Tri-County Football

4Horsemen · Joined: 29 Sep 2003 Posts: 4

I heard recently that there was arguing and bickering at a recent tri-county meeting in regards to ages and weights, play-down players, this player is eligible, that one isn't. etc. I can’t help but laugh in regards to this. If they would fix the problem the right way you wouldn’t have to worry about it.
Here's hoping that one day, the so-called experts that make the rules finally wise up, and the old-school philosophy and rules finally take a dirt nap.
Once and for all the rules should simply be, to allow these boys to play with their own age group, Period!!!! Their weight should not be an issue. As long as a child is playing with his own age group, even if he is overweight, (for instance if the weight at the beginning of the year is 120lbs as it is for the jr. midget division. ) If the required weight is 120 lbs and the young man weighs 125 or 128. It is a joke to force him to move up to play with older kids. This is in fact creating a safety issue not avoiding one!!!!! When that young man is forced to move up to a higher division to play with older kids, he is not mentally elevated to that level, thus creating the safety issue.
Many instances, these heavier kids are not great athletes, and thus are lowered to the level of a participant of practices or become blocking dummies and get totally disinterested in the sport and then quit. I thought the whole idea of the league was to promote interest and enhance skills in football!!!!! For those special circumstances where a young man is simply very large, and also a good athlete, you can solve that problem by doing this.........Same scenario as above. You have the Jr. Midget level; you could bring back your striper rule and simply say, all 120-125 pounders can play at the specialty positions. If you are over that weight you play on the line. Regardless if your 2, 3, or even 4 lbs overweight or whatever your specific weight might be you play on the line. A kid could be 130 lbs and he still plays on the line as long as you are of the same age.
I can prove this would work, for year after year we are hypocrites for we allow our boys to play against heavier kids in this little thing called the Pilgrim Bowl where more often than not, not just playing against kids that are heavier than them, but many times older. In the Pilgrim Bowl teams come from all different areas of the United States and even come from Canada to play us and the big majority of them don’t even have weight rules. I know, for my nephew came from the West Coast and his little league is by age only. They are structured under the philosophy that you play with your own age group. Another nephew of mine plays hockey ,which is also a contact sport and they don’t have weight rules. The boys that were separated for so-called safety issues during football cause one was heavier even though they are the same age, well those same two played on the same hockey team together!! What a joke. I can just see them now in their hockey uniforms getting on the scales, maybe even with their skates on!!! Makes one want to cry doesn’t it?!?!?
In closing, I would just like to say that we need to finally bring Tri-County football out of the Stone Age and modernize the ages and weights once and for all. I know we made changes last year, but it wasn’t enough. We are far behind the curve. Just look at the teams that come here to play us during the Pilgrim Bowl, teams from Chicago etc, that are thriving and they have no weight rule similar to ours, and besides.........FOOTBALL LINEMEN ARE MEANT TO BE BIG!! If we do this, and then we will truly help prepare them for high school football as well, for in high school the whole idea is to get as big as you can or would like. We seem to be hindering them due to our telling them to stay small!!.....lose weight if you want to play with your own age group!!!! If we don’t make changes, then I guess we can look forward to many fine years of small linemen, (which we helped to create) in our local football programs. Or is that the reason why I see so many kids that were linemen in T

4Horsemen · Joined: 29 Sep 2003 Posts: 4

(continued) Or is that the reason why I see so many kids that were linemen in Tri-County playing other positions because they are too small to play on the line when they get to high school. Hmmm, makes one think doesn’t it?? LETS FIX IT ONCE AND FOR ALL GUYS!!!!!!!

BULLSMOM · Joined: 11 Nov 2003 Posts: 2 Location: Belleville

I definately agree with you. When I went to sign my son up for Football withTri-County three years ago when he was only 5 and weighed 86 lbs I had to get him to LOOSE weight to play football (11 lbs!!) Imagine loosing weight to play a sport that emphasizes on weight size!! Do you know how hard it was to loose 11 lbs in 4 1/2 weeks for a 5 year old. We did and he played football. He did not get to see much play action because he was 5 but he did learn a little about football. The next year because of his weight again - he had to move up with the 8-9-10 (JR PEE WEE) year old division and he was only 6 yrs old. Now this year with the new weight and age divisions he had to move up once again and play with the 9-10 (PEE WEE) division and he was only 7yrs old. Next year if he does not keep his weight under 100 lbs he can not play football because the League will not let you bump up 2 whole divisions. So next year I will probably have to starve my son again just so that he can play his favorite sport. This does not sound appropriate - I agree that the mentallity level is just not as good as someone who has been playing 3-4 years longer than my son and is on the same team - which means my son gets less playing time during games because of what he knows and doesn't know. Also I think having 35 kids on a team is way out of line also - How can you possibly play each kid in a game 8 plays (League Rules) - that is almost 70 plays per quarter. It is impossible. I think that the Tri-County League needs to look at what they are doing and do some re-organizing myself. Let the kids play football - who cares how much they weigh - Isn't the GOAL to teach them the values and techniques of football and prepare them for High School?

coach_jon · Joined: 06 Nov 2003 Posts: 2 Location: Red Bud

Our organization voted against the rule changes this year but lost. I, on the other hand liked the changes because it gave my son a chance to play positions other than guard/tackle. One thing I saw happen this year that i didn't care for was the heavier kids having to play up. Our PeeWee team had a 98 lb. 7yr. old on it. He took a beating from the 9, 10 & 11yr. olds. We tried our best to spoon feed him but we couldn't keep him out of harm's way all of the time. Let the kid play with kids his age.

All in all things went pretty well for us. We did run up against some teams that had very atheletic 11 year olds that played down. Next year the shoe will be on the other foot though. We'll be stacked w/11's!

Don't mess with the rules too much....please.

chase39 · Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 3 Location: Troy

I understand how people think we are in the stone age with our ages and weights. I belong to an organization that fought hard for new weights. I have been to the ages and wieghts meetings. You should here the BS in there. It is the younger / heavier kid that they are worried about. I have expressed that speed is what will hurt kids, not how big they are. A couple of organizations got together and tried to propose that you play with your own age group until you finish with the pee wee level. They shot that down real fast. They had given each organization sheets of kids weights by ages based on the insurance rosters. they said the kids playing are not that big. I asked what about the kids whose parents will not let them play with kids that are 3 or more years older. They have no answer for that. The fact remains the parents need to express their voices at their organizational meetings and make them make the changes there. Become a tri-county rep and lets make it better for the kids.
in the tykes level their was unlimted wieght for the kids. over 65 you were stryped and had to play the line. we did face a 95 pound kid from highland, and I can honestly say no one on our team got hurt. even when he fell on our kids.

Coach Howard · Joined: 06 Sep 2003 Posts: 3

I am a coach in this league and I have been for the past 5 years and this thing has been changing every year because so of the powers that be would like to think that they can put together special team to compete. Some organizations just don't have the kids to compete with other programs. I am from Cahokia and we have been accused of everything from making our kids do extreme things at practice to recruiting kids from other programs. We all need to stand together and get this weight issue changed. These are the things that we as coaches and parents need to do.
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In everyday life we live the way that we want to be treated so just think about that everyday that you deal with a child and thier parent because I'm sure that they want the same thing.