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CTYFL vs. NCFL State Championship Game Both leagues have agreed to have a 2007 State Championship Game between the "A", "B" & "C" level teams. The 1st Annual State Championship game is to be held on Saturday, November 24th @ Rocky Hill High School, times to be announced. This game has been in the works for the past 4 years and due to a concerted effort by both leagues, it has become a reality!!!
Welcome the New Hartford Wolverines to the CTYFL Voted in at the June 2007 meeting is the New Hartford Wolverines. The towns that comprise the New Hartford Wolverines are: Barkhamsted, Colebrook, Hartland, New Hartford, Winsted & Norfolk. Starting the first youth football and cheerleading organization based in those towns they have held registrations already and are well on their way to fielding all 4 levels of play in their first year. If you live in these towns and would like to sign up, please check their website under the teams section.
Welcome the Glastonbury Tomahawks back to the CTYFL Voted back into the league in June 2007 after a (1) year hiatus, the CTYFL would like to welcome Glastonbury back into our organization. Glastonbury is one of the remaining charter members of our league and offer highly competitive teams at all levels.
While still in the early stages there is a good possibility there will be a Championship game between the NCFL and the CTYFL. These games will be at the A, B, and C level and may take place on Thanksgiving weekend. With 21 towns between these 2 leagues this should really be a great chance to take the leagues to the State level just as the High Schools do. Check back for progress reports on this.
New age guidelines set for 2006 season. Calendar Year Change for the CTYFL (ECFC)
This year the towns voted to change the age eligibility for the teams from the Aug 1st “age as of” date to an “age as of” Dec. 31st date. This change was made for several reasons and I’ll try and outline those here:
Grade Level Alignment ---
One major change that the shift to calendar year brings is that the ages will now follow the same criteria used by schools in CT for grade placement. While all States have different age cutoffs for a child entering school, ranging from June1st to Jan 1st the State of CT uses the Jan 1st cutoff date. Any child may attend Kindergarten if he or she has turned the age of 5 as of Dec 31st of that school year. So children could start school in Sept. as a 4 year old and turn 5 before the end of the year. With the date as of Aug 1st, as has been the custom in the past, we were in effect dividing the children of a grade onto different teams. With the Calendar year change most players in a grade level will now play with their friends in the same grade.
National Organizations such as Pop Warner still use the Aug 1st cut off, but they need to make standards out of the whole country in order that the few teams that go to Regional or National competitions are able to play under the same rules. Changing to a calendar year aligns our grade levels in CT but it would not in other States where the Grade level placement may be different, such changes would be met with objections and may never be made. Being a CT organization we need only make rules for our towns and therefore can do a better job of tailoring our rules to our kids and environment. The following web page has the school eligibility requirements for most of the US. http://mb2.ecs.org/reports/Report.aspx?id=32
Following the CT guidelines for ages for grades, here are the age/grade equivalents:
Kindergarten – 5 yrs old as of Dec. 31st 1st Grade – 6 yrs old 2nd Grade – 7 yrs old 3rd Grade – 8 yrs old 4th Grade – 9 yrs old 5th Grade – 10 yrs old 6th Grade – 11 yrs old 7th Grade – 12 yrs old 8th Grade – 13 yrs old Freshmen – 14 yrs old
Adding more eligibility to A Team -----
A quick scan of the practice field in Aug will most likely show that the A team has the least number of players. Most teams struggle for players at that level and every year towns petition the League to draw players from other towns in order to field A teams at all. (in 2006 both South Windsor and Middletown had to apply to go outside their town borders for A Team players) The reason A Teams struggle with low number of players is directly related to the player pool that A team has to draw from. While on paper the player pool is 13 and 14 yr olds (a full 2 yrs worth), in actuality most of the 14 yr olds are Freshmen and with the addition of Freshmen football programs throughout the State, half of the A team player pool is in High School. Also working against the A team pool is the 8th grader whose birthday is between Aug 1st and Dec 31st who is able to play on the B team and will never play A level, they will skip from B to Freshmen ball. So when you come down to it A teams are lacking players because they in effect have a 7 month player pool to draw the kids from in comparison to all our other teams which have a full 2 years. As of the 2006 season the League has also voted to not allow Freshmen to participate at the youth level so the need to add more player pool at the A level is more important than ever if we expect to field A teams. The rotation of the “as of date” to Dec 31st now adds 5 months of player pool to the A team and basically forms an 8th grade team at that level with a full year of player pool to draw from. While this is still not the 2 years that the other teams have it will also have players who may be 14 during the year but may have started school late or were held back at some point. The expectation is that A teams may not be as large as B teams but no town should have to go outside it’s borders for players and all players will now touch on the A level as they progress through the program.
Below is a graph showing the team pool comparisons from last year to 2006
The addition of the 5 months of player pool to A team comes at the expense of the MM team who now have only a 19 month player pool. This will definitely reduce the number of players at this level but may allow a better ratio of coaches to players at a level where attention spans are a little short.
Effects all Teams Equally---
These rules effect all teams in the League equally so while your child may have been planning on a 2nd year at the B level and is now on the A level, or a second year of C and is now on B, etc. remember every town that you will play has done the same thing. The groupings of the teams will be much closer to the grade you child is in. Also remember, at the A team there will no longer be freshmen playing in the League and that should level the playing field a little at that level.
Welcome the Durham/Middlefield Falcons to the CTYFL Voted in at the Feb. 2006 meeting is the new Durham/Middlefield Falcons. Starting the first youth football and cheerleading organization based in those towns they have held registrations already and are well on their way to fielding all 4 levels of play in their first year. If you live in these towns and would like to sign up, please check their website under the teams section.
High School football players will not be allowed to play at the youth level Cheerleaders will still be eligible to participate even if they are enrolled in High School. Football players will no longer be eligible to play at the youth level if they are enrolled in High School. We encourage all High School football players to play for their Freshmen teams.
Eastern Connecticut Football Conference changes it's name to Connecticut Youth Football League As only a couple teams in the ECFC are actually from the Eastern part of the State we thought it time to change the name to more reflect the area that the league is from. The Connecticut Youth Football League now known as the CTYFL will maintain the same high standards as the ECFC.
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