Start of youth football practice today

[Reschke]

Well today begins the last season of youth football for my oldest son. This will be his 6th season playing and his team is defending their three consecutive championships now. This one will be the toughest season yet since they start school football next year and there were about 70 kids that registered in our small town for the three 6th grade teams. Next year there will be close to 150 that turn out for 7th grade football.

[Ripsnort]

Good luck to your son in his final year.    Our "5-a-week-2 hours a night" practices started last Friday.  "Football is our life from July to November" began last month with two full contact football camps, each 5 days/nights long.

Gordon can play until 14 years old (he's 12 now).  He may play ball for the school too but I'm trying to talk him out of that. (Their practice is 2:30 to 4:00 every day)  Junior football up here is 10 times more competitivie than middle school football (7 and 8th grade), so most kids stay in Junior football until age 14.

Are you coaching this year?

We're shooting two teams for Portrait and Team pics this year in a couple of weeks, that's 550 football players and Cheerleaders!  Then Sports Action photography the rest of the year.

[Shifty]

Good luck to your son Reschke!

My son began two a days today. I'm sure this morning wasn't bad, but we're supposed to be at 103 degrees here today by 4:00 PM when the second practice starts. 

[Reschke]

Last year to coach the big boys then it starts all over again next year with my second son who turns 6 in May. Today we are supposed to be up around 100 as well and it has been raining every afternoon between 3pm and 5pm and it will still be up over 95 @ 6pm when we start but the humidity will make it seem like 100+.

[FrodeMk3]

Wow. Both of my kids' have been in full gear practice since last week, and have been in pre-season team workouts' since March, if you guys can believe that. It's been a long summer.

My oldest boy is starting his last year before High School, But my youngest still has the whole ladder to climb. It's a been a hot summer, but they all make it through with plenty of water. Good luck to everyone who's got a boy out there on the field, hope you all have great seasons'. 

[Ripsnort]

It's supposed to get hot here this week, up to 90 deg.! (From our avg of 75 deg summers)  

[FrodeMk3]

My kids' wanted to stay in Oregon when they went up to visit My Mom and Dad this summer. Right on the coast in Brookings' It was only about 80-85 at the hottest. Down here, we had over 2 weeks' over 100, and it's still about 98 and up in the afternoons.

[Ripsnort]

My kids' wanted to stay in Oregon when they went up to visit My Mom and Dad this summer. Right on the coast in Brookings' It was only about 80-85 at the hottest. Down here, we had over 2 weeks' over 100, and it's still about 98 and up in the afternoons.

Oiy.  I hate hot weather.  2 weeks over 100 is unimaginable.

[Reschke]

My oldest played Lacrosse all spring and into the summer so he is good to go physically. He didn't have his mind into it until the other day since we are playing in our biggest division @ a max weight of 130#. So with that said he was worried since all these other kids on the line with him are coming in at 120-135 and he is at 96.

[Ripsnort]

Lacrosse is an excellent "Offseason" sport, like wrestling.  What is funny is when football season starts, how many kids are out of shape from playing only baseball!
My kid thanks me every year for pushing him year around when he starts football because he's in peak condition when it starts.

This is my son's weight division below:  He is 12 and 122 lbs. (5' 3")  He'll lose those 2 lbs. before weigh-ins

10 year olds                                                  111 lbs. - 140 lbs.
11 year olds                                                  101 lbs. - 130 lbs.
12 year olds                                                  91 lbs. - 120 lbs.
13 year olds                                                  No minimum - 110 lbs.

[Ripsnort]

Incidently, this is a great offseason training program for kids at the YMCA.  It's called the "Strong Kids Strength Conditioning" program and your child must be 10 years of age.  After that, they can work out on free weights under parental supervision.

Yes, kids can lift free weights, the key is NOT HEAVY free weights since their tendons and bone plates are still developing and haven't fused together yet.

He's been lifts weights 3x a week year around except during football season for 2 years now.  This spring he had a growth spurt combined with his training, going from 109 last Dec to 122 last Friday. It's all muscle!

[Reschke]

I don't advocate heavy weight training for kids until they get into puberty and that depends on the child. Light or low weights with high reps is ok since you are working mainly on form and training them to get better. I wish I knew what I teach these kids now when I was going through youth football.

BTW this team is down to 21 players all from last seasons squad; but numbers are up over all the other teams and in our league.

[Ripsnort]

Well, here is an update from this end: G-man made first string Offense (Left Guard) after 2 full contact practices.  I'm pretty sure it had to do with taking the defensive tackle and driving him into the linebacker on a couple of 5 vs 4 drills.

Unfortunately, he had to move up to another team because of his weight and age, and the team he moved up to had returning RB's and Fullbacks. This happened to him last year as well, but he blocks so well (fullback by nature) that they have started him on the line the last two years.

This week they'll pick the defense. Linebacker is his "natural" position and I have no doubt he'll make first string D.

This team started with 45 players, we're down to 41 now.

How's things going for your guys at this point?

[Reschke]

We started with 21 and we will go into the season with 21 pending injuries and any kids that move in from other areas. We started putting the offense in today and we are going with what has kept us in shape the last few years...the flexbone (same as AF Academy) only we are tossing in all kinds of play action out of it now to get the QB outside the tackles. We will face off against several 5-3 defenses that will try to blitz us every play to throw our pass protection schemes off and to mix up the zone style blocking for running plays. Too bad we have our complete o-line back from the last 4 seasons and these kids will call the other teams defensive alignment and make a check call at the line for the QB to audible to another play. It's good to have smart kids that think quick and can block.

My son is back at starting left tackle again and we returned everyone from last season 3 peat championship team that was a contributor and put in the long hours and came back improved from the off season. He is also going to be one of our rotation of 6 defensive linemen that we will bring in every 2 plays. We are running a 3-4 base defense and will mix it up into a 3-3-5 setup depending on what the opposing teams are going to do. Down here a lot of teams start implementing the high school offenses at this 11-12 y/o age group since they go into middle school ball at 7th grade and the head coaches for the high schools mandate the same offense from then on. We will start facing several spread offenses this coming season and only one pro style offense that will try to run the I on us. For that team we will go to a 6 man front and blitz/stunt/twist them till they can't see straight.

[Ripsnort]

Thanks for the update!  The only thing I've seen so far from this new coach of ours (who has coached this Rough Rider weight group for 28 years) is that he runs a 4-4 defense.