Most of these answers apply to the FCCJC program. Blue Valley has similar answers, but some variation - if you expect to be a Blue Valley Football club member, double check each of these questions with your coach.
When does tackle football start and end?
Tackle football begins on the last Monday in July. For 2011 that will be July 25th. The seasons end around the end of October, or occasionally into the first or second week of November.
How much does tackle football cost?
It varies. You could spend as little as $50 to as much as $370 for the season.
- The FCCJC league fee is $165 for each player. You are given 165 raffle tickets that you can sell for $1 each to pay your fee. So the league fee can vary from free to $165, depending on whether or not you choose to try to sell your raffle tickets.
- The FCCJC equipment rental fee is $60. You can provide your own equipment, but if 6th grade will be your first year playing, we strongly advise using the rental equipment. Families under financial hardship can apply for an equipment scholarship from the league.
- You will be responsible for purchasing football cleats, football pants, and socks. Typically you would spend $20 to $57, depending on how much of the previous year's equipment you are able to re-use.
- You will be responsible for purchasing both a home jersey and a practice jersey. Returning players may re-use last year's jerseys, so that cost can vary from free to $92.
- There are various other team costs that are offset by sponsorship funds that we recruit. We have stickers for the helmets, lights for our field in October, some equipment, play-books, etc. Sponsors have paid for those items entirely in the past, and rebates have been extended to players from $4 to $30 per player that helped offset some of the above costs.
When and where are practices?
The schedule is robust for the first three weeks, with practices each night, Monday through Friday. Once the first full week of school begins it settles down to three nights per week, typically Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 8, and Fridays from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. In some years our third night of practice has been on Thursday nights, rather than Fridays. Some coordination occurs every year due to the large number of youth teams using the Olathe Northwest High School practice fields (located College Boulevard and Lone Elm), so the nights and times can vary and have a few changes throughout the season as necessary.
When do we sign up? When do we pay?
Sign up Saturdays for the FCCJC program begin in May. There is quite a bit of information here on our league web site about sign up procedures and items necessary to bring.
My son has never played tackle football before. Is that a problem? Will he be behind?
The best thing about having so many players and so many kids in our program is that we have an opportunity for your son to be placed on teams that play at his level, even if he is brand new. He will make visible gains in ability throughout his first year. On game days, he will fit right in. On practice days, he will get to compete with and against both players of similar experience, and players with many years of experience. We believe this is immensely important to catch newer players up, and get kids up to their highest capability as fast as possible.
Because we have a program - not just a couple of teams doing their own thing - every player, whether brand new or a fifth-year veteran, gets similar benefits. Every player will receive the very best coaching that we can offer; the same practice equipment; the same jerseys and uniforms; the same sponsors; the same terminology; and will even run many of the same plays and defenses.
Will he get to play? What position will he play?
Because we have such a large program, we scale our teams to be the right size. With 15 to 19 players, we maximize the number of plays available per player. (By contrast, other FCCJC teams can have as many as 31 players!) Your son will absolutely get to play. In fact, for the 1,684 player-halves that we've coached since 2008, every single healthy player has exceeded the minimum number of plays required.
Each head coach in our program does things slightly differently, but it is not unusual to see four types of players on any given team:
Because we have a program - not just a couple of teams doing their own thing - every player, whether brand new or a fifth-year veteran, gets similar benefits. Every player will receive the very best coaching that we can offer; the same practice equipment; the same jerseys and uniforms; the same sponsors; the same terminology; and will even run many of the same plays and defenses.
Will he get to play? What position will he play?
Because we have such a large program, we scale our teams to be the right size. With 15 to 19 players, we maximize the number of plays available per player. (By contrast, other FCCJC teams can have as many as 31 players!) Your son will absolutely get to play. In fact, for the 1,684 player-halves that we've coached since 2008, every single healthy player has exceeded the minimum number of plays required.
Each head coach in our program does things slightly differently, but it is not unusual to see four types of players on any given team:
- Two-way players, that play nearly every snap
- Primarily defensive players, that are backup players on offense
- Primarily offensive players, that are backup players on defense
- Shared role players, that split time with another shared role player on both offense and defense
The coaches will determine what positions your son plays. Some heavier players are prohibited by league weight rules from playing certain offensive backfield positions, but they can play on the offensive line, and any defensive position.
Your son is encouraged to ask if he may try to play a position that he wants to play, and if we believe that both he and the team can be successful with him in that role, we will certainly give that a try.
What specific equipment should we get?
See this post from a couple of years ago. Some links in it are broken, but it should answer your questions. The only out of date advice regards the practice jersey - we do have a team-specific practice jersey that serves also as a conflict jersey for league games. You will get information about getting the practice jersey at or before the first practice in the summer.
What should I do if I have other questions?
You can contact Coach Jim Adam, or any of our coaches.
