Creating A New League

It won't be easy but if you have the dedication, this is what worked
for us (a little long). What I'm providing below is how we accomplished
it. The ideas are passed along to hopefully help but they should
probably be tailored to fit your own unique situation. The most
important thing to remember is that the success of our program has
been due to being dedicated and being at the right place, at the right
time, with the right people.

We took the good from other programs and tried to avoid
the bad things we had seen from other programs. Nothing we did was
original but duplicated from others. We also knew there would be those
who would try and stop us from succeeding for various reasons so we
had to always counter the naysayers. Much like you, we started a
little more than a year before our first scheduled practice.

ORGANIZATION
We had decided to treat our program as a corporation with a four-tier
organization. The first tier was the Board of Trustees, which consisted
of people who understood athletics. The Board's responsibility was to
hold annual interviews for the second tier of the Executive Board of
President, Vice-President of Administration and Vice-President of
Business. The third tiers have no voting rights but are in charge of the
budget, equipment, clinics and the selection of coaches.

We choose this way of management to avoid popularity contest and to
protect us, who had started the program. It's up to the trustees to
assure they are selecting the right person based on their history and
potential. We understand that people have different talents and
personalities but it's very important that everyone understands the
established goals of the organization.

PHILOSOPHY
We wanted to develop a foundation and philosophy that could stand
the test of time. Besides the following, we felt all the coaches had to
be marketing recruiters for players, potential coaches and for volunteers.
We stress this all the time and we go over how we present ourselves
to the public. The following is our foundation that we came up with
and is what we strive to achieve:

FUNDAMENTALS - Winning is what the team strives to achieve but
learning the fundamentals is more important. Every child who
practices plays.

RESPONSIBILITY - Playing football or cheerleading is not a right but a
privilege and with that come responsibilities.

SPORTSMANSHIP - Excitement and enthusiasm is encouraged but trash
talking and bad behavior will not be permitted from our Players, Parents
or Coaches.

ACADEMICS - The Players will receive homework every night from
their Teachers. Players will need to start their homework as soon as
they get home from school. Players will always be excused from
practice for academic reasons or if they need additional time to study.

GAINING SUPPORT
Before we ever advertised the program, we felt we needed the support
of a lot of different groups, which meant we spoke to a number of
programs with our goals, philosophy and plans, in order we went to the
following:

The Community - We received a written letter from the local
neighborhood association supporting our proposed program. We also
received a written letter from the local church when we said children
would be excused from practice if they had a weekly CCD. One of the
local programs would not excuse players from practice for their once a
week religious class and this caused a big problem. We never went to
the civic groups but we probably should have.

The Local Schools - Since we were proposing a team sport, we would
not be giving out MVPs but we would make the honor roll as our
Academic MVP Awards. With this we received written support from our
local PTA.

Local Politicians - If it doesn't cost them money, I don't know a
politician yet who will turn down his/her support for a non-profit youth
program.

Other Programs - We traveled to the different football boards and
presented our proposal promising not to recruit any of their players.
We also went to different sport programs such as the baseball little
league and soccer for their suggestions. We received some very good
ideas for fundraisers and the some of the other football programs
offered any extra equipment that they had.

This took us a couple of months. Once we had our written support,
we sent a letter (with copies of the written support) to the league
requesting admission into the program with a copy to the local
politicians. The league with a vote of 4-1 accepted us but our real
work was just beginning.

NATIONAL AFFILIATION / INSURANCE
Since our league and program is an independent, we felt it was
important to be affiliated with a national association. To help bring a
sense of accreditation we became members to the national American
Youth Football, Inc program. This afforded us a forum for assistance
but more importantly, it provided us an opportunity for access to liability
and medical insurance for our players, coaches and board members.

We looked for any national associations such as NYSCA that we could
be associated with to help build our resume. We even had the American
Red Cross offer a special First Aide certified course for all of our
volunteers.

NON-PROFIT STATUS / INCORPORATION/ BY-LAWS
The following forms are not that hard to fill out. Don't go to a lawyer
unless you can get one for free. You'll need:
- Articles of Incorporation
- Articles are to be certified
- Request a Certificate of Good Standing
- A certificate or letter stating that you are a member of the league and if you belong to any other associations.
- By-laws
- A 3 year financial plan that details estimated income (registration / fund raisers / donations) and expenses (equipment / insurance / fees)

Proper forms:
- IRS Tax Forms phone (800) 829-3676
-- Pub 557 Tax Exempt Status for your Organization
-- Form 1023 for 501(c)(3) status
-- Form 8718 User fee (a one time fee of $465)
- Your State Dept. of Assessments & Taxation for Incorporation info

Process:
(1) Submit Articles of Incorporation to your state
(2) Submit accepted articles, a letter stating that you are part of the league and a properly filled form 1023 to the IRS for the Determination letter.
(3) Submit Determination letter, articles and By-laws for tax exempt certificate

INTIAL ADVERTISEMENT & MEETING
We met with a reporter who was kind enough to write an article on our
plans to start a new program. Afterwards we had a weekly announcment
in the paper and on the local T.V. cable announcing our monthly
organizational meeting. This was free advertising.

Also check with either a church or local school to hold your meetings
because they're free locations. Be consistent in holding your meetings
like the first Wed of the month.

Remember, everyone is a marketing recruiter and everything should be
stated in a positive tone!

Once we have players registered, we send out a bi-weekly newsletter
throughout the season to the parents informing them of what is
happening.

GETTING COACHES AND GAINING SUPPORT FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL
Finding coaches who are dedicated is not easy so we felt we were going
to have to teach our fathers to become volunteer coaches. We also
wanted the support of the local high school coaches. Our school runs
the wing-t so all of our weight division teams use the same numbering
system and plays.

Each month we set up a free clinic with the local high school
assistant coaches. Each month is a different theme such as defense,
scouting, warm-ups, etc. This has also helped in developing support
from the local high school and has improved our coaches.

For cheer, we contacted the local college and their cheerleaders came
down to put on a basic clinic for our mothers who had become coaches.
We also started a junior coaches group of high school cheerleaders
who helped as part of their community service program.

In August, we ask the high school coaches to come by our practice to
talk with the players. At the end of the season, we arrange for the
high school coach to come talk with our 8th grade players and their
parents about off-season conditioning.

The high school offers our players a youth night where they can come
to the high school game for free if they wear their jersey and come with
an adult.

EQUIPMENT
This is the area that could break you. Stay basic! Stay simple! No
one expects you to look like the NFL your first couple of seasons. Our
helmets are plain, jerseys are one color, practice pants are our game
pants. For cheer, we ordered skirts and the girls bought their polo
tops.

Find a dealer that deals with team sports and doesn't want payment
within 30 days of delivery if possible. Try and negotiate a payment
plan due by the end of the season. Almost everything can be ordered
by the end of June so ask for a set in each size of shoulder pads,
jersey, helmets and pants for sizing during your registration. This
avoids buying extra equipment that you won't use.

We had set up discounts at local shoe stores for our players and
cheerleaders.

Booster T-Shirts and jackets is always a guessing game. We wanted
to be simple yet something everyone wanted. Our colors are royal blue
and orange. The orange sticks out and we buy one style shirt for
football and one for cheer, which changes every year

ADVERTISEMENT FOR REGISTRATION
We use a combination of efforts. Flyers in the schools;
announcements in the local paper and cable system; community
newsletters; church bulletins; signs posted at every major
intersections; and posters at gas stations, gymnasiums, grocery
stores.

We start 2 weeks before registration begins.

REGISTRATION & FUND RAISERS
This really depends on your area. For us, if a Parent brings in a $500
sponsor, their children's registration fee is free. Other than that, it's
$60 per child. We figure in our first year we needed to raise $130 per
child to break even of our expenses.

Unfortunately, not everyone did their fundraisers so now (since our
second season) we have made fundraisers mandatory where each
child must bring in $40 plus their $60 registration fee. The remainder
is raised through concessions, boosters and donations. We have a
number of events that we don't call fundraisers but they are such as
movie night, steak night or our homecoming dance. Our fundraiser are
for raffle prizes that are donated by local businesses. The homecoming
court draws the tickets during our homecoming games.

We hold a pre-registration at the end of the season to help carry us
financially during the off-season.

SPIRIT
Another difficult area to develop. We always talk about "We" and
never about "I". At the beginning of practice we hold group warm-ups
that everyone does together from age 7 to age 14. This helps develops
a sense of one program and shows all the coaches the established
warm-ups.

Before games, every player and cheerleader is to be on the field
forming a tunnel for the next game to cheer the team onto the field.

The older players help develop your reputation, the younger players
are your future and the cheerleaders are your financial base. This is
why we try and discourage turning players or cheerleaders away. The
norm in our county was to have 15 cheerleaders and 23 players per
team…we have 36 cheerleaders and 35 players per team. A large
number helps develop a sense of belonging to a great program and helps
provide more volunteers and more finances to help establish your
program.

RULES & PLAYING TIME
Our rules and standards for playing time is the same for everyone
regardless of age or weight division. Due to the large number of
participates; the majority of players will rotate.

AWARDS
Establish the awards before the season begins. For us, All athletes
receive a 12" participate trophy. If the team wins a championship,
each player receives a slightly bigger 16" trophy.

Academic certificates are awarded to honor roll athletes and a plaque
is provided to athletes who are aging out of our program

WINNING
All of the above suggestions are a start but it still comes down to
winning. If the staff works hard, scouts, teaches fundamentals, is
disciplined, treats the players fairly and evaluates themselves each
season as to how to improve…..the winning will fall in place.

GOOD LUCK!