Team Selections

How are football teams selected at LFYF

Pre-draft

No player applicants are turned away as long as we have enough jerseys and equipment. We take all kids, regardless of school district or ability to pay. Minimum team size is 15-16 players. We try to have as small a team as possible in order to maximize playing time. We will try for two teams of 15 rather than one team of 30, assuming we have an appropriate number of coaches.

The head coaches are selected based on past experience, parent comments, survey results, first aid / CPR certification, background check, written application comments, board approval, input / recommendation from the football director, and participation in clinics. We prefer that a head coach has previous assistant coach experience at the youth level, but that does not happen all the time.

The Head coach can pre-select 2 assistant coaches. Those kids are on that team. This limits the amount of stacking a team can do prior to the draft. Head coaches can’t pick 5 assistants from the get-go and coincidentally snag the 5 best players.

Assistant coaches must also submit a written application, pass a background check, and be board approved.

A third assistant coach can be added to the team, but can only be added during the player draft.

Other Pre-selection conditions must be identified.. The following conditions can exist…cheer, siblings, duplicate jersey numbers, parent issues, and special considerations

q Cheer teams have been selected prior to the football teams, so if there are any cheer siblings, the football player will automatically be assigned to the appropriate corresponding team if they are in the same division.

q Siblings are matched according to team color when possible.

q Our kids can keep their jerseys and numbers during their entire playing career. Thus, if we have an overlap in a division, a team is discouraged from picking two players with the same number. If it happens, the coach is responsible for resolving the issue (new jersery, exchanging jersey, etc).

q If there is a parent issue to consider, it is noted next to the players name during the draft so a coach will know if they should avoid a particular player as a result.

Player Evaluation

During the conditioning week, the kids are divided into groups, alphabetically. The number of head coaches we will have determines the number of groups. For example, three teams…three groups.

Each head coach will get one full day of conditioning with each group. The groups will rotate from one head coach to the next, each day. This allows head coaches to evaluate each kid according to their OWN criteria and they are not dependant on someone else’s opinion. One team may pick based on character, another might go after speed, another might like size. They can also draft based on need…For example, if they don’t have any speed in their early picks, they can try to grab a quick kid later.

Teams are not drafted until every coach has had a chance to condition with every group.

The Draft

The draft is done in private, with no kids present, to make sure no feelings are hurt. Johnny doesn’t need to know if he was drafted first or last. It is done in accordance with the MMRFL recommended method, which attempts to balance teams bases on age and experience

Teams are then announced at the first practice immediately after the draft.

Our program is using the league recommended method for team selection.

1) All players within an age weight division shall be classified into category of players based upon age and categorized based upon status as level of returning players (See Below). May need to combine categories to make 4 workable number of groups with 4 or more players in each group:

A) 1st year player B) Returning Freshman

1) Returning JV D) Returning Varsity

Examples: 9 year old 1^{st year player is 9A, 9 yr old returning freshman
is 9B, and an 11 year old returning varsity player is 11d.}

2) PREDRAFT Head and Assistant Coaches are assigned to team up to maximum of 4 players in predraft stage

3) STAGE 1 Draft - FC or Team Representative will then draft players from appropriate category to equalize number of players in each category as best as possible across all teams until each team has 7 players (equalizing categories by rank). Start with coach of team with least number of “pre-drafted'' players and working up in subsequent rounds with teams having same number of players until each team has 7 players. (Coach going last in previous round goes first in next round).

4) STAGE 2 Draft - Once all teams have 7 players, remaining players are drafted by age/category grouping. Start with oldest age category and going from highest category backwards until all players in each category are drafted. Then move to next lower category until all players are assigned. This draft may be done by lottery, Team Representative draft picks, or other random method. (Coach going last in previous round goes first in next round).

5) lf you have siblings on the same team then when first sibling is drafted the sibling is assigned to the same team. All other teams will draft another player from same category as the second sibling before moving to next round.

6) Area Board or Field Commissioner may elect to conduct special draft round prior to Stage 1 Draft to assign siblings to matching teams in separate divisions for purposes of pairing up teams across divisions for travel purposes or to assign a player to avoid existing potential personal conflicts between parents and coach's.

7) Any players joining after draft completed will be assigned to team by FC based upon team with least number of players, and then bv lowest team average age if equal number slaters.

Category Classification and ranking: Highest to lowest (Combining of categories may be needed to reduce number of categories depending on number of players - using combinations shown in Parenthesis)

Freshman 9B – 9A – 8B – 8A (7 year olds classified as 8's)

Junior Varsity 11C - (11B + 10B/10C) - 10/11A - (9/8B + 9/8A)

Varsity (11/12/13D + l2/13c) - (10/11C + 9/10B) - (12/13A + 11A) - 8/9/10A.

** Other classifications are possible and would be placed in groups based upon best tit based upon number players.

Note: Initial Team Draft to be completed by Thursday prior to first practice.