Pop Warner begins work for season
Aug, 1 may seem like Christmas to the powers that be for any Pop Warner football organization.
It’s actually more like Christmas Eve – a hectic, 11th hour crunch.
Parents are turning in their missing paperwork and annual fees to administrators. Volunteers are in the equipment room fitting the kids for helmets, and coaches are trying to work the players as hard and quickly as possible before getting them in pads in preparation for the Jamboree in two weeks.
Welcome to the world of North Fort Myers Pop Warner football.
Despite the rush, everyone seemed thrilled that the season is finally upon them, even if the numbers are a little low.
Chuck Hardwick, president of the association, said the league got its traditional last-minute sign-ups to bring their football program up to close to 140 players. Still, that continues a downward trend that has hit the program in recent years.
“We had about 20 more people sign up between cheer and football. Over the past five years we’ve seen numbers drop 10 to 15 percent yearly,” Hardwick said. “There’s so much going on now. There’s year-round baseball, soccer, competitive cheer. There are more options now.”
The organization will still field a full six teams, though depth might be an issue for some of them.The players got together for a rare Saturday morning practice on a cloudy, muggy day. The good news was that there was none of the lightning that brought things to a halt so often last year.
This gave coaches the opportunity to condition their players, who have to practice without pads for 10 hours before being allowed to put them on and begin contact.
Assuming no lightning delays or cancellations, this put the teams on pace to begin contact on Aug. 7, just one week before the five-team Jamboree in Cape Coral against Cape Jr., Cape Youth, Port Charlotte and Charlotte.
“I used to stress out over it, but we’ve developed a system. We know we’ll be working against the weather, but we’ll be ready for Jamboree,” Junior Midget coach Chris Reeves said.
Following the Jamboree, North will get a bye week before starting play on Aug. 29 when it travels to North Port. The extra week has its pros and cons.
“I see it as a disadvantage because the team we play will have the first game under their belt. They have more time in real-game situations,” Hardwick. “They’ve been able to fix and adjust things.”
“It’s a great advantage. We get to scout who we play and see what they do rather than go into it blind,” Reeves said. “We’ll do the fundamentals and add to the playbook.”
North plays in the nine-team Division 2 this season, which for the Peace River Conference will be the top division. The other nine teams (those who haven’t been as successful) will play in Division 3.
“The conference as a whole looked at the region and we positioned ourselves for the stage after conference to give us more of a competitive edge in the playoffs,” Hardwick said. “Typically, the Miami area teams have been our nemesis.”
The conference has shrunk in size with Suncoast of Brandon moving to another conference in Tampa and Cypress Lake from South Fort Myers moving to an entirely new league.