Anyone see anything wrong with this whole idea? Someone else trying to make money off youth sports and compounding the over specialization problem in youth sports.


Why not let these kids do some other sport instead of football?





Copyright 2010 The Washington Post
All Rights Reserved

The Washington Post


May 4, 2010 Tuesday
Met 2 Edition


SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. D01

DISTRIBUTION: Maryland

HEADLINE: Youth football encounters growing pains;
Obstacles hinder efforts to give middle-schoolers chance to train in offseason

BYLINE: Josh Barr


Baseball, basketball and other youth sports have become virtually year-round endeavors, with offseason club teams for nearly every age level. Youth football, though, has remained relegated to the fall, largely because of the sheer number of participants required, the costs of equipment and the necessary coaching preparation.

A current effort to fill that void has been slow to get off the ground, held back by the traditional obstacles as well as skepticism over the motives of the organizers.

Mike Anderson's plan seemed simple enough. High school football players spend their summers in skill camps that charge enrollment fees in exchange for exposure. Anderson would provide similar opportunities for middle-schoolers with a regional all-star football league in the spring and summer. He would enlist youth league coaches to publicize and run eight tryout combines, capped at 500 participants each (with an entry fee of $100 per athlete). The best 33 players at each combine would make that region's "team," which would then be guided by high school coaches from top teams.

Throw in concessions, sponsorship opportunities, a network of personal trainers and a possible cable television deal, and the Grassroots Youth Football League seemed like a potentially feasible -- and profitable -- operation.

"Every other sport goes year round, so why not football?" said Rick Peacock, the junior varsity coach at DeMatha and also president of the Anne Arundel County Youth Football Organization.

Anderson has learned first-hand many of the reasons why not.

"We've been running into a lot of road blocks," said Anderson, a 42-year-old former University of Maryland standout who had worked for sports agents, including Len Elmore, and an accountant who for five years ran his own personal services company for athletes.

The biggest hurdle has been getting coaches -- at all levels, from all programs -- to support the fledgling league, which plans to begin play on May 29.

Public high school coaches saw it as another opportunity for private schools to poach their players; Anderson and fellow league executive J.B. Brown are DeMatha graduates. Private school coaches worried about losing their soon-to-be freshmen to other private schools. Anderson eventually decided against allowing private school coaches to participate.

Then, instead of youth league commissioners and coaches boasting about how many players they might supply to a GYFL team, as Anderson had hoped, there was more concern about rival leagues stealing players.

Negotiations with the Real Hip Hop Network to televise the games suddenly dried up. Though Anderson has had many conversations, securing sponsorships has proven challenging.

"It's something brand new and everybody is going to put up walls and it's up to Mike how much he wants to work and bring those walls down," said Peacock, who also is the southeast regional manager for USA Football.

Getting the players out has also been difficult. The league's first combines, at St. Stephen's/St. Agnes for the Fairfax team and at St. John's for the Washington team, were held over Easter weekend; just 25 players showed up to try out for the two teams.

A few days before the Southern Maryland combine scheduled at North Point High in Waldorf, Anderson said he was told the league would not be allowed to use the facility. Anderson subsequently held that combine along with the Prince George's combine at McNamara in Forestville. It remains unclear where the Southern Maryland team will practice or play.

Turnout was significantly lower than hoped, prompting Anderson to scale two-day combines back to one-day $50 minicamps. Still, just 11 players showed up on a recent Saturday at Spalding High in Severn for the Anne Arundel/Howard minicamp.

As a result, Anderson eliminated the Anne Arundel/Howard team and made data from the players who attended that combine available to other teams. At one point, the planned Montgomery County team also was going to be eliminated but that team was resurrected to go along with teams in Baltimore, Fairfax, Prince George's, Southern Maryland, Washington and Loudoun.

"I thought we'd have to cut the lines down and shut it off," said Anderson, who in 2002 ran afoul of the NCAA for giving money to former West Virginia basketball player Jonathan Hargett and his mother, and for providing small benefits to former Maryland basketball player Travis Garrison. "To be honest, I'm still 100 percent confident that will happen [in the future]. The problem is getting the word out to all of them."

Those who have attended the combines seem to have enjoyed the experience. Detailed notes are taken and electronically measured times have been recorded and posted on the Internet.

At the Prince George's/Southern Maryland combine last month, a few high school assistant coaches milled about, sporting shirts and/or hats bearing the name of their school, wanting to make an impression just in case they discovered a gem. When a slender 13-year-old in shiny blue basketball shorts sprinted down the green artificial turf, folks took notice.

"That's under five" seconds, said McNamara football coach Bryce Bevill, sitting in a chair near the starting line. "You knew that was good in the first three steps."

As the timekeeper reported Booker T. Napoleon's time -- 4.84 seconds, the fastest of the day so far -- Brown walked over to talk with the youth. Napoleon, who later said he was nervous to perform, had arrived late after playing in a basketball game that required overtime; his mother plans to move from Temple Hills to Waldorf before the fall so that her son can attend Westlake High as a freshman this fall.

Other parents also liked the idea of having a measuring stick for their son's athletic ability.

"If [my son Dorian] has talent as identified by the powers that be, it's an opportunity to put yourself in their environment and be measured against some of the better athletes in the area," said Wayne Maddox of Bowie. "You see how you stack up."

Although the participants seemed pleased, there are other potential concerns about the league. Some parents and high school coaches don't want their incoming ninth-graders playing too much football. Then there are those who believe that turning middle school sports into big business -- with a Web site that profiles some players and lists what high schools they are considering, similar to the college picks of their high school counterparts -- crosses a dangerous line.

"I understand high school, but when it gets down to eighth grade, that's the last bit of innocence," Peacock said. "Most of them are just hitting puberty so you don't know what they're going to be" in a few years.

Said Anderson: "I honestly can understand there is a concern with that but it is going to happen with or without us. By us coming in, the people we are, with the mentality we have, we can get in it and make it better from the inside.

"When trends start to take off, there is no stopping them. You can either sit back and complain or you can get involved and try to help out. Some of the skeptics will have to let us get a track record to tell if we're part of the solution or part of the problem. I know we're going to be part of the solution."