Learn More About 2011
Hornets Football & Cheerleading
UPDATED JULY 19, 2010
The Williamsburg Hornets have completed registration for new football players and cheerleaders for the 2010 season. If you are interested in learning more about the Hornets registration process for 2011.
There's a lot of information here. In my 10-years with the Hornets, I've listened to the questions and concerns that first time parents have and I've tried to honestly include some information about every question that's ever come my way.
My main goal is to give you all the information that I can, without sugar-coating anything, or making it harder than it seems, so that you can make an informed decision about playing football or cheering for the WYFCL in the 2011 season.
After you read through this, if you have any other questions, or discover an unturned stone, feel free to email me (Coach Scott) at SDVinson@aol.com, and I'll do my best to answer your question.
FOOTBALL IN WILLIAMSBURG: 2010 marks the WYFCL’s 13th year in the organized, highly competitive Peninsula Youth Football & Cheerleading Association (PYFA) … a football consortium of 14 Peninsula area teams.
In 2009, the WYFCL fielded 7 competitive football teams and 6 cheerleading squads featuring over 200 boys & girls in the Green & Gold. The WYFCL is comprised of 2 different squads … a GREEN SQUAD and a GOLD SQUAD … we fielded 2 teams at the 6- & 7-year old Mites level, 2 teams at the 8- & 9-year old Mighty Mites level, 2 teams at the 10- & 11-year old Midgets Level and one Juniors team for 12- to 14-year olds.
In the last 3-years the WYFCL has grown from 4-teams to 6-teams to 7-teams, and it is quite possible that we will be adding an 8th team in 2010. This has all been done to better serve our community and give more and more kids the opportunity to play football, and participate in cheerleading.
This is exciting because as our community has grown in the last few years, football interest has soared, and in addition to the WYFCL’s growth, other area leagues such as the James-City Jaguars, Tri-River Titans, and Tri Citi Hurricanes have been able to form and thrive as well.
THE PYFA: The 50-year old Peninsula Youth Football League is made up of 14 associations from the region including: Gloucester-Red, Gloucester-White, Hampton, Yorktown, Williamsburg Green, Williamsburg Gold, Poqouson, Back River, Tidewater, Grafton-Tabb, James City Silver, York-Seaford, Tri-River and Tri-Citi. It’s a travel league and parents and kids from every association really “get into it”. If you’ve never been told about football from a die-hard, or experienced a game first hand, think of a miniature version of a College game. As a parent, you are likely to leave the field more exhausted than your child from cheering for 1 ½ hours straight.
LEVELS: For Players, all ages shown below are as of late July.
MITES – 6- and 7-year olds (no weight restrictions)
MIGHTY MITES – 8- and 9-year olds (9-year olds under 115-lbs, or they move to Midgets)
MIDGETS – 10- and 11-year olds (11-year olds under under 135-lbs, or they move to Juniors)
JUNIORS – 12-, 13- and 14-year olds (13- and 14-year olds under 155-lbs)
If you have a player at one level and a cheerleader sibling close in age at another level, we try our best to accommodate the situation so that you are only at one game at a time.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: we try to keep the ages of the cheer squads equivalent to the team they are cheering for, but we also try to maximize family together time by placing siblings together, or close together, so that cheerleader and football player siblings are on the same team, or at least only one level removed.
COMPETITIVE LEAGUE: The PYFA is a competitive league, teams play hard. Teams put their best players on the field. And teams play to win. There are playoff games, and a championship game at season's end at each level.
If you have been involved in area youth sports (ie: t-ball, soccer, basketball) where everyone plays the same amount of time regardless, and showing up to practice or not has no bearing on anything ... this may be your first experience, and your child’s first experience, with competitive athletics.
What this means at the WYFCL, is that we all have fun, we all learn football, and try to put your child in a position where they’ll learn football and be successful at their position. But it is taken more seriously than a recreational league program, records count and most teams strive to make the playoffs.
This system has allowed us to build and train kids at all levels. And even though your child might not be ready to be the star today, as a Hornet, they will learn how to do thing the right way so that as they mature, they will be ready at future levels. Many kids who played back-up and reserve roles as Hornets when they were younger players, now start on their Middle School and High School teams today. At the WYFCL, we serve as a teaching and training ground for all the area Middle & High Schools football programs, and have for over a decade.
Having coached at the Middle School level as well, I have seen the difference between former Hornet players and those that have not played before when they come to Middle School to attempt to earn a roster spot. Because of budgetary constraints, at the Middle and High School levels, there are often only enough uniforms for 3-dozen or so players, and coaches are forced to make cuts during a brief 3-day try-out period, to get their roster to an acceptable level for equipment hand-outs. 3-days is not a very long time to have to assess a kid's abilities, acumen, and knowledge of a sport before you have to give "notices" but that's how it's done. Hornets football helps give kids some of the background they need to stand out at those try-outs.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: we can say the same for former Hornet cheerleaders. The sidelines and hafltime shows of area Middle School and High School games are fully populated with former Hornet Cheerleaders. It's a great way to learn the sport young, and develop an enthusiam that carries on through all levels of school years. Plus, cheerleaders at all levels must go through a try-out period as well to earn a roster spot, and background knowledge, and experience helps to put former Hornets in a good position.
PLAYING TIME: What all that boils down to is that there is NO guaranteed playing time other than the PYFA mandated 1 play per game rule. Nor is there any guarantee that your child will see in-game-time at a specific position that you may feel he was “born” to play. That being said, bluntly, all WYFCL coaches make every effort to work all kids into games more than the PYFA rule, but there will be occasions where your child only gets in for the minimum. So, regardless of what level your child plays at, from Mites to Juniors, this is an issue that you should be cognizant of early on. If this is a rule you may struggle with, change usually takes place from within. The best course is to join a league, take a board position and lobby for change.
Now, for my 2-cents ... having coached for 10-years and been a part of "4-play per half leagues" and "1-play per game leagues" something that I've learned is “don’t confuse playing time with learning football” … I say this with all due respect, but football is a sport that no matter where you play, will require 8-hours of practice a week for a game that is has about 20-minutes of actual playing time. The real learning and work for football has always taken place on the practice field. And Hornets coaches make sure that kids at practice learn football!
NUMBER OF KIDS ON TEAM: In order to teach as many kids about football as we possibly can, the WYFCL generally aims for 26- to 32-man rosters at each level. This creates rosters that are, as a rule, a bit larger than most other PYFA association rosters at any level. And while this may actually restrict game playing time in the short term, in the long term it allows more kids to play football, and learn about football and this improves football in the Williamsburg area as a whole. Over the years, it has become evident that we can serve 26 to 32 kids per team in a logistically sound manner.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: we strive to build squads of 8 to 14 cheerleaders with 2 coaches per team.
SUCCESS: While the size of team, and playing time issues may sound different from what you’ve seen in other sports, we believe that a good gauge of success is “how many kids continue to play football the following year”, and by “how many kids (and their parents) say that they had a good year of football”. Kids and families do move on, but overall, the WYFCL has one of the highest retention rates of kids from one year to the next of any league. Finally, just like any kid will tell you, as long as they're having fun, they're happy. On the other end, everyone’s ability rises on teams that practice hard and play hard.
18-POINT RULE: To help compensate for some of these situations (team-size, and playing-time), the PYFA has a “blow-out” rule. If one team leads the other by 18 points or more entering the 3rd quarter the leading team must pull the majority of their starters; if the 18-point margin continues into the 4th quarter, both teams must pull the majority of their starters and continue the game with reserves. Whether your team is on the leading or trailing side, one way or the other, there are usually several games a year where this rule is put to practice, and everyone plays a ton.
LEARNING FOOTBALL / FINDING A POSITION: Football is about fundamentals: blocking, tackling, running, learning to hit, and learning to be hit. If you want to teach your future player something that will be useful for all levels of football … teach them to get in a good stance, stay low and block. Passing and Receiving Passes is about 1% of football at the lower levels, and 5% at the higher levels ... blocking and tackling are the keys.
Every kid, every day, will block and tackle during drills in practice. These drills help Coaches gauge ability and improvement and think about positions where kids will best suit the team, and how to best utilize each child's individual aptitude.
However, when it comes time to finding a spot where your child will play in a game, there is only 1 ball on the field at a time, and there are limited number of running backs and linebackers on the field. Coaches work via drills to find a position that best suits your child’s current temperament, ability and desire, and the player will work to improve himself at that position throughout the year, with occasional efforts into other spots. This is learning a difficult sport one stage / one position at a time. It’s simple, and pushes learning through repetition.
Learning football is also about following directions, being a good team mate, and setting a good example for others in sportsmanship, and in life.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: it's all about practice, and repetition as well. Cheer squads will work within their own squads, and with the larger group of all Hornet Cheerleaders to project spirit, comradery and friendship.
PLAYER PROMISE: Coaches remind their kids throughout the season of what’s expected of them: (1) respect for coaches, parents, team mates, (2) maintaining a high level of academics, and (3) trying their best, never giving up, 100% hustle … every coach does this in their own way.
AT PRACTICE: Early in the practice season, kids are usually broken into groups by age, weight, history of playing. Then, gradually by “hitting” ability. Coaches try to make sure that all players are doing something the entire 2-hours of practice by structuring and planning their practices. It sounds like a long practice, but when you throw in 15-minutes of warm-up, 3 (5-minute) water breaks, 10-minutes of conditioning at the end, and a few minutes of downtime while coaches re-organize the kids between drills … it goes very quickly.
It’s important that the kids attend practices, listen and do what the coaches ask them to do as quickly as possible. Every kid needs to be always ready to step up when called by a coach. Just like in a game situation, when your name is called, be ready, because it’s your time to shine.
At football practices and at football games, generally there is “hollering”. Coaches are not ruthless, but if you played football or have been around football, you know that there is some degree of “hollering” involved in getting things done. In football terms, I believe the definition of “hollering” is … a motivational method used to impress a sense of urgency and passion upon the players.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: oh, there's hollering there as well, but it's all Cheer S-P-I-R-I-T hollering.
INJURIES: We are all faced with the challenges of keeping our kids safe and healthy in competitive sports. Anyone who coaches knows that bumps and bruises occur. This happens in football. The possibility of injury exists. However the possibility of tripping over a Hotwheels car in your living room, and falling headlong through your dining room table also exists.
For new players this will be the first time they will have another kid coming full speed at them, it’s scary, and there will be hard hits. Parents will cringe right along with their favorite player on these hits. And on occasion, even the toughest, and biggest kid will get up teary eyed, holding an arm.
As coaches, we work to recognize the difference between serious injury, and a “boo-boo” or “bump”. More often than not, the “injury” is a bump. So we lift the player up, tell them to rub it off, tell them they're tough, that they did a good job, and by that time, the bump has subsided, so we put them back in for their next rep. And they do it.
At the MITE and MIGHTY MITE levels the degree of injuries in the last 4-years, thankfully has been minimal. And, without taking this topic too lightly, and to help assuage parental fears, I will note that last year one injury occurred on the playground after practice when a kid fell off a slide and busted open his chin, and another occurred after practice when a boy tripped in a hole and fell walking back to his car, my own son's only injury that caused him to miss his 1st practice in 4-years of football ... 50-games, 220+ practices ... occurred last year when he dislocated his shoulder catching a pass … in the morning ... before school ... at the bus stop ... when he stumbled and fell ... on a book bag ... that was laying in the road.
At the higher, more physical levels, MIDGETS & JUNIORS, full speed contact does involve risk.
COACHES: It takes a dedicated coaching staff to make sure that 32 kids are kept busy and organized at practice. Our goal is to field 8 coaches (4:1 ratio) on each team, at each level to get this done. Head coaches were selected via applications, and interviews conducted by the WYFCL Board in mid-March. Assistant coaches will be selected by the head coach through applications collected and named shortly thereafter if they are returning to a staff, or after applications are collected for newer staffs, and then approved by the WYFCL Board.
All coaches that step on the game or practice field, are required to be NYSCA (National Youth Sports Coaches Association) certified, must pass a course on youth sports coaching, and are subject to a criminal background check. Many teams already have an experienced staff of 8-coaches from year’s past, however, coaches on newer teams, the youngest (MITES) and oldest (JUNIORS) are usually in need of assistants.
Only coaches are allowed on the practice field and beyond the “rope” during games. However you will see parents from time to time holding blocking pads or serving as a “shepherd” during practice.
As a parent, when you watch practice, digest what is being taught. Then, talk to your player during water breaks. Don’t try to guide or coach your son throughout practice while the coaches are running drills, or scrimmages. Give your player the “thumbs up” when they’re in line looking over at you for support. But if you’re calling out instruction while the coach is running a drill, your player will spend more time looking at you, and not listening to what the coach is teaching. Also, if at all possible, “listen to what the coach is telling your player to do” and mimic those words and actions … repetition.
VOLUNTEER TIME: Parents of players and cheerleaders will sign up for 2 1-hour volunteer concession stand duty shifts and to be game snack bearer. Teams also need a TEAM MOM to help orchestrate activities, etc. And during home games a volunteer crew works the sideline chain gang, and announce table as well as field prep, set up and take down.
NEW PLAYER & NEW CHEERLEADER REGISTRATION PROCESS: For the 2011 Season, the application process for "1st time" players / cheerleaders will take place in early April. Please visit us at www.WilliamsburgHornets.com for updates.
For ALL NEW cheerleaders, please include a copy of your child’s birth certificate to attach to your registration form.
For 2011, opening are tighter for players at the two middle football levels. Depending on the number of returners (who are given the first right of refusal to retain their roster spots), at MIGHTY MITES and at MIDGETS level there may only be a hand full of openings total. For MITES & JUNIORS levels, there are usually more than enough roster spots to accommodate all applicants.
The reason that there are fewer roster spots on these middle levels is because of retention of players within the league … once kids come on board, they generally stay with the league and populate the middle level rosters to capacity at 32-players.
The good news is that there are other local teams, that weren’t in the area 6-years ago, and they do provide options for getting on with another nearby area league.
COSTS: Sign-Up costs for the 2010 season were $150 for your 1st football player or cheerleader and $135 for siblings. Included in the cost for players are: personalized game jersey that you get to keep after the season (valuable in itself), and equipment that you will be issued and then return at the end of the season such as: Helmet (all helmet pads), mouthpiece, chinstrap, shoulder pads, game pants / socks, pant pads, hip pads. Cheerleaders are outfitted with their game uniforms as well.
EQUIPMENT NOT COVERED BY SIGN-UP COSTS: Parents will have to provide cleats (NOT screw-in or metal), practice jerseys (@$10), practice pants (@$10), replacement mouthpieces, or variance chinstraps. If equipment is lost, parents will have to cover that cost. If equipment is broken, or damaged as a result of football (not because the dog chewed on it) the league replaces it.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: we will provide cheer outfit, and pom-poms (both of which should be returned at the end of the season). Cheerleaders will receive a warm-up suit that they are allowed to keep.
EQUIPMENT HAND OUT: Equipment hand outs are generally conducted on 2 Saturdays in July prior to the start of practice. It’s always a good idea to get equipment on the earliest date, so your child has a few weeks to get used to wearing the equipment around the house, the backyard, and on bike rides.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: equipment hand out takes place closer to the start of the season after practice starts.
PRACTICES SCHEDULE: In 2009, there were 46 regular season practices. Teams that made the Playoffs and Super Bowl added another 3- to 6-practices. In 2010, the MIGHTY MITES squad that I coached had attendance of 95% … 27 of 31 kids made it to 43 or more practices. It was a grueling year, but at the end of the season, every boy (and most parents) wished there was a way to make it go on. Why? Because it’s fun, and they love being part of the team with their friends. The 31 Mighty Mites who started the season, EVERY ONE made it through with no one dropping out.
PRACTICES STARTS: practice usually starts in early August. It goes 4-nights a week from 6p – 8p, Mon-Tue-Wed-Thur until school starts in September. From September thru the last regular season game in early November practice is 3-nights a week from 5:30p - 7:30p. The WYFCL will practice at a local facility that will be named shortly.
FOR CHEERLEADERS: practice starts a week after Football practice begins, and prior to school starting cheer practice runs from 6p - 7:30p 4-nights a week. When school starts cheer practice drops to 2-nights a week from 5:30p - 7p.
VACATIONS: We work around planned vacations and emergencies. We know that happens. However, if possible and you know in advance that you’re going to sign up to play football, try to plan vacations in June and early-July. Especially on new teams, missing those first few weeks of practice when coaches are trying to assess skill levels, look at who can block, tackle and hit makes it very difficult to learn exactly what your child’s about if they’re at the beach … and every day of practice that’s missed early on (when they’re all pretty much the same level) put the missing kids behind.
GAMES: Games start with a scrimmage in mid-August. From then, starting in late August, for the next 10-weeks, the WYFCL teams play 10 regular season games in a row. Kick Off times start with the MITES at 9:30am go through a 2:00pm JUNIORS kick-off. The WYFCL plays its home games at a local Williamsburg site.
Winning teams that make the playoffs, and the Super Bowl add another 1- to 2-weeks to the season.
MORE INFO: Here are a few websites that you can look through for more information:
This is the current PYFA Website: http://www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=pyfa
The WYFCL League Website: http://www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=wyfcl
Our 2010 Mighty Mites Website: www.williamsburghornets.com