one that most youth football organizations love and hate. They love it because it provides needed funds to keep the program afloat, provide player fee scholarships , new equipment or even help pay for out of town bowl trips. The reason most of us hate the word is it is a big hassle that often times produces low results, high levels of frustration and ghastly logistics issues. The net is it is a necessary evil for many if not most youth football programs. We will be coming out with a separate free book addressing this complex and cumbersome issue very soon. There are so many different ways to earn money for your program and Ive probably either tried every one of them or had a friend who has. Not every fundraiser is going to be effective in each demographic of geographic area. Every group is different, you have to be honest with yourself as to what your groups strengths and limitations are before you decide on a fundraiser. Some very quick pointers; make sure your Fundraising Manager is not your Financial Manager and make sure they are trustworthy. Have them go through both the criminal background check as well as a credit background check. Keep up front costs to a minimum and try and stay away from selling door to door or perishables. Yes, many organizations have had great success with cookie dough and candy bars but Ive had candy bars and cookie dough melt on the pallet in our equipment warehouse after kids failed to pick it up and deliver it. Ive also had people say theyve bought something from one of our players and not received it, either it never got delivered, got delivered but never reached the customer or mom/dad/sister/brother/dog ate it. Right now Im a big fan of Scratch Cards, Discount Cards and programs like PDP and Veridian all of which do not require the delivery of perishable items or large up-front fees. Programs like PDP and Veridian dont even require any collection of money or product distribution, which is a big deal for most youth football programs. Whatever you decide to do, make sure the duration of the fundraising is just 2-3 weeks and that the players and parents know what the money is being used for. If those funds can be kept separate and said to be for things like new equipment, fee scholarships for at-risk kids or for a bowl trip, you are going to have more success than saying it will be going into a general fund. Other simple fund raisers include selling the players jersey to the parent at seasons end or team gear sales at places like
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E-Stores by Zome at 888-501-5510. You just upload your images onto team gear and add a markup, they take the orders, sizes and ship the product. Sponsorships You may be able to garner a sizeable donation from a parent or stakeholder who owns or manages a business. In return for a donation a sponsor is given a prominent ad or mention in your game program and web site. They can also provide you with a sign to display at the stadium or field where you play your home games. Kinkos makes banners or you can go online and have them mailed to you as well. Another way to do it is provide levels of sponsorship like this: Gold-Cost $1,000 3x 5 banner paid for by Screaming Eagles with the words: Company X, Proud Sponsor of Screaming Eagle Football Banner to be prominently displayed at all home games. Large add or company logo prominently displayed in all game programs, recognized as sole Gold sponsor. Large add or company logo prominently displayed on sponsor page of web site, recognized ad sole Gold level sponsor. Silver-Cost $500 1x 3 banner paid for by Screaming Eagles with the words: Company X, Proud Sponsor of Screaming Eagle Football Banner to be prominently displayed at all home games. Medium sized add or company logo prominently displayed in all game programs, recognized as Silver sponsor. Medium sized add or company logo prominently displayed on sponsor page of web site, recognized as Silver sponsor. Bronze-Cost $100 Small sized add or company logo prominently displayed in all game programs, recognized as Bronze sponsor. Small company logo displayed on sponsor page of web site, recognized as Bronze sponsor. Grants Grants can be attained by youth football programs, but in most cases you have to be much more than just a youth football program. If you stress academics, character development and community service and can prove to grant givers you have real programs in place to address those issues, you can get grant money. It isnt easy and you have to jump through a number of hoops to get it, but my last year in inner-city Omaha we received over $50,000 in grant money from five different sources. More on that in our upcoming free fundraising book.
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Chapter 12
Equipment
Equipment is a long term investment that is going to be a very large part of every youth football organizations budget. Most youth football programs supply a helmet, shoulder pads, pants, pads that insert into the pants and a game jersey. Some organizations also supply a second pair of pants for game days, game socks, mouthpieces, travel bags and practice jerseys. With the liability issues associated with helmets, some programs are providing everything but the helmet. The range of prices for outfitting a youth football player in helmet, shoulder pads, pants, pant pad set, practice jersey and game jersey would be from $165-$300 per player. The bigger and older the player, the more you spend as well. You can outfit a program age 7-14 in middle of the road gear for about $225 per player. Before deciding what equipment you are going to provide and what you are going to require the player to acquire on his own, survey the landscape. Make sure what you provide is competitive with other offerings in your area, if the offering isnt competitive, you may have a difficult time recruiting players. You can buy equipment from national companies found on the internet like Football America or XO Sports. Other options include local team equipment dealers. Some national manufacturers like Ridell also have local reps in the field. The advantage of a local dealer is you can see them face to face and most have a storefront. I also like the face to face interaction with local reps of national companies. Most of the local team dealers stock some equipment and will order things for you that they dont have. They have access to multiple vendors and have the power to get more out of the those vendors due to the fact they do so much business with those vendors. The nice thing about local team dealers is service. The good ones will help you out in a bind, fight to get you the best prices and make darn sure your equipment shows up on time and within your budget. We have been blessed to work with a very well-run and trusted team dealer in Omaha over the last 15 years. Treat your equipment vendors well, as partners, our local vendor doesnt even require payment until well after the equipment arrives, which is after we get most player registration fees. Ask the top programs in your area who they buy their gear from, if theyve been around for a long time, they are probably using a reliable and fair vendor. When it comes to equipment, it comes in all price ranges and a variety of quality levels. In most cases you get what you pay for. In this book we are not going to recommend specific brands, that is one thing you can work out with your local team dealer. You can try and do the same with one of the national suppliers, but most of the time your rep changes from year to year. Some recommendations on styles of equipment and equipment options.
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One color practice jerseys only cost about $10 each and last 6-8 year on average. They are a good investment and make your team look so much better than letting everyone show up in different colors. Is that worth $1.50 per year per player to you? Larger mesh in dark colors work well and last the longest. They just came out with a new style of pants that have the pad set sewed into the pants. This means no more lost pant pads and you dont have to store or hand out separate pants and pads. Why anyone buys white pants is beyond me, they rarely last more than a season or two. Dark colored practice pants, even the ones you get for $12 a pair can last 3-5 seasons, the white ones, less than half that. Many teams that are on tight budgets use their practice pants as game pants. Others have both a practice pant, game pant, as well as home and away game jerseys. That decision is up to you. Game jerseys can cost anywhere from $20-$120 each. In most cases game jerseys require some lead time to order. Unless you are just ordering the most basic screen printed number on a one color jersey, the lead time is usually 4-8 weeks. Thats why team jerseys with names on the back maybe arent the best choice. You also have to be VERY careful of where you buy your game jerseys. There are a lot of uniform sellers that use off shore sources to make and print the jerseys. Ive heard of MANY teams that didnt get their game jerseys before their first game because the jerseys were on a ship somewhere or caught up in customs. How embarrassing and catastrophic would that be for you? Pay a little extra and have that reliable team dealer make sure you get a jersey that fits your budget and time frame. The chin straps that come standard with most helmets are of very poor quality, negotiate with your supplier for one you can actually use and make sure it has metal snaps, the plastic ones dont work worth a darn. Supply mouthpieces that connect to the helmet and are the color of your team. Team dealers offer them for less than $1 each in bulk. If you dont do this, many of your players will buy mouthpieces that do not have a strap and you wont know if they have one in or not. Mouthpieces without straps are also lost easily. Make sure to always have extras in your equipment bag, because kids will even lose the mouthpieces strapped to their helmets. Dont forget to budget for team equipment. Team equipment is the gear required by the team to practice and play games. Every team should have the following as a minimum: 3 Hand Shields- about $40 each 2 Tall Blocking Bags- about $110 each 4 Regulation Footballs- about $20 each Ball Bag- $10 Kicking Tee- $6 PAT Kicking Block- $6 12 Scrimmage Cap- $7 each 16 Medium Cones- $3 each Team equipment like weighted tackling dummys, blocking chutes and blocking or tackling sleds are luxuries most youth teams get by without just fine.
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Team gear also includes the medical kit discussed earlier and a small equipment bag. The equipment bag has extra equipment parts you are going to need when a player loses or destroys his gear. It would include: Baggie with helmet hardware- replacement screws, snaps and facemask attachment brackets 3 Chin Straps 6 Chin Strap snaps 10 Shoulder pad hook clips 4 pieces of shoulder pad strap (you can buy it by the roll and cut pieces for each team) Complete set of helmet pads 4 Ear Pads 4 mouthpieces 1 complete set of pant pads Helmets Helmets have become quite the topic of conversation of late in youth football. Helmet safety is of great concern to many. Make sure you pay special attention to the fitting instructions for your helmet. Some local team dealers will even come out and fit your kids on your equipment hand out day, which may be something you negotiate with them. If you have to do it yourself have one or more of your coaches work with the equipment dealer to make sure you are fitting the player properly for his helmet. Often times a helmet will be fitted properly all the way around with the exception of the area around the cheeks. Some players just have heads that are shaped much different than the norm. A simple solution to this common problem is to make sure and have some oversized cheek pads at the ready. The 2 cheek pad will usually solve that problem. Believe it or not, helmets have a shelf life. After repeated drops to the ground and jarring hits, the plastic loses its ability to do its job. Most helmet manufacturers and safety experts suggest you recertify your helmets every year. This service costs from $14 to $20 per helmet. They are stress tested, checked for cracks and wear and depending on the level of service you buy, could include the replacement of hardware and clean up. Companies like ASA Reconditioning or Schutt can do this for you. For these and other liability issues, this is why about 5% of youth football teams now have the parents purchase the equipment or at least the helmet from a designated local equipment supplier.
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Equipment Hand Out One day that is almost always a big hassle is the equipment hand out day. All the kids are excited and anxious to get their gear. Many of the parents are worried that little Johnny is not going to get the latest and greatest gear or not get daddys old number. In any case equipment hand out date is a day most youth football coaches and administrators love to hate. One way to streamline the equipment handout is to send players in by team and in order of weight. Set up tables or stations with chalk mark lines on the floor where you want the players to stand. Each station hands out a different piece of gear - practice jersey, shoulder pads, helmets, pants and pant pad sets, mouthpieces, chin straps etc. Assign your most competent coaches to the helmet and shoulder pad station. Make it a practice to have a table set up at the entrance to where you are handing out gear to make sure no player enters that has not completed whatever paperwork requirements your organization or league needs. Its amazing how much lost paperwork magically appears when junior is putting the heat on mom about the fact hes going to be the only player on the team without gear that first week. When you send players through the stations start by sending the very smallest players first. If you are say coaching an age 7-9 team ask all the boys from 50-65 lbs. to go through first. By grouping players by size, it is much easier to pull equipment. You know all of them are going to be a youth small pant, youth XL practice jersey and their shoulder pad sizes will often times be very close. Sizing shoulder pads is something that is often times done incorrectly. Some shoulder pad companies send their shoulder pads out with a From 70-90 lbs. sticker on them. You cant determine the proper size of a shoulder pad by a players weight, it is sized based on the width of the shoulder. Kids shoulder sizes vary quite a bit with smaller players often needing a much bigger shoulder pad than the weight label would suggest. Make sure you get fitting instructions from your equipment supplier. Many suggest that the end of the breast plate extend to just past the shoulder point. When sizing pants you will get your feel for it once you do it for the first time. There is no need for most players to put on their pants. Trying them on is a big hassle even when you ask kids to show up in shorts to make it easy to try them on in public. Once you get the hang of it (every 80 lb. kid is a youth medium) only the kids in between the cutoffs will need to try the gear on. Remember that the first day a player has the pads on in practice is a big deal. For some of those kids who are first timers, they may have went home from the equipment handout and worn their gear around the house all day any maybe even to bed. Heck the first year I got
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equipment, I went home, geared up and went out on the porch for most of the afternoon hoping that someone would walk by and see me. Make sure to do an equipment check at that first practice after you hand gear out. Many first year players will need a few adjustments and some a major overhaul. In any case at practice that day acknowledge the fact that it is ok for first time players to be a little nervous, but that is the way everyone felt the first day they put on the pads. When you do that, you calm the players fear that his excitement and anxiety is somehow unnatural and cowardly. Equipment Care Your equipment is the largest capital expenditure and must last you for a reasonable period of time. Start by letting parents and players know how equipment should be treated and cared for. We have included something you should send home with the player on the day you send the equipment home. We even include a clause in our player contract that requires that the player respect and does not abuse his equipment. At seasons end prior to the banquet or equipment hand in, make sure to remind the parents how the equipment must be returned. Specify that they need to clean off all helmet award decals and clean off all marks from the helmet. Ask them to wash the inside and outside of the helmets out with soap and water and same for the shoulder pads. Specify that you do NOT want the mouthpieces back, if you dont more than half the helmets will be returned with a mangled chewed up old mouthpiece that you will have to remove and throw away yourself. Equipment Care Form Football equipment represents the single largest expense for your youth football program. In order to keep costs low and to provide safe equipment, it is imperative that the equipment is cared for properly. It is important that all players are aware that it is their duty to respect and care for their equipment. Failure to take reasonable care of equipment can result in the parent paying to replace the equipment, per the contract. If you have any equipment issues please bring them up to the equipment manager before any practice or game. Helmet- Do not sit on, drop, or toss a helmet even a few inches. Every impact and pressure applied lessens the strength of the helmet. Keep it clean inside and out using soft cloth, mild soaps and air dry. Keep sanitized with Lysol. Pants- Wash in cold water and air dry. Uniform- Wash in cold water and air dry. Shoulder Pads- Always air dry after practice, let them air out. Make sure straps are tight and report any cracks, frayed belts or laces to the equipment manager. Can be sanitized using Lysol.
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Mouthpiece- Follow the directions on the package, bring water to a boil and submerge the mouthguard piece into the boiling water for about 20 seconds. Taking the strap end with your hand, dip the mouthguard into a bowl of cold water for 10 seconds, then insert the mouthguard into the players mouth, having him bite down gently and form the guard around his teeth and gums. Once a mouthguard becomes frayed, it needs to be replaced. Please refrain from using the mouthguard as a chewy toy. It should be attached to the helmet and used during any activity requiring contact. Please make sure all mouthguards attach to the helmet so the coaches can make sure the player is wearing his mouthguard.
End of Season Equipment Care At the end of every season you have to clean and check the equipment to determine if it needs to be reconditioned, repaired or thrown out. For pants you are checking for holes, seams separating and frayed belts and laces. Wash in cold water and store We dont spend a lot on pants, so when holes appear, we toss them out. There were several years where we had a mom who was quite the seamstress and she took pride in bringing those pants back to life. For shoulder pads, you can start by removing all the straps and laces and washing them in cold water. Ive even taken them to car washes and washed them with the high power sprayer. If you go that route do not stack the pads back on the shoulder pad rack, they will have to be thoroughly dried before they can be restacked. They will need to be sanitized and wiped down with a solution of bleach and water. Check the epaulets for cracking and warping, that is the part of the shoulder pad used for hitting at the end of the pad. Check all the pads, arches, cantilevers and straps for cracks and frayed edges. There are plenty of reconditioning companies like Schutt or Football America who can repair and recondition worn gear.
Helmets When helmets are turned in, they need to be cleaned, sanitized and checked for wear. Many experts feel that helmets need to be reconditioned and recertified annually. There are many reconditioners out there and most likely the same people that sold you the helmets do reconditioning. Ridell and Schutt both offer this service as do many independent companies. Make sure they are licensed by the NOCSAE and are a member of the NAERA. Most reconditioners charge anywhere from $14-$20 per helmet. Like shoulder pads, helmets can take their initial cleaning in the car wash. Your team dealer also sells both cleaning and sanitizing kits made specifically for youth football helmets. All award stickers and war marks need to be removed. Be careful not to use strong cleaning agents as they may damage the helmet. Also make sure the helmet warning sticker on the
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back of the helmet is visible and readable. The ear pads and chin straps can be run through your washing machine in cold water and air dried, use a minimal amount of detergent. Always look for visible cracks, lose and missing hardware, this is not an area you want to skimp on. Equipment Management Its important to maintain an accurate inventory of what useable equipment you do have in order to budget and plan for the following season. You wont use every piece of gear in every season so a simple way to record the years of use on helmets and shoulder pads is to write down in permanent marker inside the helmet and under the top shoulder pad flap. Mark down a 1 the first year its used, 2 for the second and so on and so forth. You wont need to do that for pants, you can tell the use by looking at the knees and crotch for holes and seams coming apart. While helmets can be stored on shelves, its much more concise to store them on helmet racks like the ones shown here. A 60 helmet rack costs from $220-$280. Stay away from the racks that put each helmet on an individual spike, Ive had one of those before and the helmets were always falling off, especially when the rack was rolled into place. You have to have shoulder pad racks, if you dont many times the bottom of the shoulder pad will start to curl under and become unusable. The larger one here holds about 80 sets of pads and costs between. The smaller one holds 25 pads and costs about. I have made these out of plywood and 2x4 lumber, but by the time you look at the lumber costs, the casters and your time, the pre made ones may make a lot of sense. Storage of the uniforms, pads, pants etc. is the easiest part, large roller bottom garbage cans work great for this. They arent too expensive and they keep the gear organized by size, clean and fresh. Take the time to put a plan in place to protect your equipment, it will save you time and money over the long haul as well as help insure your equipment is safe and presentable to use for years to come.
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Chapter 13 Video
Video not only improves your team, it improves your entire organization. If you can, assign a Video Manager whose responsibility it is to get the games videotaped and managed. That same person can be responsible for either taking pictures or getting pictures from your parents for your web site and year end slide show or highlight video. When games are videotaped and uploaded to a tool like Hudl your players, parents, stakeholders and extended family of the player have a chance to view the game from the comfort of their own home. If little Johnny is in Illinois, but his grandparents live in Florida, grandma and grandpa can watch every game over the internet. If your stakeholders want to check in on how their investment is coming along, they have it at the click of a mouse. With the highlight feature that comes with Hudl, every player or parent can make a highlight film of whoever they want. When a play happens that they want to highlight, all they have to do is click on that players number on the sidebar and that play is put into a folder that can be viewed later or even made into a DVD. This is a small benefit compared to the unreal way Hudl helps your team get better with the coach being able to draw over the film and put text boxes into every clip. When you do things like offering film and using a product like Hudl, you build up that emotional bank account with your parents and stakeholders. Less than 5% of youth football programs out there are using Hudl or products like them. When you are part of that 5%, you set yourself apart from your competitors. Parents talk, kids talk at school, when your team has Hudl and the guys down the road dont its a big deal. You can view Hudl at www.hudl.com or even look at the little tutorial at www.winningyouthfootball.com and click on the technology link. Hudl is just $225 when you use the coupon code CISAR. If you play 10 games and have 25 players, the cost is less than $1 per player, per game. How much are those permanent memories, access to games and personal highlight reels worth? The answer is a lot more than $1 per game.
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When taking video there are a few simple pointers that will help you get useable film. Dont let a parent shoot the film who is only concerned about getting shots of their son. Use a tripod and get to the highest spot in the stadium or bleachers. If you cant get anyone to film the game for you call into the local high schools drama or technical department and ask the person in charge to post an ad for you. You can usually get kids to film games and they usually do a decent job of it at about $25 per game, true professionals are usually going to charge about $50 per game. Plan ahead with your video strategy by lining up who is going to shoot your film and playing around with Hudl. If you already have film, buy Hudl now, upload your film to Hudl and play around with it, its unbelievably simple to use even for an old guy like me. If you can, ask the video manager from your team to upload the film for you. Its not because this task is hard, its because you need to delegate as much as you can off your plate as possible. Film is by far the most important tool to improve your team. Film never lies and is the ultimate accountability tool available to your team. It is also a great teaching tool. For many youth football players the game moves too quickly and for almost all of them, they have a hard time seeing the big picture. Many kids even have a hard time understanding some of the finer points of base techniques and execution. Film brings it all to life for you and when you have a tool like Hudl, you dont have to assemble all the kids together for a film session, which are usually a huge waste of time. Players watch in the comfort of their own homes and Hudl has a feature that tells you how many minutes the player watched film, every day. If you mark your film up well and let your parents and players know the goal and value of film and get them to buy into watching, you can in essence gain an additional practice every week. Getting the kids to do this has not been an issue for us or any of the teams I know that are using Hudl. Hudl has most of the features of much more expensive systems like DSV and APEX, which can cost in the area of $10,000 and much more than the bare bones and slower loading watchgamefilm product, which we stopped using in 2009.
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Chapter 13 Banquet and Awards

The team banquet or year-end event, whatever you are going to call it should neatly tie up your season and be the springboard for the next season. If done well, the momentum of the banquet can help drive retention, new sign ups and help you retain volunteers and coaches as well. Banquets can be as large and elaborate or small and simple as you want them to be. Ive run successful banquets inside a pizza restaurant and run successful banquets inside large auditoriums with over 1,000 people in attendance. In either case, the time for planning your banquet starts before the season begins. One very effective method is to have one of your parents or stakeholders be in charge of the banquet and nothing else. This is a great position for someone that does not want an assignment that requires them to do be at every practice or game. Sometimes one of your most competent people will take this task for that very reason, you might be surprised how well some of your people are at event coordinating. At the same time, make sure this role does not go to a drama queen who is not good under pressure and who cant multitask very well. Some very nice and inexpensive locations for team banquets include community centers, schools, VFW and even Masonic Lodges. For smaller banquets many restaurants and even bowling alleys have private rooms they will let you use for free if they provide the food. Food Food can be catered in, prepared on site or even pot lucked. While pot luck has worked well for many, you have to be very careful to make sure hot food stays hot and cold food stays cold to avoid any possible food poisoning issues. Some programs have gone to just having pizzas delivered, having a desert or snack buffet while others have had great luck just having a chili or soups offering. No matter the choice, make sure you have it set up so people can serve themselves from both sides of the table and have multiple tables set up with food. You do not want to spend a two hour banquet with an hour of it dedicated to standing in line for food. Have a drop dead time for the time food will no longer be served and if you are short on time and offering desserts, leave dessert for after the awards presentations.
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Start by setting a date early, we set ours in August. For many people with busy schedules, this is a must. If you wait until the season is over to set the date, there are always going to be conflicts and hurt feelings because you cant accommodate everyone. Make sure you research the date and try and avoid conflicts. Here in Nebraska, for instance, we dont want to have the banquet on the first day of deer season or on the same day as a Nebraska football game. Try and schedule the event within 2-3 weeks of the last day you expect to be playing. Logistics For the early arrivers have a video screen set up and play your highlight films on a continuous loop or your slide show. Of course you could do a narrated slide show set to music and present that to the entire crowd during the event. If you have one that is very well done and not too terribly long, that is doable. If youre banquet is for 200 or more players, youre probably going to have to get by with showing it on a continuous loop. For large groups, you will need a podium and 8 foot table for the front as well as a microphone and speakers. Most schools, community centers, restaurants and the like have that for you, or you can rent them from your local rent-all business. If you have someone in your group that is outgoing and good in front of a crowd, consider making him the MC If you dont have one of those, ask your stakeholders if they know anyone that would be a good fit. One year my program got a very outgoing local personality to do ours for no charge. The MC lets the crowd know what the program is going to entail, helps the crowd understand the logistics of the event and keeps the program in flow often times with some humor and levity. A program listing the schedule and order of the event is something you can easily print up and have at the door for all attendees. All of the coaches, parents, volunteers and players need to be recognized during the event. While most people dont donate their time and money for a pat on the back, if you dont acknowledge their contributions, dont expect to see all of them back next year. You can also do some of those recognitions in the printed program. Let the crowd know how valuable every coach and volunteer is to the success of the program. For those putting in the most effort, consider getting them some type of personal memento or award. For the longest time, my wife made these neat felt blankets with our team color and team picture on it for each of our team moms.
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Player Awards Player awards vary based on your programs philosophy on awards. One simple no-branier is the Individual Player Certificate Award. Simply download a free certificate template from the internet, insert your team picture into the certificate from your computer, customize each award and frame it in a $2 frame you can get online or at WalMart and you have a very inexpensive yet meaningful award. Get creative, you can make an award for every player: Most Improved Defensive Back, Most Valuable Kicker, Mr. Hustle Award, Most Valuable Defensive End, Most Selfless Player Award, Best Teammate Award etc. Make sure to have a signature area where all of your coaches can sign it. When presenting the award, let all of your coaches participate. Before the banquet, divide up who is going to present each award so they can prepare their words. Keep it short and positive, with lots of smiles and levity. Have your video person either video the event or at least take a picture of each player receiving their awards. Trophies are a controversial subject these days. On one side of the aisle you have people that feel trophies should only be given out to league champions. On the other side of the aisle you have others that feel a trophy should be given out to every child that participates, no matter the team result. You have to make that decision for yourselves. My teams get individual trophies if we won or finished runner-up in our ten team division, if we didnt finish in the top two spots, we dont buy individual trophies. Trophies can be bought from local trophy shops or over the internet from companies like Crown Awards or Dinn Trophy. They range in price from about $5 to $15 each, depending on the size and quality. While local trophy shops may cost you a little more, it is nice to actually see what you are buying before you order and if there are any problems, they can usually be solved quickly. You dont want to be one trophy short or have a misspelled name on the last event of your season. Sometimes a nice medal can be a replacement or addition to trophies. Medals can be bought from the same trophy shops mentioned above and cost anywhere from $3-$7 each. Academic awards are something you may want to consider if you put an academic program in place. When we had an inner-city program we gave out refurbished computers donated by local businesses to our top three academic performers from each team. Where I coach now we have given out team jackets, large trophys, team rings, full sized fat heads of the player and team fat heads, the possibilities are endless. If you have a strong and aggressive academic and character development program, ask local businesses to donate prizes for those awards. It is MUCH easier getting those kind of people to donate for a specific event tied into academic and character performance than to donate to your general fund. Getting
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electronic gadgets, football memorabilia, bikes and the like is not uncommon if you approach them early enough and share with them how the program is impacting the lives of your players. Team highlight DVDs with a customized cover are always a nice keepsake for the kids. Your Hudl videos are going to expire when your year subscription ends, so to immortalize your season you will need to either record all of the games into a DVD, create a highlight video or do both. Thats why its always good to have a Video Manager on this task, because if you wait until the week prior to the banquet to get started making DVDs, you arent going to get it done in time. You can always farm the task out to someone that does this for a living and have him charge your parents for the video, many football programs do this as well. Consider having someone speak at your banquet. Ive had former college and NFL players speak, motivational local business stars and the local High School Head Football Coaches. Keep the speech to 10-20 minutes max, make the crowd want more for him, not less. His speech should come after a short speech by the leader of your group. Your leaders speech needs to cover thanking all the coaches and volunteers, highpoints of the season, high level plans for the upcoming season and an invitation to get involved and participate the following year.
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Chapter 14 Taking It Forward

Weve walked you through the process of developing a youth football program from scratch, from the conceptualizing of your mission statement to your year-end banquet. I hope that this gave you some ideas to consider as you take the path of making your vision a reality. While starting and running a youth football program will always take you more time than you thought, the end results can be very important to the development of hundreds or even thousands of young men. The results are going to be very satisfying and in some cases heart breaking. Ive seen newspaper stories about kids Ive coached who have gone on to play college football and become great leaders, great husbands and great fathers. Ive also seen former players in the papers for taking part in crimes and been to a number of trials in support of former players. You are going to get great thank you cards and phone calls from appreciative parents and players, some 20 years after coaching the boy and you are going to get indifference and a sense of entitlement from others. You have to shake off the indifferent, even the ones who you scholarship into your program whose dad you see driving a much nicer vehicle than you own. Yes those selfish, entitled people exist in our society today but we arent here for them, we are here for their kids and who better to guide the son of a person like that than a wellintentioned, well equipped youth football coach or administrator. Your job in many ways will be thankless, but the reward for you will be 20 or more years from now when some stranger comes up to you in the mall and tells you coach Dave, remember me, Im Sam Jones, I played for you back in 1986 with the Oilers. Remember that trip we took to Kansas City? Man that was fun, you did a great job, I really appreciate you, meet my wife Sandra and my kids Tony and Angela.
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About the Author

Winning Youth Football, a Step by Step Plan was written by Dave Cisar. Dave is the founder and President of the Screaming Eagles Organization. It was started in 1998 as a free program for at-risk youth in inner-city Omaha, Nebraska before he moved to start the Lincoln program, it served nearly 400 young men. He continues to head up the organization as well as head coach a team every year. He has coached 15 years at all levels of youth football. His teams have played in 6 different Leagues in 3 different cities. Since moving to this system his teams have gone 132-18 and won multiple division, league and State Titles. He gives youth coaching clinics all over the country including the Nike Coach of the Year Clinics and the Frank Glazier Mega Clinics. He has been on the same venue as Bobby Bowden, Les Miles, Jeff Tedford and Ken Niumatalolo. Dave is a former business owner and is a proud family man. He played college football at the University Nebraska at Omaha before transferring and graduating from Texas A&M University where he did not play sports. He gave his life to Christ in 1996.
Additional Materials:
To order additional materials go to dacisar@aol.com or www.winningyouthfootball.com
Winning Youth Football, a Step by Step Plan: $29.95 273 pages. This is the paperback book. We give you everything you need to succeed in coaching a youth football team. This isnt written in coach talk and is easy to understand. We take you from the preseason coaches meetings through the last game of the season. This includes our practice plans and practice methodology as well as our drills, techniques and implementation break down steps. It includes our schemes and plays on offense, special teams and defense as well as the reads and adjustments. It is a comprehensive guide to coaching effectively using the Single Wing Offense that anyone can use. It also contains some much needed team and program management material as well. Developing Chemistry, Character and Confidence in Youth Football: $19.95 116 Pages CDROM Learn how to develop the most important factor in your teams success, Chemistry and Character. Includes how to do it step-by-step with Daves tips and tricks along with coaching tools like the Link Program and 15 Character Lessons that you can choose to
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e-mail to your players and parents. See your team come together and play selflessly while your parents love you for caring beyond football.
Developing a Smothering Defense in Youth Football, Step by Step on DVD- $39.95 Daves base defense as well as attacking Viper defenses are featured along with the defensive drills his teams use to smother the willpower of opposing defenses. Includes: position descriptions and responsibilities, techniques, drills, alignments, stunts and blitzes. Over half of this DVD are game and practice footage clips. 80 minute run time. Professionally developed by Reliant Video.
Dominant Offensive Line Play in Youth Football- Step by Step on DVD - $39.95 See how Dave builds his offensive lines step by step into cohesive aggressive units that gobble up chunks of yardage. You get the base blocking rules, stances, base block, down blocks, double teams, crab blocking, open field blocking, pulling and detailed wedge implementation. You get blocking rule implementation, adjustments, quickness development, advanced techniques, fun drills and more. Lots of great practice and game footage included. 80 minute run time. Our best quality yet, Reliant Video product.
Game Day Management Becoming a Good Game Day Coach $39.95 on DVD $39.95 Learn how to effectively manage your game day, something that takes most coaches years develop. Learn how to effectively manage the pre-game, scouting, setting goals, spotting, making adjustments, managing playing time, play call sequencing, no-huddle methodology, clock management, coaching an effective halftime as well as a good post game wrap up. Included are Daves Cheat Sheet for effective play-calling based solely on his simple precount method. He reviews his easy to install game day scouting method to determining plays to be called and players to be coached up. Learn how to get the most out of your team and to steal games from more skilled opponents, through game day coaching. Includes both white board and game day clips of the 2006 season.
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Practice Organization, The Perfect Practice $39.95 on DVD Cut hours off your weekly practice grind using Daves practice methodology, while at the same time improving the skill levels of your players and team. See how he makes practices both fun and instructional so the kids beg to come to practice, not dread it. See his secrets to developing players and teams from scratch using progression teaching methods and his ease into contact approach. His player selection process and fit and freeze methods have helped his teams and many others make tremendous progress. These methods, games and drills make any youth coach look like a genius. Includes both white board instruction and lots of practice footage. Reliant Video product.
Installing the Single Wing Offense For Youth Football: $49.95 2 DVDs nearly 2 hours -White board instruction by Dave along with play clips inserted from his last 8 teams. You get practice tape clips, so you can see the plays and techniques in action as they are being discussed on the white board. Includes base blocking rules, detailed coaching points, implementation tricks and instructions to install the entire offense. Professionally developed by Reliant Video. Coaching Clinics Go to the web site http://winningyouthfootball.com for more information about the Coaching Clinics Dave will be speaking at this year. He usually does about 20 public clinics at various locations across the US as well as a handful of private clinics.
www.winningyouthfootball.com to order by Visa/MasterCard from the Internet or Call 402-730-8151 to order by phone.
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Sample Articles of Incorporation

ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION OF [NAME] The undersigned, acting as incorporators of a corporation under the Not for Profit Corporation Act of the State of [NAME], adopt the following articles of incorporation for such corporation: ARTICLE I The name of the corporation, hereinafter referred to as the "Corporation" is [NAME]. ARTICLE II The period of duration of the Corporation is perpetual. ARTICLE III This corporation is organized exclusively for promoting amateur athletics with youth. To this end, the corporation shall at all times be operated exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as now enacted or hereafter amended, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as now enacted or hereafter amended. All funds, whether income or principal, and whether acquired by gift or contribution or otherwise, shall be devoted to said purposes. The Corporation is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes, including for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code. The Corporation may receive and administer funds for scientific, religious, educational, and charitable purposes, within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and to that end, the Corporation is empowered to hold any property, or any undivided interest therein, without limitation as to amount or value; to dispose of any such property and to invest, reinvest, or deal with the principal or the income in such manner as, in the judgment of the directors, will best promote the purposes of the Corporation, without limitation, except such limitations, if any, as may be contained in the instrument under which such property is received, these Articles of Incorporation, the By-Laws of the Corporation, or any applicable laws, to do any other act or thing incidental to or connected with the foregoing purposes or in advancement thereof, but not for the pecuniary profit or financial gain of its directors or officers except as permitted under the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law. No part of the net earnings of the Corporation shall inure to the benefit of any member, trustee, officer of the Corporation, or any private individual, except that reasonable compensation may be paid for services rendered to or for the Corporation affecting one or more of its purposes, and no member, trustee, officer of the Corporation, or any private
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individual shall be entitled to share in the distribution of any of the corporate assets on dissolution of the Corporation. No substantial part of the activities of the Corporation shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation, and the Corporation shall not participate in or intervene in, including the publication or distribution of statements, any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office. Upon the dissolution of the Corporation or the winding up of its affairs, the assets of the Corporation shall be distributed exclusively to one or more charitable, religious, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational organizations which would then qualify under the provisions of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and its Regulations as they now exist or as they may be hereafter amended, or to the federal government, or to a state or local government, for a public purpose. Any such assets not so disposed of shall be disposed of by the Court of Common Pleas of the county in which the principal office of the Corporation is then located, exclusively for such purposes or to such organization or organizations as said Court shall determine, which are organized and operated exclusively for such purposes. ARTICLE IV The qualifications for members and the manner of their admissions shall be regulated by the by-laws. The corporation shall have one or more classes of members, as provided in the corporation's bylaws. The management of the affairs of the corporation shall be vested in a Board of Directors, as defined in the corporation's bylaws. No Director shall have any right, title, or interest in or to any property of the corporation. Members of the first Board of Directors shall serve until the first annual meeting, at which their successors are duly elected and qualified, or removed as provided in the bylaws. ARTICLE V PERSONAL LIABILITY No (member) officer, or Director of this corporation shall be personally liable for the debts or obligations of this corporation of any nature whatsoever, nor shall any of the property of the (members) officer, or Directors be subject to the payment of the debts or obligations of this corporation. ARTICLE VI The initial street address in the state of [NAME] of the initial registered office of the Corporation is [LOCATION], and the name of the initial registered agent at such address Is [NAME].
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ARTICLE VII The territory in which the operations of the Corporation are principally to be conducted is the United States of America and its territories and possessions, but the operations of the Corporation shall not be limited to such territory. ARTICLE VIII The initial board of directors shall consist of at least three (3) members, who need not be residents of the state of [NAME]. ARTICLE IX The names and addresses of the Board Members are as follows: Member 1. Member 2.. Member 3 The undersigned incorporator(s) certify(ies) both that she/he/they execute(s) these Articles for the purposes herein stated, and that by such execution, she/he/they affirm(s) the understanding that the statements are accurate. Signature Member 1 Signature Member 2 Signature Member 3 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned have made and subscribed to these Articles of Incorporation at [LOCATION] on [DATE]. [NAME] [NAME] STATE OF [NAME] COUNTY OF [NAME] The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me this [DATE]. [NAME] Notary Public (SEAL) State of [NAME] My Commission Expires
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Sample By-Laws
These are samples of By-Laws of various youth football programs in the United States. Again per the information in the foreward please consult an attorney to make sure your By-laws are enforceable and that they violate no laws.
ARTICLE I
MEMBERSHIP
SECTION A 1. The Program (Program) consists of all who have a child participant in the program or an adult volunteer dedicated to the preservation and betterment of youth football in the ---------area. In order to be a voting member, you must hold a position on the Board of Directors as defined in Article II. Non voting members are all members who do not hold a position on the Board. All members must agree to abide by all League Bylaws and Rules and decisions made by the Executive Council of the League. The Board of Directors may make rules and regulations as it determines necessary to operate the organization as it is intended in order to fulfill its purpose as stated in its Bylaws and Rules. SECTION B MEMBERSHIP, SUSPENSION OR DISMISSAL 2. Any member, player/cheerleader, or Board member of the Program is subject to suspension or dismissal from the program by the Program Board of Directors if, in its opinion, that person fails to comply with the Bylaws or Rules of Program /League, and such actions are found to be detrimental to the best interest of Program/League. 3. Evidence of misconduct or failure to comply with the Bylaws or Rules shall be presented in writing to the President of the Board of Directors outlining in detail, the charge or charges being levied against any member. At the next regular meeting or at a special meeting if deemed necessary, the complaint will be heard by the Board of Directors with the accused member having the right of due process and council. A written decision will be handed down without the right of appeal. 4. Suspension or dismissal will require a simple majority vote of the Board of Directors, with a quorum, consisting of two-thirds (2/3), of the members being present.
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5. Any Board Member to be removed from the Board from the above actions (Section B Items 1-3) will not be allowed to participate on the Program Board in any fashion or function for a period of time not less than 6 (six) years in length from the date of termination from the Program Board. SECTION C FISCAL YEAR 1. Program will operate on a fiscal year beginning on January 1st. and ending on December 31st. of each year for financial matters and officers terms of office. ARTICLE II Board Of Directors SECTION A OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES
Members of the Board of Directors shall consist of the following officers:
1. President: a. The President shall preside at all membership meetings. He/she shall appoint all committees, temporary or permanent. He/she shall see that all books, reports and certificates required by law are properly kept and filed. He/she shall be one of the officers that may sign checks of the organization. He/she shall have powers as may be reasonably construed as belonging to the chief executive officer of any organization. He/she will administer the Bylaws and Rules of Program and the League. He/she will be given reasonable authority to interpret and enforce these Bylaws and the Rules of the Program/League. 2. Vice President: a. The Vice President shall in the event of the absence or inability of the president to exercise his office become acting president of the organization with all the rights, privileges and powers as if he/she had been the duly elected president. He/she will serve on and oversee the coaches, facilities and fundraising committees.
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3. Secretary: a. The Secretary shall keep the minutes and records of the organization. He/she shall give all notices to the members. He/she shall be the custodian of the records of the organization. He/she shall submit any correspondence of the organization and shall exercise all duties incidental to the office of Secretary. 4. Treasurer: a. The Treasurer shall have the custody and care of all monies belonging to Program. He/she will pay all bills incurred by Program and is responsible for the collection of all receivables. He/she will deposit in a regular bank checking account(s) a sum not exceeding twenty five thousand ($25,000.) and any additional amounts into a savings account. He/she will provide the Board of Directors with an accurate report of Programs finances at each meeting. He/she will be responsible for maintaining the Program status as a nonprofit organization and any and all tax related items as necessary. He/she will provide committee chairs with the necessary funds to operate game days and fund raising activities as needed.
5. Cheer Director: a. The Cheer Director at his or her discretion, will be responsible for all Cheer activities including cheer clinics, cheer instruction, cheer competition and fund raising; will represent the Program in all league cheerleading activities; will serve as the advisor to the Board of Directors on all matters relating to cheerleading. He/she will assist Cheer Member-at-Large with Game Day activities; will assist with sign ups, uniform measurements and physicals; will facilitate ordering uniforms and supplies as needed, keeping a complete inventory of all cheer equipment; will handle the scheduling of cheer coaching staff and practices. 6. Athletic Director: a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. The Athletic Director Shall; Oversee the sign-up Committee Purchase and Maintain Safety Supplies Handle ALL Player paperwork including registration forms and their attachments in order to create Team Rosters. Help with arranging physical examinations as required Organize Teams in accordance with League Rules; Draft Help coordinate player certification Create sideline badges for the Chapter
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i.Be in charge of the paperwork for the Coaches 7. CCYFL Representative: (two positions) a. (He/she) they serve as the chapters area reps for Program and be responsible to maintain regular attendance at all League meetings and report back to the chapter on all matters concerning chapter and league business. b. Rep 1 (Executive Council Rep) Will be the Representative at the League meetings as well as any "Special or Emergency meetings held by the League. Then report back to the Program. c. Maintain at least 50% attendance rate in order to maintain voting rights d. Volunteer to serve on the League Executive Board if it will benefit the Program e. Represent Program in Rules and By-Law Changes f. Represent Players / Coaches with League g. Preside over weigh ins h. Work with the AD to create Certified Rosters i. All Correspondence to the League should go through the League Rep and Program President 8. Rep 2 Will attend the League meetings and in addition to; will also serve as the Program Rep to the League once a quarter. a. Be prepared to fill in for the Rep 1 when needed b. Maintain at least 50% attendance to maintain voting rights ARTICLE III MEMBERS AT LARGE Members at Large shall consist of the following Chairpersons: 1. Coaches Committee Chair: a. He/she will seek qualified coaches and present them for approval to the Board of Directors. He/she will plan and preside over coaches meetings. He/she will review the conduct of all coaches to assure adherence to the rules of Program and the League. He/she will be the liaison to all team parents. He / She shall also be responsible for the creation and maintaining of the individual Coaches Boxes.
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2. Equipment Chair: a. The Equipment Director will be responsible for the ordering, inventory, storing and distribution of all football related gear and uniforms. He/she will be responsible for the care, maintenance and ordering of training equipment. 3. Facilities Committee Chair: a. He/she will oversee all facilities usage by Program. He/she shall acquire all necessary permits needed for field usage. 4. Concession Committee Chair: a. He/she shall oversee all game day set-up, clean-up and pre game preparation of the concession stand. He/she shall be responsible for purchasing supplies for the food concession. He/she shall coordinate all game day parent concession help. 5. Game Day Committee Chair: a. He/she shall be responsible for the preparation and maintenance of the home game field. He/she shall be the liaison between the chapter and the field commissioners, referees and game announcers. He/she shall order, store and maintain all field equipment. 6. Fundraising Committee Chair: a. He/she shall be responsible for the coordination, implementation, completion and collection of funds for all fundraising activities. 7. Cheer Committee Chair: a. He/she will be responsible to maintain and oversee registration documents including, birth certificates, proof of grades, physicals and any other needed documents for proper certification of cheerleaders. He/she will be the liaison to all cheer team parents. 8. Registration/Insurance Committee Chair: a. He/she will be responsible to maintain and oversee registration documents including, birth certificates, proof of grades, physicals and any other needed documents for proper certification of players. He/she will be responsible to maintain and oversee any insurance claims submitted to the chapter or league.
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9. Web Site Administrator: a. He/she will be responsible to maintain, oversee and update the chapters web site. The President and the Vice President shall have access to ALL web functions and passwords. He/She shall be required to supply a detailed report at all Program meetings, in both word and document, about any online registration activities and fees. All web documentation, payments and accumulated fees shall be automatically directed through the chapters P.O. Box and not to an individuals place of work or residence. 10. Rules and By-Laws Administrator: a. The Administrator will have FULL knowledge of all Program and League Rules and By-Laws. In the event an immediate answer not be available or cannot be given, an answer shall be rendered within 24 hours. 11. Immediate Past President: a. Shall be for a term of 1 (one) year after the conclusion of their Presidential term and will only be as an advisory position only. b. He/she will NOT be a voting officer and will be asked only for historical input as it relates to his/her prior term or terms in office. He/she shall advise the President. He/she shall interpret Rules and Bylaws. 12. Background Committee: a. This committee shall consist of the President, Vice President and Coaches Committee Chair. Their job is to ensure all volunteers of Program get a clearance from the DOJ or similar Back Ground Check sanctioned by the League on a annual basis. Program will follow the process and time frame set up by the League. One or all of the members shall have access to the private information in order to determine whether or not a volunteer may be approved. One member shall be appointed as the contact person for League.
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ARTICLE IV MEETINGS AND VOTING 1. Nominations for the new Board Members shall follow Roberts Rules of Order and shall be taken in person at the December meeting. Anyone that is in good standing with Program and the League may put their name in or have their name places on the Ballot. Vacancies on the Board of Directors, except Immediate Past President, shall be filled by a Ballot style yes / no format vote of the Current sitting members of the Board of Directors during the December meeting. In the event that a nominee is the only candidate on the ballot for a position, the vote will still be by a simple majority of YES or NO votes. If the Votes come back with a majority of NO Votes for the single candidate, then the position will remain vacant, unless the position is one of the required positions to be filled by the end of the year. In the event that the position to remain vacant is one of the required positions, new candidates will be gathered and a special meeting will be called to vote on the new candidates. All positions are for 1 (one) fiscal year, December to January. 2. Only the Director positions are required to have a Complete Board in place for the following year. Not all "Member at Large positions are required to be in place by the first meeting of the year according to the League By-Laws. 3. Voting Positions are only the Director Positions and the Chairperson of the Members at Large Positions that are named above IN Article II Section A Numbers 1 -9 and Article III Numbers 11 - 12. Generic Member at Large positions are available only at the discretion of the Current sitting Board, however, those Generic Member at Large positions will NOT be Voting positions. A Generic "Member at Large" shall be a committee member for whatever Director or Member at Large they will be representing if approved by the board. 4. Each member of the Board of Directors, except the President shall have one (1) vote. The President of the Board of Directors' only votes in the case of a tie. 5. Meetings of the entire Board of Directors will be held monthly on the second Tuesday of each and every month. All decisions of the Board of Directors are binding on all Chapter members. All Rules and Bylaw changes require a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote to pass and all other business to be conducted by a simple majority vote.
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6. Special meetings may be called by the President of the Board of Directors as needed. 7. In case of special meetings, those concerned shall be notified no less than twelve (12) hours in advance, by e-mail telephone or in writing, as to the date, time, place and purpose. The 12-hour rule may be waived if two-thirds (2/3) of the Board of Directors requests a special meeting during a regular meeting 8. No business other than that for which the special meeting is called may be discussed. 9. A quorum shall consist of least two-thirds (2/3) of the Board of Directors. No proxies will be accepted. 10. At least one member of each Teams Coaches staff shall attend ALL Program Board meetings in order to keep all Teams informed as to what is going on within the Chapter, as well as, to keep abreast of any new Coaching or Team responsibilities or requirements 11. In order for a board member to retain their voting rights within the chapter, the member must attend a minimum of 75% of the years meetings, including 2 (two) of the 3 (three) preceding meetings prior to a board vote. 12. Any business to be discussed at Program meetings must be submitted to the President, Vice President or Secretary at least 24 hours before the board meeting, either in writing or phone call, in order to be placed on the board meeting agenda. Visitors (nonboard members) can only hold the floor at a board meeting if they have submitted their business to President, Vice President or Secretary with 24 hours notice. The board will allow 5 minutes per item for discussion, unless more time is approved by the board prior to the beginning of the meeting. 13. No Alcohol shall be purchased by the Program, or consumed by its members during any meeting of the Program. ARTICLE V PARTICIPANTS FEES 1. To be determined by the Board of Directors on an annual basis. Scholarships granted on a case by case basis. 2. No refunds will be considered after the First Game Day. Should any
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player or cheerleader be distributed a uniform and participate prior to the First Game Day, 50% of the registration fee will be refunded. 3. Players/Cheerleaders must have one of the following completed before they are allowed to participate (children of board members and/or coaches are not excluded from this rule)full payment of Program registration fees a completed scholarship application a deposit and signed payment plan/financial commitment ARTICLE VI
FINANCIAL DISBURSEMENTS 1. All payments of debts of Program so authorized by the Board of Directors shall be made on Program checks requiring two (2) signatures, with one signature of the Treasurer, and the other being that of the President or Vice President. 2. No disbursements will be made, other than approved budgeted items, for more than ONE HUNDRED ($100.00) TWO HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS ($250.00) without the Board of Directors' approval.
ARTICLE VII AWARDS 1. All players and cheerleaders will receive from their respective teams, recognition for their participation at the end of the season.
ARTICLE VIII AMENDMENTS OF BYLAWS 1. The power and authority to adopt amend or repeal any of these Bylaws rests solely with the Board of Directors of Program. 2. Procedure to amend: A recommended change to these Bylaws shall be presented in writing to the President for A first reading at a regular or special meeting of the Board of Directors; but, action on the proposed change may take place only after its "second reading." at the following regular or special meeting. An affirmative vote of two-thirds (2/3) of the Board of Directors present at said second reading" shall be
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necessary for adoption of the amendment. If no further discussion is required,(to be determined by an email or phone poll, consisting on at least a quorum of yes votes) a 2nd reading then can be an email vote instead of a special meeting being held for the 2nd reading. 3. Record of Amendment: whenever an amendment or a Bylaw is adopted, it shall be duly recorded and dated.
4. Bylaws rests solely with the CURRENT Board of Directors of SLOYFL ARTICLE IX Actions and Penalties 1. Any person affiliated with Program in any way, shape, or form that obtains a fine from an Official, or League Board, will be 100% responsible to pay the amount of the fine.
ARTICLE X
DISBANDMENT OF THE SLOYFL 1. Dissolution of Program will be by a vote of the Program Board of Directors.
2. In the event of a dissolution, the assets of Program will be distributed as follows: 3. All equipment owned by Program will be sold to the highest bidder. 4. All moneys received will be distributed to Program creditors. Any remaining moneys will be distributed to a sports related nonprofit organization within the area. 5. All appropriate agencies will be notified by letter. If circumstances dictate, the Program Board may deviate from the above guidelines by a quorum vote.
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SAMPLE YOUTH SPORTS ASSOCIATION BYLAWS Article I. NAME The name of the organization is PROGRAM YOUTH SPORTS ASSOCIATION. Article II. PURPOSE The goal of this organization is to provide youth with an opportunity to participate in organized sports under the guidance and training of responsible adults. Article III. Section 3.01 Section 3.02 Section 3.03 Section 3.04 Article IV. Section 4.01 OBJECTIVES Teach fundamental skills and knowledge of football. Develop pride through dedication to individual and team effort. Teach good sportsmanship. Ensure safety through proper training, rules and equipment. ORGANIZATION The organization shall have a Executive Board of Directors, which will consist of at least ten members. The number of Board members may be increased or decreased at any time by vote of the Executive Board but only with 2/3rds vote and will not take effect until the next election. The Executive Board of Directors will be selected through an annual election process. Members will elect members to the Executive Board of directors. Once all positions are filled, if the Board approves any additional members, they will be designated as At-Large The Executive Board shall have the following elected officers: President Vice-President Secretary Treasurer Communications Director Team Mom Director Players Agent Cheerleading Director Parent/Player Association President City Director Any member running for the office of President or Vice President must serve on the Board for at least one year before becoming eligible. The Board of Directors may fill any vacancy that arises throughout the course of the year. The Executive Directors shall, among themselves determine how best to fill the Executive Positions when a vacancy occurs; the appointment will end at the next annual election. Board members chosen between annual meetings by the sitting Board will serve until the next annual election and until their successors are duly elected and qualified or until he or she sooner dies, resigns, is removed, or becomes disqualified. All Officers and Board members serve on a voluntary basis. Limit of one member, per household, may serve on the Board in any given year.
Section 4.02 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) Section 4.03 Section 4.04
Section 4.05 Section 4.06 Section 4.07
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Article V. Section 5.01 (a)
(b) (c) (d) (e) Section 5.02 Section 5.03
(a)
(b)
Section 5.04 Section 5.05 Section 5.06 Section 5.07 Section 5.08 Section 5.09
Section 5.10
MEMBERS, MEETINGS Members are defined to be: Parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of any child registered to participate in the football programs of the organization following the annual registration day(s) supervised by the Board of Directors and who have paid annual dues. All coaches participating in the program appointed and approved by the Board Individual members in good standing whose applications for membership have been approved by the Board and who have paid annual dues. Any person sincerely interested in active participation to affect the objective of Jasper Youth Football whose application for member has been approved by the Board and who has paid annual dues. Application for membership may be denied by a quorum vote of the Board of Directors. The list of members will be updated periodically as needed. Membership may be terminated by resignation or by the action of either the Board of Directors and/or Grievance Board, by Quorum vote of those present at the duly constituted meeting. The Board of Directors and/or Grievance Board shall have the authority to discipline, eject, or suspend the membership of any member when the conduct of such person is considered detrimental to the best interest of the players and the Association. If membership is possibly being terminated, the member involved must be notified of such meeting, informed of the general nature of the charges and bylaw(s) violated, and given an opportunity to answer such charges. A minimum of forty-eight hours notice shall be given to the member involved. If the member does not attend the meeting, it will still be held. A vote will take place and membership may still be terminated. In the case of a player member, the Football Director shall give notice to the parent and/or guardian, and the head coach of the team in which he/she is a member, and the Player Agent. The Player Agent shall appear in the capacity as the advisor with the player before the Grievance Board. A minimum of forty-eight hours notice shall be given to all concerned parties. If the concerned parties do not attend the meeting, it will still be held. A vote will take place and membership may still be terminated. All meetings of the Board of Directors will occur on the third Thursday of each month at 6:30 PM at X location. The date, time and place of the meetings are to be published in the local newspaper and the Organizations web-site at least one week prior to the meeting. An agenda will be followed at every meeting. The agenda will include a Presidents list for emergency business. The President will set the agenda. Calls should be made to him at least one week prior to the meeting. The proposed agenda should be made public at least five days prior to the meeting. The agenda is always subject to change. The annual election of the Members, shall be held before December 1 of each year, unless a different date is fixed by the Board of Directors, with the membership notified at least 30 days prior to the meeting date. At the annual meeting open Board positions shall be filled by majority vote of those members in attendance. The Board of Directors has the authority to set the remainder of the agenda for the annual meeting. Bylaws should be handled by the Executive board only. A special meeting of the Members may be called at any time by the Board of Directors. Members may request a special meeting to address a particular issue or
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Section 5.11
Section 5.12
Section 5.13
issues. Requests in writing clearly outlining the reasons for the special meeting must be signed by a minimum of three (3) members. Special meetings will be announced to the general membership in writing. Announcements will include the purpose(s) for which the meeting is being held, and provide information on the date, time, and location of the meeting. Special Meeting agendas will be limited to the announced purpose(s). At any meeting of the members, a quorum shall consist of a minimum of ten members in addition to any board members or coaches present. Any meeting may be adjourned from time to time by a majority of the members present, whether or not a quorum is present. When a quorum is present at any meeting, a majority of the votes properly cast upon any question other than an election to an office shall decide the question. In elections, votes may be cast by secret ballot. In the event that a secret ballot is requested, the ballots will be counted by continuing Board members who are not up for reelection. Otherwise voting will be by show of hands. Members must be present at meetings in order to vote. Each member has only one vote. No voting by proxy shall be allowed.
Article VI. Section 6.01 Section 6.02 Section 6.03 Section 6.04 Section 6.05 Section 6.06 Section 6.07 Section 6.08 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Article VII. Section 7.01 (a) (b) President
GENERAL OPERATIONS Each member shall have one vote except the President (who will only vote to break a tied vote). A majority of the Board members must be present for a vote on any issue. A majority is defined as six members including the President. Any member who misses two consecutive meetings or three meetings in one year without prior notification will be asked to resign from the Board. The Board must approve all expenditures over $100.00. The President (or VicePresident in his absence) and the treasurer must approve all expenditures under $100.00. No reimbursements will be made without receipts and authorization from the Board. All checks will require two signatures, the Treasurer and the President (or VicePresident in his absence). The Board of Directors must approve all coaches. In addition to Executive Board Members, the Organization will have the following non-voting committees within the Parent Player Association: Equipment Committee Concession Committee Field Manager Committee Player Agent (one for each age group) Fund Raising Committee Cheerleading Committee DUTIES OF OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Must serve as a Board Member for no less than 2 years prior to being elected
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(c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) Bylaws. (i) (j) (k) (l) (m) (n) Section 7.02 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j)
Shall not serve as President more than two consecutive years but can be reelected after 1year. Is recognized as the Chief Executive Officer of the Organization. Has supervisory capacity over all the organizations activities. Presides over the Board of Directors, but only votes in case of a tie. Makes on the spot decisions, when it is in the interest of the Organization. Recommends to the Board policy or rule changes including amendments to the Recommends to the Board the leagues and events that the organization participates in. Responsible for all equipment ordering Shall set the agenda for the meeting of the Board of Directors. Hears and resolves player/parent grievances in coordination with Players Agent. Shall conduct meetings following Roberts Rules of Order Shall complete an annual budget by January 1st for the Executive board to approve. VICE-PRESIDENT Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Must serve as a Board Member for no less than 1 year prior to being elected VicePresident Shall assume the duties of the President in his absence or should the office of President become vacant. Shall oversee the actions of the President of the Parent/Player Association. Shall hear and resolve all coachs grievances as necessary after consultation with Players Agent. Shall recommend to the Board all certifications of coaches. Shall supervise Player Agent. Serve as area representative for the North Georgia Youth Football Association. Automatically moves to President. If he so chooses, he may remain in the role Vice President in which case the Board of Directors will elect the President. Shall assist the President and Treasurer with the annual budget by January 1st for the Executive board to approve. SECRETARY Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Will record the minutes at scheduled and called Board meetings. Will provide copies of minutes to each Board member at scheduled meetings. Will maintain the Organizations record of seniority. Will notify Directors of meetings. May become temporary Treasurer in the event the office becomes vacant until a new Treasurer can be appointed. Shall be responsible for all registration and equipment loan paperwork. Shall oversee the actions of the Communications Director TREASURER Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th so he/she can assist the President and Vice President with the annual budget.
Section 7.03 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) Section 7.04 (a)
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(c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i)
Will maintain the financial records for the Organization and be responsible for their accuracy. Will insure timely collection and deposits of receivable revenue. Will provide an oral financial report at all meetings and provide officers and directors with a written financial statement, which includes all transactions occurring since the previous report. Will be responsible for all of the organizations insurance needs. Whether returning or outgoing, is responsible for insuring all financial records are current and in good order no later the first scheduled meeting of the year. If the Treasurer must resign the office, all financial records pertaining to the office must be in good order and turned over to the Secretary prior to the resignation becoming effective. Resignation from office does not relieve the Treasurer from applicable liability for failure to properly carry out the duties of the Office of the Treasurer.
SPECIAL PROVISION When someone accepts the Office of Treasurer, it is with the clear understanding that he of she also accepts the responsibilities that go along with this important position. Failure to keep accurate records and requiring others to do likewise is considered negligence. In the event negligence is suspected, any member of the Board may call for a meeting of the Board of Directors and make a motion to take any or all of the following actions: 1) Conduct an internal inquiry/audit of transactions. 2) Retain a disinterested party qualified to conduct a financial audit. 3) Turn the matter over to the Georgia Department of Revenue. 4) Turn the matter over to legal counsel 5) Any other action deemed necessary by the Board. 6) Shall assist the President and Vice President with the annual budget by January 1st for the Executive board to approve.
Section 7.05 (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Section 7.06 (a) (b) Moms. (c) Section 7.07 (a) (b)
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Will maintain the Organizations web-site Responsible for communicating and publishing all future Board Meetings Responsible for communicating and publishing all Board Meetings minutes Shall communicate with Team Mom Director all necessary information. Will contact all Board Members at least 48 hours in advance of all Board Meetings TEAM MOM DIRECTOR Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Responsible for communicating and distributing all pertinent information to Team Responsible for communicating and distributing relevant dates, fund raising materials. PLAYERS AGENT Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Responsible for protecting the interest of the child.
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(c) (d) (e) Section 7.08 (a) (b)
Responsible for responding to, reviewing, and documenting in writing any complaints/occurrences brought to the Players Agent. Present all complaints/occurrences to the Board for final review. Attend and oversee the player draft to ensure the rules are followed. CHEERLEADING DIRECTOR Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Will communicate all pertinent information from the Board to the Cheerleading Organization. Will present all pertinent concerns/issues of the Cheerleading Organization to the
(c) Board. (d) Responsible for cheerleading registration, equipment, and approval of uniforms from the Cheerleading committee. Section 7.09 (a) (b) (c) PARENT/PLAYER ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT Shall be nominated and elected by members for a one-year term no later than November 30th. Shall represent the Parent/Player Association and the committees within Shall Form Player Association and sub committees to help with fundraising, concessions, equipment, fields/gates AT-LARGE Shall be nominated and elected by the Board for a one-year term no later than January Represents the interests of the general membership and conducts projects and accepts duties as assigned by the President and the Board of Directors. Conducts projects to further the goals of the organization. Serves as chair of any ad hoc committee formed to develop these projects. CITY DIRECTOR Is appointed by the City Council and Mayor for a one-year term and may contain a Member of the Park and Recreation Committee if the Chairman is not available. Serve as liaison to city for fields, lights, securing the City meeting room, hearing complaints by the public to the City and help spearhead City organized fundraisers.
Section 7.10 (a) st 1 . (b) (c) (d) Section 7.11 (a) (b)
SPECIAL PROVISIONS A. REMOVAL Any Officer or Board Member may be removed by the Board of Directors whenever, in its judgment, the best interests of the Organization will be served thereby, but such removal shall be without prejudice to the contract rights, if any of the person so removed. Election or appointment of an Officer or Director shall not of itself create contract rights, and such election or appointment shall be terminable at will. B. VACANCIES A vacancy in any office because of death, resignation, removal, disqualification or otherwise, may be filled by the Board of Directors for the unexpired portion of the term.
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C.
INDEMNITY The Organization shall indemnify its Directors and Officers against all expenses and liabilities , including fees, reasonably incurred by or imposed upon him/her in connection with any proceeding to which he/she may be made a party by reason of being or having been a Director or Officer of the Organization. FUNDS All Funds of the Organization not otherwise employed shall be deposited in the Board designated bank within 2 business days of the end of an organizational function. CERTIFICATION/INSURANCE All Board Members are required to be certified by the National Youth Sports Administrators Association (NYSAA).
D.
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Starting a Youth Football Program or Team Step-by-Step

Presented by www.winningyouthfootball.com and Dave Cisar

Learn From a Youth Coach

Author: Dave Cisar

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Starting a Youth Football Program or Team Step-by-Step

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Taken from the Pop Warner site: www.popwarner.com

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

2010 AYF Football Instructional Division

TEAM Tiny Mite

AGE as of July 31st 7 and Under

Max Stripped Weight + Uniform Allowance = Max Dressed Weight 85 + 5 = 90 lbs.

1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade

Protected Age 7 as of 12/31 Protected Age 8 as of 12/31 Protected Age 9 as of 12/31

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

2010 AYF Football National Division

AGE as of July 31st

Max Stripped Weight + Uniform Allowance = Max Dressed Weight

11 and Under, 12 Older Lighter

12 and Under, 13 Older Lighter

14 and Under, 15 Older Lighter

Pre-Game Weigh-In Must Be Conducted Prior To Each Game

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Chapter 2 Organizational Structure

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Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

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Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Sample agenda: (introductions)

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Chapter 3 Setting Your Program Apart

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Weekly Eligibility Feedback Form

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Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

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Copyright 2011 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

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