Pop Warner

[RashanGary]

My son is 7. He decided to play Pop Warner this year. Here are a few observations about youth football in Green Bay. Keep in mind, we haven't even had a practice yet, but just initial impressions. . . .



These guys seem to be very serious about football.We've had baseball and soccer so far, so I'll compare those 2 to football.


Baseball/soccer - two 1-hour practices per week preseason, 2 1-hour games per week in season

Football - three 2.5-hour practices per week preseason, two 2-hour practices per week and 1 football game per week

Baseball/soccer - No strategy, everyone plays every position, rules twisted and simplified

Football - Just got playbook. pro right 34 blast, split left 35 blast, pro right 32 Y out Z fly, etc. . . . You get the point. . . We have three formations with dozens of runs that could be run out of each formation (maybe we would focus on just a few when the season starts, I don't know, but anyone who's seen a playbook, you can have a lot of run combinations out of just three formations). We have Pro (it's really an I formation), split and offset formations.



It's sort of bizarre how intense youth football is in Green Bay. I was shocked to see how difficult this offensive playbook was to pick up. It's kind of fun, but man, it's a little more serious than I thought it would be at the age 7-8 level.

[swede]

Green Bay area HS teams kick our ass most of the time in football.

But it's not the playbooks that beat us.

Bayport, Notre Dame, DePere, Ashwaubenon and most of the other schools simply bring a fierceness that we haven't matched for five or six years.


Our school has 300 junior and senior boys. Only about 35 of them will go out for the team, and some of those will end up quitting because the coach yelled at them or because the "don't play anyway", or because they have to run and do up-downs.

When we scrimmage Arrowhead they bring 2 buses and 90 kids. Fifty of those kids will never see the field, but they still want to be part of a winning tradition.

Good luck with the Pop Warner season. You might want to split a six pack of root beer with your kid, watch Friday Night Lights and 300 with him, and start pounding into his noggin that the body of a warrior is nothing without a fierce heart to lead it into battle.

[Iron Mike]

You might want to split a six pack of root beer with your kid, watch Friday Night Lights and 300 with him, and start pounding into his noggin that the body of a warrior is nothing without a fierce heart to lead it into battle.

Make sure you get the good stuff, though.

http://www.lukecole.com/Root%20Beer/baumeister.jpg

[GrnBay007]

My son was 7 when he started Pop Warner. When he got to Jr. High you could definitely tell the kids that played Pop Warner. They were waaay ahead of the others. Looking forward to his freshman year now. :)

[Scott Campbell]

He decided to play Pop Warner this year.


Just curious, but how long did he take to make his decision?

[Tony Oday]

I cant WAIT for Mason to play football! 3 more years :) That does seem like a heafty playbook...eek. I remember our Middle School playbook. Diver right/left, sweep left/right, crossbuck left/right. and route tree passing for I would imagine 7 total passes all season :)

[RashanGary]

I just talked to the coach. I guess they're only going to run 10 plays. The way that email read from the assistant coach, it sounded like they wanted the kids to really pick up the concepts, not just a few plays.