As a startup project, the Metro Youth Flag Football Association in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was already going to have a sizable dent in its finances with balls, flags and cones.
When the registration numbers easily exceeded president Mitch Rueth's expectations, the expense list was raised even higher. That's why a grant from USA Football used for balls, flags and cones came at the perfect time.
"It saved us quite a bit of money," Rueth said. "We got 100 sets of flags, and with 215 kids playing, that's a lot of money. It made a heck of a difference in my pocketbook."
An Internet search for flag football led Rueth to USAFootball.com, where he found that the national governing body for youth football was providing grants. Applications for these grants are still being accepted and must be submitted or postmarked bySept. 30.
Rueth, whose association embarked on its first season in the spring and followed it up with another season that began Sept. 6, won't celebrate his first anniversary with the group until March. Flag football, it's safe to say, is going gangbusters in Council Bluffs. The league attracted 215 kids in the spring, and 197 players are in the current fall season.
Now, the local YMCA has inquired about adding its flag players to the Metro League.
"My first season, I figured if I could get 100 kids, I would be happy," Rueth said. "I'm happier, and a lot busier than I expected to be."
Rueth founded the league in order to meet the demands of parents.
"I've been coaching flag football for eight years, and the last seven all I heard was parents saying there's got to be something better," Rueth said.
Metro provides teams to kids in four divisions: preschool and kindergarten; first and second grade; third and fourth grade; and fifth through eighth grade.
"It's about a 50-50 split between parents who want their kids to play flag or tackle," Rueth said. "Some parents think fourth or fifth grade is too young for their kids, so they flag until they get a little older."
The fall season continues through Oct. 11. Teams will often play doubleheaders and on one night during the week in order to play eight games a season. Most teams field 10 players. The registration fee is $50, and about a dozen financial scholarships have been provided each season.
Lenoir, N.C., league sees big growth
With the Gamewell Optimist Club's youth football program in just its second year, equipment costs continued to rise. A grant from USA Football softened the financial blow this season.
"We got Schutt shoulder pads and helmets, and it was a tremendous help," said Lawrence Kelley, Jr., who serves as the "football sheriff" for the league in Lenoir, N.C. "We spent every bit of $13,000 to $14,000 on equipment last year. We raised that money, and the grant surely saved us a couple of thousand dollars. This year, it's going to be around $10,000, and hopefully we can get the budget down to maybe $3,000 to $5,000 a year after that. So yeah, we were certainly thankful to USA Football."
Like their national reputation, the Optimist Club provides youth with a variety of positive experiences in athletics in Lenoir.
"We started the league to give the kids an option other than soccer in the first grade," said Kelley, a North Carolina Optimist Hall of Fame member who has been making athletics fun for kids for decades. "We never did have an organized league in Caldwell County, and now we have four different Optimist Clubs with teams. We all formed Caldwell County Youth Football."
Divisions offered are first and second grade (Peewee); third and fourth grade (JV); and fifth and sixth grade (varsity).
The Gamewell Optimists saw participation expand from 95 kids last year to 130 in 2008. The league, found at caldwellcountyyouthfootball.org, rose in ranks from 375 to 500.
Hampshire (Ill.) receives equipment assists from USA Football
The construction of a new high school left the Hampshire (Ill.) Youth Football and Cheerleading association in a lurch.
The youth teams had shared the school's football field and equipment at the old location. When the new school was built, however, all of the field equipment went to the new field.
"We're still able to use their field, but they took all the blocking dummies, the tackling spread. We had no equipment on the field," said Roger Gross, in his fifth year as president of Hampshire Youth Football and Cheerleading.
You can imagine the financial headaches that were involved in trying to secure equipment for the youth program, which saw its participants increase from 150 players last year to 185 in 2008. The grant from USA Football provided them with tackling pads from Gilman Gear: six tackling dummies, six half-rounds and six shields.
"Because we had more kids out, we ended up spending money on helmets and shoulder pads. We were strapped," Gross said. "We switched to the Schutt DNA helmets. We needed more blocking dummies. We needed more this and more that. It was one of those perfect stories. It couldn't have happened any better thanks to the grant from USA Football. It worked out perfect for us. It was probably $1,500 worth of equipment that we would not have had otherwise. Heck, we've got the coaches wearing the same shirts as last year."
Gross has seen the group grow tremendously since he joined. A park district-affiliated program when he started, the league for players in second through eighth grades had 43 kids in the program. Still an affiliate of the local park district, the growth is being felt at the highly regarded high school level. Two years ago, the freshman team had 13 players. This year the Whip-Purs (a shortened version of the school colors of white and purple) field 30 players at the freshman level.
"The high school coaches offer their time to our coaches with a clinic," Gross said. "They'll provide the coaches with the base plays, and our coaches ask them what they can do to make their lives easier when the kids reach high school."
As Gross found out, USA Football has a way of making the lives of youth football leagues easier, too.
"I was aware of USA Football, then did a Google search for football grants and it took me to the site," Gross said. "That's when I applied."
Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.