The preparation for each of Chatham County’s football games on Friday nights takes time.
It takes the week leading up to the game, the months leading up to the season, and for some athletes, it takes the years of playing on Saturdays before taking the field as a freshman.
But for a growing county with over 80,000 residents and just four prep football programs, what do the years before high school look like?
This series of articles will explore the youth football landscape in Chatham County, taking a look at its accessibility, the value to the community, stories of the past and the pressing issues surrounding the sport.
Chatham County has been the home of many gifted athletes across numerous sports past and present, and throughout the county’s history, the football field has been one of the driving mediums of that talent.
And as things have changed over time on Friday nights, football has also changed on the youth level.
Here’s an introduction to what the youth level looks like now.
The options
This past season, like many before it, youth football in Chatham County was split between the East and the West.
The East Chatham Chargers, based in Pittsboro, completed another season in the East Wake Football League with a 5-6 year old flag football team and 8U (7-8 years old), 10 (9-10 years old), 12U (11-12 years old), and 14U (13-14 years old) tackle football teams.
On the west side of the county, former Siler City Parks and Recreation director Donald Dones and a group of others introduced the Siler City Youth Football League after a year without youth football provided by Siler City Parks and Recreation. The SCYFL played in the Central Carolina Youth Athletic League and offered tackle football teams for the following age groups: 6U, 8U, 10U, 12U and 14U.
Both organizations provide equipment for the players as part of the registration fee. SCYFL set its registration fee at $125 this past season. For ECC, the price to play (excluding cheerleading) can range from $100 to $200 depending on the age and competition level, and the organization also offers a limited number of scholarships to kids who may need help covering the cost.
With SCYFL just starting up this season, the organization opened its registration to anyone.
“Anybody that signs up,” Dones said. “If they want to come from Charlotte and come to practice every day, that’s fine.”
However, the process for getting on a team with ECC may require extra steps and attention due to the high demand over the years.
ECC President Chasidy Parker said the organization “hates to turn any kids away,” but space is limited, especially due to limited resources.
As a result, the first game of the year isn’t always in September because often times, competition starts on registration day. Registration always opens on May 1 for the roughly 28 roster spots on the 7-8 year old team and the 36 spots on the other squads, and players don’t have long to sign up.
“The past three or four years, we’ve had a waiting list,” Alan Fairey, coach of the 12U East Chatham team, said. “Very soon after sign ups the teams fill up. It’s definitely been a highly sought after program for people to compete in.”
Said Bri Fuller, an ECC parent, “I had my alarm set for like 4 a.m. so that you can just jump on and register in the bed that morning.”
For the kids who don’t initially make a team, not all hope is lost, though. Parker said the number of players in the waitlist can go from about 12 at the beginning of the summer to five by the start of the season.
“Kids dwindle,” Parker said. “They move, they break a bone over the summer, they change their mind, they make their dream soccer team or whatever. So, we do have cancellations like in May, June and July, and we’re able to add kids until our rosters are submitted for the season.”
The missing link
After talking with the county’s high school football coaches, especially those on the western part of the county, one will find a common dilemma — coaching kids who are playing football for the first time or kids who haven’t played in a while.
As stated earlier, ECC and SCYFL both offer youth football teams for middle school-aged kids (11-14), so there’s not exactly a lack of opportunity for the age group. Yet, with the lack of success on the football field on Friday nights largely due to inexperience, the connection between the teams offered by the youth football leagues and the high schools isn’t always there.
Although the reason for the disconnection isn’t certain, Dones and Parker have found in their respective organizations that things change in the one to three years leading up to high school.
“It varies for us,” Parker said. “This year and last year, our 14U team numbers are lower than normal. We have anywhere from I would say 15 to 18 athletes. We have had years prior where that team has had upwards of 28 plus.”
Said Parker, “I’m not 100% certain the disconnect from East Chatham to high school. I don’t know if kids get interested in baseball or lacrosse or something different, and they focus on that. I know my boys are all three sport athletes, but some parents kind of direct their kids to choose one. I don’t know how much that plays into it as well because we do see all these kids come through East Chatham and then you go to the high school, and you’re like, ‘Where’s so and so? Why isn’t he playing football?’ And then you hear, ‘Oh, he decided to just focus on basketball or he decided just to focus on baseball.’”
For Dones, he also sees changes in kids’ interests once they get to middle school, whether those interests are different sports or different avenues of life, whether they’re positive or negative.
Basketball and diamond sports have more options to play outside of county leagues as travel teams are a popular option, and that could possibly be a reason why kids may choose to focus on those sports leading up to high school. However, football for middle school-aged kids in the county is limited to what’s already been stated.
Looking at the schools themselves, baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, volleyball and cheerleading are also offered by Chatham County’s middle schools as an extracurricular sports while football is not.
Chatham County is one of the few in North Carolina where that’s the case, and over the years the issue has been a topic of discussion and a pressing matter for some.
As it’s a major point of concern around the county regarding youth football, this series will further explore the main players in the push for middle school football and why the county hasn’t been able to offer it.
