Still time to sign up for Pop Warner, cheer
A number of new leagues as well as older players’ desires to play high school ball have teamed bring numbers for the North Fort Myers Pop Warner football and cheer programs.
The good news is, there is still time to sign up.
On Thursday, more than 130 kids were taking part in a football camp to help them prepare for the upcoming season.
The In the Zone football camp has been in operation for 12 years and has helped kids of all skill levels learn to play the game through drills and fundamentals and prepare them for the upcoming Pop Warner and high school seasons that begins in early August.
The camp usually also does cheer, but with the lack of volunteers and girls, there is not a cheer camp this year.
In the Zone is a non-profit organization that is not associated with Pop Warner football.
Pop Wanrer signups also slow a slow start for the upcoming season.
With less than two weeks before the start of practice, numbers appear to be sharply lower for Pop Warner, according to Ron Kelly, president of In the Zone and Midget coach.
“The combination of new leagues popping up, parents wanting to try new sports with their kids, it’s a lot of different things,” Kelly said. “The Youth Football league has three teams in Fort Myers, one in Cape Coral, and kids are going to bleed into that.”
That has also impacted the Peace River Conference as Cypress Lake has joined the Youth Football League and Suncoast in Brandon has moved to a Pop Warner conference in Tampa.
Kelly said North should field a full six teams this season for football and cheer. Midgets look the lightest with a minimum 16 kids on the squad as many of them have chosen to play in high school.
Kelly said he wishes more kids who can play midgets stayed there instead of going to high school and risk sitting on the bench. In fact, the camp will sponsor high school players in the north zone who choose to play Pop Warner.
“Many of the kids who leave this program usually go on to varsity. I’m trying to keep that momentum. However, the high schools want their numbers, too,” Kelly said. “You don’t need to carry 60 players on a team that you know you can’t get them all in a game. It’s the high school hype and I understand that.”
Ron’s wife, Cricket, runs the cheer division and said the numbers there are also low. She said there are only about 70 signed up as opposed to 100 last year. She expects 15 to 20 to sign up before the season starts
“We’re taking the time to work with our coaches this summer. We will field all six levels, but we’ll be in the small to medium category,” Cricket said.
Kelly said many girls have moved to soccer while others have moved to high school, which isn’t a bad thing.
“We’ve taught them so well they made the high school team instead of coming here another year,” she said. “We like they did so well, but we miss them.”
Last year was a banner year for cheer despite small numbers. The Junior Pee-Wees brought home North’s first ever national championship. The Pee-Wees placed fifth in the nation, with the Midgets sixth.
It’s not too late to sign up. Applications will be accepted up until Aug. 1. The cost for both football and cheer is $285 and is all-inclusive with the registration fee, travel package, non-refundable jersey/cheer shoe fee and volunteer fee which is refundable.
To learn more go to their website at www.nfmjfa.com.