Youth Football Startup

I found the National Alliance For Youth Sports site. The address is: http://www.nays.org

I just received their packet, and it appears worth exploring.

A book I would suggest is: Good Sports - Making Sports a Positive Experience for Everyone, By: Bob Thomas (former ND and Chicago Bears kicker who is now a Illinois Judge) and Gregg Lewis.

You must be careful when recruiting coaches. A shortage in this area will be your constant problem. When you must accept some parent volunteer at the last minute, they are almost always a gung-ho, winning is everything, adult male, who is trying to live out his frustrated sports career through his child. Our league awards banquet is this Wednesday, and my search has already begun.

This year, I want to take applications. If this NAYS thing pans out, then I intend to REQUIRE all coches be certified. (It appears the league "sponsor" - probably me and you - are the ones who conduct the certification clinics.) I like to hang around the T-Ball and Little League diamonds to observe the coaches there. (This is tough on me because I despise baseball almost as much as soccer!) If a guy is a jerk baseball coach, then I know I won't even consider him for my league.

You willneed to determine how you will select players. Will you go by age or grade? Will the league have flag football for the younger kids, and tackle for the older ones. or will you go with all tackle and a couple of age/grade divisions. Will you have weight limits for ball carriers? How many players will be allowed on each team? Will you have a mandatory play rule, what will it be, and how will it be monitored and enforced?

As you can see, you quickly become enmeshed in issues that must be addressed in your league rules. Which is your next big assignment to complete. I am willing to send you a copy of ours (which I completely rewrote last winter) if you would like.

As you mentioned in your posting, fund raising is a must. You are about to enter the most advantageous time to purchase equipment. You can easily save 30% to 50% off the in-season prices if you buy over the winter. A good catalog is at: www.allsportsamerica.com , however I prefer to buy locally if I can. And I am sure there are many more such sites out there. (I am not a salesman, this info is just what I have found over the past couple of years.)

Well, your probably sick of me by now, so I'll quit. Good Luck.